Hein Koh's Facebook post catapulted the working mom and sculpture artist to Internet fame. Photo: Jim Horowitz

Talk about multitasking. When Hein Koh’s twins were just 5 weeks old, she posted a photo on social media of herself breastfeeding her girls in tandem while tackling work on her laptop. Little did she know the photo was destined for Internet fame. A year later, the Brooklyn-based sculpture artist has re-posted the pic in response to performance artist Marina Abramović’s comments that having children would have been “a disaster for my work.” Along with her photo, Koh responded, “Becoming a mom (of twins no less) has personally helped me become a better artist—I learned to be extremely efficient with my time, prioritize what's important and let go of the rest, and multitask like a champ.” Indeed! The post quickly acquired both critics and fans, with more than 2,000 shares and 7,000 likes on Facebook, and even a shout-out in The New York Times. As a new working mom myself, I loved Koh’s full-throated defense of our cohort. Sure, balancing the rigors of work with the burdens of being a good parent isn’t always easy. (In the post, Koh calls parenting the biggest challenge of her life.) But I agree with her: Having children shouldn’t be a roadblock to long-term career success. Inspired by her photo, as well as her thoughtful response to her newfound fame, I reached out to Koh on Facebook—and discovered that we live in the same New York City neighborhood and are members of the same mom group! It was a welcome reminder that strong, creative and capable working moms are everywhere, and we shouldn’t be afraid to reach out and offer a word of encouragement from time to time. Here, Koh shares with us more about balancing an art career with parenthood, and what she’s discovered since skyrocketing to Internet fame.

What motivated you to re-post the photo?

I decided to share it as a "tbt" in response to Marina Abramovic's comments, because I am sick of all the prejudice towards motherhood in the art world. When men have kids, it doesn't affect their image as serious artists, but when women have kids, people just assume their ambition and creativity will be compromised. Of course there are compromises and sacrifices, for both fathers and mothers, but everyone's situation is different, and where there's a will, there's a way. I just wanted to provide one example to refute Abramovic's argument, because I feel that female artists, and the art community in general, need to hear it.

"Every mom is a heroine ... we are all trying to juggle so many things, and my photo was visual proof of that."

Were you surprised when it went viral? Why do you think it's inspiring others?

I was completely surprised when the photo went viral, and I still feel incredulous. I think it's been inspiring others because there is so much negativity in the conversation about motherhood vs. career, so it was refreshing and empowering for moms to hear from another mom that despite the difficulty of parenting, we can press on and use that "challenge" to our advantage. I think it was refreshing for them to read my honesty too, acknowledging the "chaos, insanity and even torture at times" of new motherhood but that it ended up working positively for me. Visually, I think people are impressed by my laptop and breastfeeding set-up, and moms in particular know how hard it is to get anything done while breastfeeding, especially considering the fact that I have two babies. Also, my photo celebrated a private moment that is familiar to a lot of moms—so many of us multitask, and by virtue of being private moments, they are not celebrated enough publicly. Every mom is a heroine in that sense—we are all trying to juggle so many things, and my photo was visual proof of that.