Moon craters gazing and the artistic experience of life

Connecting with people, expanding my community, sharing ideas, having a laugh, curiously engage, see where you overlap, that's what matters to me. I love to walk in my neighborhood instead of driving, talk to people, stop to watch trough the window an all-black-belt karate class, visit my local library, have a picnic in the park, and smile. And breathe. And bask. And stop to stargaze with others at the local club. Watch the stars, and the moon craters. Think. Observe. Engage. Love.





Last Sunday event at Condesa Coffee, Old Forth Ward, Atlanta. Never too old to connect with the youngsters, e.g. super talented artist Mark Zamlinsky, 17.

Stargazing at Morgans Fall Park, Sandy Springs, GA

Artist - the sponsor of thought

My name is Diana Toma and I paint emotional portraits. My favorite place in New York City is riding the Subway. I used to ride it everyday for years, just observing faces and sketching them. It is the love of observing my neighboring presence, whoever that may be, that creates a meaningful sense of my work. It lives in the communion with someone else's' essence. There is meaning where we overlap.

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. […] Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.” - John Donne, "No Man Is An Island"

Art is all about joining a community. A community that gathers, connects, and transforms.

"Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man’s emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity" said Lev Tolstoy in his essay “What Is Art?”

Artists must be present in all possible activities, not only in art galleries or museums. The artist must be the sponsor of thought in whatever endeavor people take on, at every level. The power of art is in the relating to the world and each other wholeheartedly, more curious, more willing to discover one in another.

Love rant - EDITED

I used to dream that when I grow up I will have the powers to live the most amazing life. I used to think that all I need is to just grow, and awaited with excitement the age of adulthood... I still dream that when I grow up I'll live the most amazing life :)

Love Rant

I love my life with all that comes 

I love the ups and love the downs 

I love my dog and I love my kids 

I love the sound of pearly beads

I love my mom and love my dad

I love the smell of fresh baked bread

I love my sis and all my cousins 

I love the way glass breaks in thousands

I love my in-laws, I love my friends 

I love a tall tree never bends

I love my neighbors and I love my home

I love the trip I'll take to Rome

I even love my every "ex"

and I love the idea of my "next" 

I love the breakfast I just had 

I love my special place in bed 

I love the way an evening feels

the tiredness that overspills

i love the lilac on my walls

i love my kids still play with dolls

i looooove white roses paired with green

and love a lot not to be mean

i love my dog's reflecting collar

i love to paint with watercolor

i love my backyard in the spring

i love a simple string made ring

i love to smile and love to laugh

i love to watch a show and clap

i love to take deep breaths and sit

i love i'm handy with a tool kit

i love the random and i love the planned 

i love to listen to a live jazz band

i love so much to love the little

i love the speed of my dog's tail wiggle

i love the tiny things in life 

like spreading butter with a knife

i love to love. If you don't know love

just go and watch a pure white dove

Je ne regrette rein

• What knowledge gaps do you have?

  Marketing and sales. Client management. Financial planning. Accounting skills. Legal technicalities. All the boring stuff.
  
  
  
  

• What classes are you dying to take? Creative, professional, technical, etc…

  I'd love to take a flight pilot class. I'd also love interning for a mega famous artist - just to see how the paint drips at that level.
  
  
  
  

• If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently - or in a different order?

  Non, rien de rien
  Non, je ne regrette rien
  Ni le bien qu’on m’a fait
  Ni le mal; tout ça m’est bien égal!
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• What resources do you feel are essential to the growth of your creative or entrepreneurial practice?

  Join organizations supporting artists, local clubs, meet ups, art competitions and grants, talk to every person I meet about what is meaningful in art, take some improv classes, use the gym regularly, or join a laughing yoga class.
  
  
  
  

• If you had a super power, what would it be?

  Love potion no.8. In a serious manner, I'd love to be able to put on canvas what I see with my imagination.
  
  
  
  

• If you could work with anyone, who would it be?

  Eckhart Tolle. I would love to just be in his presence, quiet, painting his portrait, no expectations.
  
  

"You gotta risk it to get the biscuit"

Today's challenge questions are really good, and also challenging to answer, as the risks are being revealed and  taken as I walk the path of entrepreneurship.

