We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Diane Sanborn a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Diane thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I am a formally trained artist. I enrolled in all of the coursework that led me to complete my MFA with a concentration in Drawing and Painting. There is no magic wand that speeds up the learning for anyone in the creative arts. There is only another path to discover and so much more to learn. The skills that are most essential for an artist are perseverance, and to always understand that there are many visual solutions to the problem that you are currently working on. Community is important – surround yourself with positivity and like-minded supportive people. My motto is to take my work very seriously, but never myself. Make obstacles disappear by understanding that art can be about the “seen” as well as the “unseen”. Trust your intuitive self.

Diane, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I listen. After all of these years of painting, I have learned to not only engage myself in a conversation with my work, but to also visually listen carefully to what the painting is telling me. Over the years I have acquired a data bank of aesthetic information that never really sleeps. When I work, I hear those voices of previous instructors that were genuinely interested in guiding me as an eager student. Now as an art professor, I share what I know with my students. Color and Composition are at the forefront of solutions to my visual problems. After all of the ups and downs in the art world, my focus now is to keep creating work that is both interesting and important. Although my formal concerns are abstract, recently I’m moving back to incorporating the figure. I never stay with any subject or style very long, however my work has been described as always staying true to my palette and to my instincts.
It perhaps explains why my work shifts styles from week to week, but always looks like mine.
I have a sense of urgency about my art journey. There are so many ideas swirling around, I never have a shortage of new directions.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I relocated to the Phoenix area in 1990. I realized quickly that I had to make my own opportunities for sharing my work. As an abstract artist I had to develop my own collectors market and then learn how to promote it. I am most proud of my annual “home show” concept which has been most successful.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
I am both a professional artist and an arts educator. The two careers demand excellence and a best practices approach. I share my experiences with my students on a daily basis, and at the same time I learn from them the many new ways of marketing your work especially now through social media. I am also the ART Advisor if our new campus art club, ART Connections. The students are in the middle of creating a large public installation painting on large panels.

Contact Info:

• Website: dianesanbornart.com
• Instagram: diane.sanborn

Image Credits
Cloudy Figures by Diane Di Bernardino Sanborn 24 x 43 oil on panel