Tsunamis

A graphic memoir that explores with humor and honesty one woman’s insatiable longing to be immersed in creative pursuit.

What does it mean to live and make art as a feminist? The author looks to her own life and a host of eminent artists and writers for answers.

Tsunamis is a book about the tensions between making art and nurturing a child; between the durable self and a surrender to impermanence; between ecstatic creativity and patient, mundane labor. From her earliest impressions of the world, to her formative years in college and beyond, to the responsibilities of raising a family, Novgorodoff’s notions of freedom continually shift. She asks, Is there not some ferocity and single-mindedness necessary for art-making that is incompatible with the selfless generosity of a mother?

Throughout the book, Novgorodoff searches for models of motherhood in art history and literature, in self-help and science, in family and chosen family. She explores gender and sexuality, the economics of motherhood, the transformation of the self, the terror of raising children in an age of climate crisis, and the artist’s need for solitude counterbalanced by a baby’s complete dependency—all with great humor and curiosity.

Interwoven into her story are biographical vignettes of some of the fierce, talented, and sometimes tortured artist women who are her guides—Catherine Opie, Alice Neel, Adrian Piper, Elaine DeKooning, Sally Mann, Simone Leigh, Louise Bourgeois, Senga Nengudi, Frida Kahlo, Anne Truitt, and Alice Walker. To read Tsunamis is to walk with Novgorodoff towards a place of greater understanding.