Support Women Artists Now
Posted by Diane Debevec on Saturday, March 26, 2011
Today I joined women and men at Women Writing for a Change to celebrate the 4th annual international SWAN day. Mary Pierce Brosmer gave an inspiring talk, musical group Raison d"Etre and Tracy Walker performed original music. There was a reading and a film. Artists had their work on display. I was asked to join visual artists Joanne Queenan and Charlene Taylor Bales in a panel talking about our artistic process.
It went well, but as often happens when I speak in public, I now have several more things I'd like to include. So you, my faithful blog reader, get to read those forgotten but very important scraps:
1. Making art is a way of making sense of the world, both the inner world and the outer world.
2. Process is more important than product.
3. I dislike the environment that is so pervasive in art schools, that teaches that only what is purely original is valuable. As if we all live and play and work and make art in a vacuum. I prefer to encourage the idea of seeing everything as potential art fodder. Not to copy someone's work (except as an exercise to learn something: master copies are a tried & true tradition), but to be influenced by it...that is inevitable throughout life.
4. Making art is one way to find our most authentic selves. Going deep is always a possibility.
5. I like to work alone, but I also have a community of artist friends for sharing ideas, frustrations, thoughts on process, and encouragement.
6. In meditation when you realize your mind has wandered off, you return to your breath, or your mantra, or whatever your chosen focus is. Art making can be like meditation as we find ourselves going off on tangents, or life interrupts our process and just can't wait. We lose our focus, and just have to come back to where we were and begin again.
It went well, but as often happens when I speak in public, I now have several more things I'd like to include. So you, my faithful blog reader, get to read those forgotten but very important scraps:
1. Making art is a way of making sense of the world, both the inner world and the outer world.
2. Process is more important than product.
3. I dislike the environment that is so pervasive in art schools, that teaches that only what is purely original is valuable. As if we all live and play and work and make art in a vacuum. I prefer to encourage the idea of seeing everything as potential art fodder. Not to copy someone's work (except as an exercise to learn something: master copies are a tried & true tradition), but to be influenced by it...that is inevitable throughout life.
4. Making art is one way to find our most authentic selves. Going deep is always a possibility.
5. I like to work alone, but I also have a community of artist friends for sharing ideas, frustrations, thoughts on process, and encouragement.
6. In meditation when you realize your mind has wandered off, you return to your breath, or your mantra, or whatever your chosen focus is. Art making can be like meditation as we find ourselves going off on tangents, or life interrupts our process and just can't wait. We lose our focus, and just have to come back to where we were and begin again.
I plan to blog as a way to chronicle this amazing journey of living into a more creative life. A daily journal-writer since 1999, writing has become integral to my life. Hopefully it will add perspective and dimension to this website.
Happy reading!
