08/29/23 PAPA MEMBER MEETING – DIANE BAY – DISCUSSION HOST
Diane Bay began a thoughtful and lively discussion at our August Member Meeting by sharing the two most important elements to her when it comes to being creative: Passion and Balance.
One: Find Your Passion.
What is the main thing you want to say? Both in general, and with each piece you do.
Try to understand what your most important messages are. Do you want to honor the history of our area? Or honor your loved ones? Do you want to share your impressions of the natural world? Or maybe being playful is what you want to do, and that in itself conveys the importance of play, of fun, in our lives.
This is something I struggle with. I feel like I have too many different directions, and I want to zero in on only a couple. I feel my work has been strengthened since I began doing this.
For example, with a sunset painting I had a goal: to make the sun and reflections glow. That goal informed my process. One of the more over-arching goals I have is to convey a nostalgic mood. I found a palette that I think does this well, so when I want a piece to feel nostalgic, I can use that palette.
Two: Strive for Balance
Balance helps you stay fresh, allows inspiration to find you, allows new connections to form, helps unstop blocks.
Find Balance:
Between personal life and art.
Between studio time and engaging with others.
Between striving for the mastery of one medium and openness to trying new techniques.
Between serious study and play.
Between persistent practice and rest.
Between working through difficulty and moving on to something new.
To be able to move on from what is not working and keep searching for ways of expressing that feel like they say what is in your heart.
Between teaching others and learning from them…..
That’s why sharing our ideas is so important.
This slide show of thoughts will begin automatically and appear in random order.
Thank you for sharing!