The biggest risk I've taken thus far - which I am the middle of - is giving up all side jobs, all compromises in order to focus on my art business full time. It's an enormous financial risk I am taking (did I mention I am a single mom of two young daughters?!) and as of right now all my income is being generated by my art endeavors. 

By giving up my side graphic design projects I can now focus all my time on my art business and I am undertaking a whole new re-invention and re-creation on who I am as an artist. I am learning new ways of generating income out of my art and I am exploring whole new avenues of possibilities that were not even  in my sight before. Every day I am learning something new. I am quite amazed of the possibilities that are being revealed as I continue to investigate. One I am very excited about is the new financial sponsorship and crowd funding opportunity that C4 Atlanta provides with the ArtsForce program. I am also exploring other avenues, such as approaching local business for commission work as oppose to individual clients. I am looking for a mentor and I am considering facilitating a mentorship program in which successful experienced artists are paired with emerging mentees. In am exploring the possibility of group projects, paring up with other artists to create art projects of a larger scale. I am working at expanding my network and my connection, raising the levels of engagement with a community of art consumers.

I feel I am at the brink of expansion, and thou it can be quite scary as it is all new to me, it is also very exciting, and I am basking in the possibilities of living my life as an entrepreneur, and not just a freelancer. From what I discovered so far - finding out what I am good at, what I am passionate about and practice that - this is just the bottom layer of bricks I'm laying. What's of even more important is going forward and keep discovering and choosing what is meaningful in my passion, over what I just love to do.

I would say that the biggest risk for me is giving up the certainty of who I know myself to be for the possibility of who I am becoming in the doing of it.

Haiku

• to look is to find
• 
  
• each time miraculously
• 
  
• the innocent glimpse
• 
  

Red ocean, blue ocean - the strategy of the one connected with life

Marketing strategies as a lifestyle

Red Ocean

I see it as a red sea of immense beauty. The ocean is fiery read. It glows like a pit of burning fire but it is smooth and shimmery. It is not red from the leaking blood of sharks' leftovers, it is red because reflects the diversity of the sky at sunset. Diversity is beautiful when I embrace it. I love love love the diversity for the contrast for what it brings to me. The contrast clarifies what I desire by showing me what I do not want. Contrast is essential in realizing what pleases me the most. There is room for everyone in the ocean, sharks and dolphins, whales and mollusks, scum and bacteria...

Blue Ocean

The blue ocean also reflects the sky. It's the reflection of upward movement, the beauty of no limits, of spaciousness. Now that I have embraced and used the contrast the red ocean is offering, I can relax and focus on my discoveries about what I desire, on the work I would love to do and that I have passion for. I can focus on the kind of work that would better serve the purpose I choose for my life. Going further, I choose what is meaningful over what I am just good at. Rivalry is not required to excel because the best career is the one built on a win-win principle and meaningful relationships. Work ceases to look like a battle ground when you appreciate and use the contrast of diversity. Instead of fighting over a piece of pie, you and I can get together to create a bigger pie to share.

Photo Fridays - My art space revealed

I had many studio spaces troughout my life thus far. Here's some pics from the past couple of years. Photo credits: Oana Hogrefe Photography.

Taking a different perspective :)

Sending you a little heart from my studio <3

Yes my daughters are allowed in my studio space!

I take a lot of photos of my art in progress to compare and supervise the progress

I love to paint outdoors - I do it in my courtyard

Here's some treats I get when I work in my studio. Little things like this I do enjoy enormously 

Twinkle twinkle little star...

Sometimes I layer artworks on the wall to observe them from the distance

Yes I did paint on a door (still in progress, it'll be a beautiful painting)

A faithful company - my dog Eckhart. He always uses his inside voice when I work

I like put together fun and cheerful installations like this little globe cluster that starts rotating when my AC fan kicks in. At times will get to spin like crazy!

Thanks for looking! To see more of my art processes and connect "like" my art page on Facebook!

www.facebook.com/ArtByDianaToma

An exercise in delightful indulging

MY PERFECT YEAR OF MAKING ART

I'm sitting in this big white space surrounded by walls of windows. The lightning is soft and bright, and the space is spotless, not a spec of dust. The floors are easy to clean and unpretentious. Large white movable walls await my canvases. There's a cozy couch, a sink with a large countertop and a really big table on wheels in the middle of it all. 

