IVOH Local Conversation: San Francisco 2011

IMAGES & VOICES GATHERING: San Francisco (Novato, CA)

April 23, 2011

On Saturday, April 23rd, Images and Voices of Hope hosted a conversation among artists in the San Francisco Bay Area. Twenty tree people participated - singers, conductors, photographers, painters, designers, and many others.

The theme for this conversation was "Making Art in a Changing World". The focus of the morning's discussion was looking inward - what are our earliest memories of making art? Who are the people whose influence has shaped our art? What events in the outside world shaped our path? In the discussion that followed, many of us were surprised and delighted to remember how early our creative urges first showed themselves; and how we found ways to create whether or not our environment supported us.

After a wonderful lunch, we focused more on looking outward. How has our art had an effect on the world around us? What kind of good do we now want to bring into being through our art? If we can imagine ourselves at the end of our life, fully at peace and complete, genuinely knowing that we have given to the world all we were meant to give as an artist -- what is it that we have created/given, and how has that affected the world around us?

Wonderfully positive, generous, deeply personal and compelling conversation flowed all day long! We're looking forward to meeting again in the fall to continue our conversation and our friendship.

This was the third Bay Area IVOH gathering. Previous conversations were held in December of 2009 and March of 2010. Please save the date for our next Conversation: Sunday, September 11, 10:00 am - 3:00 pm

Some Artists' Quotes from this Event

We were so brilliant as children. We just created without needing recognition.

As children we use to create something out of nothing.

We didn't create for others we just created for our self. We did things effortlessly.

We would make the most amazing things with whatever was available.

I had to use the arts as a child to be understood.

The picture of the Virgin Guadalupe opened my life and inspired me to change the direction of my life.

The ego was set aside and my art was real.

There is always a place to go a place to discover. We worked together as children.

By connecting to God we can find our self.

I want to shed light on projects that people want to shy away from.

Once I let go then the creative aspect in my work began to grow.

A catastrophe makes you surrender to it.

As is the artistic drive so is the ‘primal nature'. Arts can touch the emotions.

Art and raw emotions are combined. We have lost that.

I have seen in violent cities (South America) even in the face of death that the people there would not get trapped in the grief. There was strength. They would move through it and come out of it.

I want the light to shine through my music

You can live your life as an art form and live it as an example.

Love and respect for others is also a way to change the world. Giving and sharing with others

Art is a communication tool to help people change how they see things. They can learn about people they have never met before.

We are in a world of information overload but the arts can stop you and make you aware of the present time.

I am the happiest person when I know how to delete (computer).

How much do I need to know? Information is seductive and I can get distracted and go down this fractal black hole.

Nowness is a blessed space. It is our own consciousness.

Social media has no personal interaction or sharing of energy and intention.

L.O.L. is not as good as a good belly laugh.

I feel so lucky that I don't have to explain myself to you.

"Change the World". We all want this but the most practical way to bring this out is the opportunity for something great.

Everyone is attracted to beauty.

Doubt is just a state of mind.

Trust that what we are giving is going to be appreciated.

Art is energy held in the moment that can be seen.

Art is a gift. It passes through us and we throw our emotions to it.

Art is a form of generosity. Generosity generates. It generates an experience.

I was given a gift to share a gift.

Generativeity is important. Through art we serve.

To yield (give way) means to yield (produce)

Stephen Spender was asked of his experience of inspiration as a writer, "... a dim cloud of an idea which I feel must be condensed into a shower of words."

Shower of clouds come into the now, the present moment.

I'm in the right asylum.

Art is rewarding, difficult and painful. Being an artist is to continue being who you are.

Dance is a way to collectively experience that we are alive.

Click here to view all photos from this event.