Sarah Strong is a practising artist who lives in Islington, London. In this interview, Strong describes her charged and at times very difficult relationship with her mother, the Irish poet Eithne Strong (1923–99), as well as her unconventional upbringing in a commune on the south side of Dublin. She discusses her decision to leave Ireland for London after discovering she was pregnant, and contemplates the joys and challenges of becoming a mother at a young age, far from home and in difficult economic circumstances. This interview also highlights how Strong’s relationship with her mother, as well as with the maternal more generally, has found expression in her visual art and, more recently, in her film and poetry.