In February, 2015, I started my Dirty Laundry Blog. I hadn’t written in a long time, but I’ve always been a writer. In High School I wrote for the school news paper. I always kept a sketchbook and journal. When I got married I stopped writing for awhile. I don’t know why, part of me was afraid that my new husband would read something I had written and take it the wrong way. During that time period, we started trying to get pregnant, and what was supposed to be fun turned into a nine year nightmare. I went on a terrible journey through Infertility. I wish I had begun writing again during that time but the longer I went without writing the harder it was to begin to write again. The words were trapped inside me, my voice was silenced in a way. I kept painting and making art, went to graduate school, and started showing my art work. I finally decided to take a writing class at a local book store. Once I got started material flooded out of me. Then, in 2014, our babies were finally born, boy-girl twins, after ten years of trying for children. The first year of becoming a mom was brutal, it was a major transition. I didn’t do much art, started to feel depressed, I missed my life as an artist. This is when I started writing again. The first piece I wrote, Raising Twins, Finding Balance, was for my Mothers Club, it was published in their monthly news letter. This is when I decided to start a blog. I called it Dirty Laundry Blog because as a mom of twins dirty laundry is non-stop. I started finding time to work in my studio during Nap Times, these became my Nap Time Paintings and Nap Time Writings. I just published my first book, http://www.jenniferhynesbooks.com/
Nap Time Paintings, Thoughts on Motherhood Through the Eyes of an Artist. My book won an Honorable Mention and a spot on the short list for the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize this year. http://hofferaward.com/Eric-Hoffer-Award-winners.html#culture
Nap Time Paintings was also a finalist for the Montaigne Medal.
I write about parenting, being a mom of twins, being a mom with a daughter who has hearing loss, finding time for creativity, and how motherhood and being an artist can coexist.
I am working on my second book, exploring my experience with surrogacy and Infertility. I always bring my writing back into my studio and the experiences I have being an artist and a parent, how the two can co-exist.