On top of the door there's a built-in open shelving for artwork and supply storage, and on the side there's my fancy computer and a gigantic printer. 

The outdoor view is an abundant garden. There is a covered space for outdoor work, a central fire pit with seating all around it. In the back to the left there're my tools to frame my own artworks and there's a special friend who comes to help me when in need.

My studio is a place of pure creation. It's the gathering of brilliant minds, motivated to bring outrageous beauty to the world. We get together often to discuss art, experiment and learn from each other. 

Next door to my studio is my home. It is ideal as I can come and go as I please, at any time of day or night. My kids are so excited that I don't have to be away from them at all.

My partner is a mega-millionaire hot shot who donated all this to me and supports me so I'd never have to work again! (ok ok let's not get carried away here!) My partner is in love with my work (and me) and we love to read the same books in the same time, so we can share ideas as we go. 

My mornings are dedicated to connecting, following up and networking. I have 3-4 commissioned projects secured at all times and I excitedly work to keep up with them. Maserati just commissioned me to create a painting for each customer they have.

I am preparing one hundred mini portraits for fundraising events in my spare time. I have children visiting my studio to pose for me most weekends, and afterwards we all laugh hard while play with art.

I've joined the Atlanta's only curling club and my team is playing every Sunday. My kids and I do yoga every morning, very early in the day, right when the sun comes up before they head out to their school. 

I love to read and that's what occupies most of my evenings, cozying up in my bed under a skylight, resting my head next to my partner's, stoping from time to time to hear the rhythm of my kids' breath sleeping down the hall; smiling…


And I a haiku born out of the exercise:


Gigantic mornings
Soft and bright studio. Smiling.
One hundred portraits.


This is an amazing studio space that I found online


And this is me curling for the first time with my ladies this past weekend.

"The operation was a success, but the patient died"

Most magical moments happen when I manage to completely empty my mind of thought-noise. That allows me to reach this place of "higher intelligence". Brilliant things happen in that state, such that when I get out of it, it seems as I could never replicate that work.

I'm playing with mixing media right now. Most difficult part is when I reach a stage that I really like in the painting, and I am afraid that if I continue I will mess it up, while knowing that moving forward is not only necessary but required. I get stuck midway. Solution: I got to learn to accept failure. Today I destroyed a beautiful drawing out of exercising pushing myself to let go of the midway perfection and continue experimenting. I had a breakthrough in letting go and a failure in outcome. Just like in that joke: "the operation was a success, but the patient died". The drawing went to trash and I suffered for losing it. But without pushing the limits there is no progress. So my biggest challenge is to be ok with failing, not to get discouraged, and start over yet again.

My studio work wish list:

• un-atachment from the outcome
• fearless experimentation
• indulgence in idea pursuit
• acceptance of failure
• uninhibited work ethic

This below is a mixed media little sketch I played with in the past that I consider successful. My intention was to keep it simple and fresh while expressing a lot of endearing emotions. 

and here's shot from my studio space with my current stuck-in-the-middle artwork

FUTURE GOALS or just day dreaming?

This goals exercise was much more enjoyable than I thought. In fact, I loved it! Here's the concentrated version, short and sweet:
My next 30 years goals:

• 1. high level of contribution to society
• 2. peace of mind
• 3. extensive quality network connections
• 4. feeling outrageously grateful
• 5. financial abundance 

My 5 year goals:

• 1. to be strongly connected with the art world: art makers and art consumers
• 2. highly prolific work ethic
• 3. amazing large studio space 
• 4. financial stability
• 5. close friendships with alike people

My 12 months goals:

• 1. to reach out shamelessly and fearlesly to business leaders with art proposals
• 2. highly prolific art creation (my goal for this year is 1,000 watercolors)
• 3. super boost high rocketing art sales
• 4. dive full heartedly in passionate relationships (non-romantic)
• 5. live life like it's the ultimate fun game

The image I selected is one of the proposals I created for US Open 2013, that relates to playing the game of life, stretching explosively while focused on performant fun. Wow that's a different association of words, performant fun, I think I like that!

cross media art 

extra-Ordinary Moment no.9

My favorite peace is not necessarily the best piece I created. I thought this is a necessary point to make. Same as our favorite outfit may not be the best we own, I find that favoring a piece has a lot to do with circumstances such as mood, feedback from the viewers or memory from the creation process.

