This is a collaboration between myself and the mums who attend drop in session with their pre-schoolers at Cocoon Early Years sessions. It’s a project about what it’s really like to be a parent. What do you love? What do you hate? What do you gain? What do you lose? And are you still you? We explored these questions together through creative activities.

Every parent or carer feels differently about their role, but there are certainly some things we have in common. The struggle is real – and we rarely get a second to talk about it.

The Chaos and Love project offered weekly sessions to parents and carers to be creative, to reflect on how their lives have changed, to build connections with others and to enjoy themselves for as many minutes as their kids would allow. The themes that came out during our first collage & conversation sessions shaped the whole project. Themes like connection, overwhelm, exhaustion, confusion, frustration, joy, time, Chaos and Love.

Chaos & Love was commissioned by Creative Barking & Dagenham, within Art Council England’s Creative People & Places portfolio. Read more about Cocoon Early years here.