TAI SNAITH

Tai Snaith:
Artist and author

Always creative as a child, it might come as no surprise that Tai Snaith has a flourishing career as an artist. But a life of art and making has created an ever-so-slight tension with another childhood ambition – to become Prime Minister of Australia.

”Sometimes in my art practice, I think what am I doing just wasting my potential as a leader, or of breaking new ground in terms of feminism or whatever I could be doing?”

Many of us can relate to berating our current careers or practices based on what we could be doing, but for Tai it is about figuring out where you feel most natural and at home.

“I feel really at home making things, and so you have to keep the confidence up to say you deserve to be making things.”

Making things spans Tai’s impressive career as an artist, curator, festival producer, writer and children’s book author. She has exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas and is a visual arts reviewer for Smartarts on TripleR radio.

Tai admits that the stepping-stones in her diverse career have been “all over the place.” Art school in particular was a knock in confidence. “In saying that, I met some of my best friends and looking back it was important, but I went five years after graduating where I didn't really exhibit.”

But with creativity and tenacity, it didn’t take long for Tai to recover her confidence. Eager to work with cultural producer Marcus Westbury at Next Wave Festival, she made up a position and secured funding to pay her own wage. Since, she has worked as a producer for Melbourne Fringe Festival, Melbourne Writers Festival, and more. 

Such gusto has culminated in days spent busily working in her art studio nestled next to the kid’s playroom, weekends spent gardening, with good friends, or enjoying good food in her home shared with her partner, architect Simon Knott.

“I don’t know how I used to imagine my life would end up, but I am pretty happy to have a beautiful space to be in.”

We delve into that space and Tai teaches us about slowing down, moving on from self-doubt, and reminds us that in some small way, we are all Prime Minister of our own lives.

Working from home as a mum and artist at the same time, there is no delineation between work and life – I work whenever I get it.

Often I get really good work time on the weekend when my partner is home. Every Saturday he gets up with the boys and they all go to the Queen Victoria Market together and I stay home and have a couple of hours to myself.

I might choose to sleep in, but usually I either go for a run or a swim or if I am really busy I’ll go straight into the studio first thing in the morning – it's sad isn't it? [Laughs]

I also love being in the garden and I spend all my money on plants and seeds, so much money on plants! It's good, better than drugs, right?

We are pretty quiet on the weekends unless we go away to Mornington Peninsula, but if we are home we tend to be homebodies.

We feel like we’ve worked so hard to make our space how we want it, so it's nice when we are all together to enjoy it and not plan too much.

We might go and do dorky stuff like go to the car wash, or the boys like going to Bunnings.

My partner is a really good cook so he does the cooking for the whole weekend and for during the week, so we eat really well over the weekend. We have a wood-fired pizza oven in the backyard so often on a Sunday we might have people over and have pizzas and wine or just make pizzas for ourselves.

On the relationship between stability and self-doubt…

Before I had kids, I used to experience lots of self-doubt and depression because I was so up and down – lots of going out and being crazy and being unpredictable because that was my life as an artist.

But you don’t have to do that to be an artist. For me now, a sense of family is really important. During my childhood there was a lot of toing and froing between parents and lot of travelling, and I really wanted my kids to have something a bit more stable. 

Also just having a friendship with my partner that is not about being seen at the right places or going out all the time is important – it is just about being a good family together. 

On balancing being an artist, curator, author and producer...

I used to work much more as a producer at festivals or curate big shows, but the last couple of years I’ve really tried to focus on my art practice.

It's easy when it's your own practice to let it slide and all of a sudden you're like, why I aren’t I being curated into things? Because you haven't given yourself the time!

So I go through these waves of positive affirmation and enter prizes, and go for residencies and exhibitions and some come through and some don’t – but even if they don’t I just make a body of work anyway and always get that photographed professionally to apply for others things.

On choosing a slower art form…

Working with clay is a bit of a challenge because it's a really slow process. The new book will be entirely in ceramics and so each page has different elements that have to be planned months in advance and you have to give it space and time.

It's funny because the book is about slowing down and taking time – and that is what I’m trying to understand by working with clay.

On overcoming the self-critical voice…

I’ve had a lot of luck and I have a beautiful life that I’m thankful for, but I am also really self-critical and I have spent a lot of time just trying to reign that in.

It is debilitating if you are so critical about yourself and it makes it difficult to do anything. I have just been trying to just stop that voice and tap into a quieter one that just likes making things and offers a gentle push.

On planning and deadlines…

Since having kids I am much better at prioritising what needs to be done and I achieve a lot more in a shorter amount of time. I’m pretty organised in terms of planning ahead to at least a year of what I want to achieve.

It also makes it easier to work with a publisher or a gallery because it makes their job harder if you are late – everyone becomes stressed and it's just not necessary. 

On maintaining momentum as an artist…

I always have to start the next thing while finishing something else – if I have a gap I can get quite depressed.

After I had our second child I really didn't want to force myself and I listened to everyone saying give yourself a break, and it was really difficult for me. Even with a newborn baby and a toddler, I was asking myself, ‘What am I working on? Oh, nothing.’ It was terrifying.

I think the trick is knowing that you are in control of starting that next thing, and that it is what you want to be doing.

I think the thing that has enabled me to feel a bit freer is being able to say no to things, or more conscious of what I say yes and no to.

On making an income from your art…

Making a career out of being an artist is tricky because on the one hand you don’t want to make it a career because then it loses all the joy, but on the other you have to make some income and support your family.

I have lots of different strings to my practice so there is always some way to make an income – running workshops, commissions, or prints from my drawings. 

On motherhood and being an artist….

There is a massive feminist issue in the arts when it comes to having children and continuing your career. You do feel quite invisible, so it is a battle.

In one of the first weeks of having my first baby when I was still in the cave of disgusting and I felt really shit about myself, a big box arrived at the front door from Beci Orpin. We had never met in person and she sent me this beautiful card that she made that said, "Keep doing what you are doing. You are worth it and don’t stop because you have had a baby."

I have done the same with other mothers so it becomes a secret club of people promising they won’t give up.