Answers

Discussions in the last few days have illustrated how, like me, there are many creative people (women) feeling frustrated by circumstance and a little starved of culture because of ‘domestic contraints’.

Now I can be a bit intolerant of stories of housewives emerging from their domestic coocons into creative butterflies because too often they are dismissive of families and partners, but in light of yesterday’s post I’d like to share this from a 1996 article about Patti Smith – which is somewhat different.

“Most surprising, to me, was a reference she made to a conversation she’d had with her late husband about the garbage disposal, in which she quoted him as calling her “Trisha.” This is clearly Smith’s altar ego: Trisha Smith, housewife, mother and part-time poet. We may not have suspected Trisha’s existence,  but I think we feared her nonetheless” 

So I suggest that when we feel down and in the creative doldrums we think about Trisha and Patti. And then maybe reach for the nearest Keri Smith book.