So I am choosing "extra-Ordinary Moment no.9". This piece represents a breakthrough for me - it is the beginning of a new journey I took in art, when I started exhibiting again after a long break. I remember working at it, and feeling waves of frustration finally releasing, breaking free of old patterns. I remember how the light was in the room, how I felt and how completely I managed to release all fears, just being with painting, connecting to a deeper level with myself. I remember having patience with the pice, drawing for hours the delicate wings pattern, inspired by observing the texture of a giant decomposed leaf  that I saved from one of my nature walks.

46"x40" 

mixed media

I also remember the feedback I got from the gallery I was preparing it for, the amazing words, the unexpected joy. I remember the reaction of the viewer who later become my collector, blurting out words as "exquisite! I want this", this becoming the first piece in a series of artworks that she would buy from me. I remember the joy in my elderly father's eyes, gently handling the large artwork, as it would be priceless. 

This piece is my favorite as it's the first witness of my new and every since ongoing series of extraordinary moments, a glimpse in the miracle of mere existence. Trough the portraiture of everyday people I focus on the beauty in the simple moments of life, exploring the anatomy of an ordinary moment: a child sleeping, a smile, a kiss, a glance, exploring across mediums and observing the psychology of the human body and organic forms. This is my emotional painting that I redeem as my favorite.

An article from the future

She has done it yet again.
By James Brunhanson

Published March 2nd, 2019

News about Art, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

"It has been a cold, long winter. After weeks of being imprisoned by the harsh cold, today is the first day of warm, sun drenched weather, and everyone is rushing outside. 

But today I am not heading out to the park. There's one thing more compelling to experience, and that is to go see the new art show at the Revolutionary: Diana Toma has opened yet another incredible art exhibit "Extra-ordinary moments 200 trough 300". If anything could keep you inside today in this incredible weather is her glorious paintings. 

When you finally arrive, the gallery is packed full. You find a place to stand and hold your breath. First you were curious, then excited, then inpatient, and now that you're there in front of her artworks you just can't stop from letting your emotions take you over. It's difficult to describe the effect it has on you; what you know for sure is that it touches something deep down inside. You try to stop that tear from coming out, after all you are in public and you wound't want to be seen weeping like a baby.

When was the last time you felt like this when looking at a painting? 

She has done it yet again. She wooed us with her "extra-ordinary moments". This friendly looking woman from Eastern Europe has yet to fail to impress us with her large scale canvases of deceptively simple yet rich portraits of life moments.

Over the years, Diana Toma has reused her early technique of placing her subjects against an empty background, and it's fascinating to see how much variety she managed to obtain out of this potentially limited approach. She was able to produce subtle effects by playing with dramatic compositional shapes, such as the skinny long hair braids or the oversized side view of the dragon seahorse. 

Yet some critics say it is not in the composition where her power lays, but in the unexpected choice of subjects, and the way they are all placed together in the art exhibit, contrasting in such moving way. 

Others point it's in the choice of colors, the powerful effect of vibrant yet soothing way the shades of the hexachrome palette entices you dwell in the beauty of this unique spectrum.

For me personally this new body of work is all about the creation of something so incredibly relatable.

If you haven't seen it yet, make sure to mark it in your calendars before it closes. You won't be sorry to have spent even the loveliest of days inside the emotional experience Diana Toma's new work offers to its viewers."

Geysers of rainbows

I had a beautiful dream the other day. I dreamed that I turned myself inside out and geysers of rainbows were shooting out of me dispersing over the sky, forming fluffy clouds of hexachrome colors. Rays of sun would penetrate the clouds and a myriad of unencumbered tiny droplets would fluter back and forth swirling around, and filling the atmosphere with a shimmery glare.

I exist simply because I can. There is no purpose to my existence, until one is given. So I dare to dream. I dream to move and inspire the visual art arena through my creations. 

I love the delightment caused by inconspicuous movements of my inner being, reflecting in my everyday life as a longing, an impulse to create.

I'd love to be remembered for the unusual use of imagination. I crave to transform. Re-define. Engage emotionally. Innovate. 

The only way I can sooth my earning to wonder is to observe, making proofs of my observations trough drawings and painting.