The art of being an artist

It's always great to be in the company of others with liked minds. We artists are a rare breed of humankind that immensely enjoy strolling through art galleries and museums searching for the "hidden meaning or themes" of featured works . During exhibits, we artsy fartsy types stop to glance at another artist's work with our heads slightly cocked to the side as to take in the energy from the piece we're observing; process said energy and either admire the artist's vision or not; glean inspiration to create something from the piece into our own work, or not.  This afternoon I travelled to the Oceanside Museum of Art to take in the exciting new exhibit " No Boundaries" and also to listen to a panel of 4 noted featured artists from the show (Deidre Adams, Gloria Hansen, Jane La Fazio and Katie Pasquini Masapust) who all spoke on the "Balancing Act: The art of being and artist".  It was a great discussion.  Each artist discussed her own approach to producing her quilt work.  I found it quite interesting that as a novice quilter; my process for beginning an art quilt piece; working though it's construction and finally onto completion was much like the process of a couple of these noted quilters.  What I was pleased to learn was that all of these accomplished artists are still in the process of learning and experimenting just like me. Katie P. Masapust is quite accomplished.  She's lectured and written many books (of which I have one) and she still gains inspiration to create from a weekly friendship group of artists.  Oh well, there you go.  I guess as long as you're living, you're learning.  In the art of being an artist, truly there is not a right or wrong.  There are techniques yes, but truly no right way or wrong way.  It's just a matter of interpretation; like when you're glancing at an exhibited piece on a museum wall, cock your head ever so lightly to the side and then utter those profound words, "this piece speaks to me by saying..."