“I am so grateful and proud to receive the first Solo Parent Creative Grant. I'm an illustrator and children's book author, and had been taking some exciting steps, with some wonderful art commissions and my first authored book.

When I had my child, I blithely assumed that I'd carry on drawing with the baby on my hip. But of course the baby turned into a demanding toddler, my day job started up again, and every "free" minute is filled with meal planning, laundry, or just staring blankly at my phone and eating crisps. Making art is deep down at the bottom of the list and it can be hard even to think of myself as an artist these days. I'm just about keeping my practice alive by recording the ups and downs of toddler life in my daily sketchbooks.

So having this grant makes such a difference. For me it will mean time every month to put myself as an artist first, and to have a chance to explore and play. There are some projects I want to pick up again after years, including maps of fictional places and a children's guide to Ancient Greek tragedy! But I'm also sure that my art and ideas will come back changed - I'd love to find a way of sharing some of my solo parenting journals, and my plumbing-and-owl-obsessed child is giving me plenty of new ideas for children's books!

I'm really looking forward to being part of an artistic community again thanks to the mentorship and OVADA artistic community. I feel very supported and encouraged to have been given this grant, and I hope that I can also extend that support and encouragement to other solo parents who would like a chance to make more art, as part of this grant and in future.

- Imogen Foxell (Solo Parent, Illustrator and Children’s Book Author)