We recently connected with Tiffany Bass and have shared our conversation below.

Tiffany, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I’ve always gravitated towards artistic projects or endeavors for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid it was drawing mostly; in high school it was music; my first career choice was in the culinary arts where I felt more of a connection with cakes and pastries because I could incorporate art and design; and now painting and photography have become my strongest practices. I’ve learned over the years that my family tree has been full of painters, carpenters and bakers, so I suppose there was never a particular moment I can pinpoint decidedly going in that direction. If nothing else I feel I have actually been fighting against it for most of my life and convincing myself it was only a hobby. But, the older I get and the more I let nature take its course and drive the bus, the more I feel a lightness and freedom in my life… and happiness above all else.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

For almost 15 years I truly believed the restaurant industry was my calling. I was just good at it, and have held every position there is in that industry. It’s fun because there’s always something to learn, something to do, something to fix. In fact I was on track at some point, just before covid, to be part owner/operator in a bakery where I was going to create all the recipes, and have a staff that I supervised and taught while running the day to day operations. Many factors went into veering from this path, it wasn’t just covid; I lost both of my parents just before and after the pandemic which stirred up many indescribable emotions. I was still doing everything I needed to do with my job at the time, but the only way I knew to express those emotions was to paint. Painting not only felt more comfortable to me, but it was just a breath of fresh air. I don’t know if anyone reading this has ever worked in the restaurant industry or tried opening one, but it takes up the majority of your life even if you have a family. I went from working close to 60 hours a week for most of my career to actually spending time at home with my husband during the lockdown (and thank goodness we discovered that we truly do love being around each other during that time, haha). So, with all the things that happened in a short amount of time I decided it was not fair to myself or my business partners to try to find a certain life balance that worked for me, but not work for them and thanked them for the opportunity, but it was time to move on.
My husband is also a creative! He is a drummer first and foremost, but also a music producer and engineer and a videographer. He is the one that put a camera in my hands and started teaching me about the exposure triangle and composition. I’m a quick learn with most things – jack of all trades and a master of none, which is still better than only being a master of one. The one thing I love most about my transition to painting and photography is the new learning curve set in front of me. The challenge of looking back at a project and always having the [healthy] notion that I can do better is my driving force. But, I still look back at every project I’ve had with fondness because even though there is still much to learn, everything I do has had a purpose.
One thing that has become very apparent in my artistry is that I lack the capability of doing something just for the sake of doing it. All of my projects, whether it is art or photography has always held a very deep emotional connection for me – whether it’s the message behind one of my paintings or a certain person inspired me to ask to take their portrait. I’m not in any of this with the sole purpose of being monetarily driven. Although making a true business out of something you love is pretty special too. I painting anything, and I can take a picture of anything and make it look good. But, there is a special kind of magic that is almost tangible when the painting is something that touches my soul, or the photography client is someone who’s venture, personality and sense of purpose and passion aligns with mine and we have a spark from the very beginning.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Competition and ego. Drop them both. I don’t know if that is just a thing most people learn as they get older no matter what, but that is absolutely the most important thing(s) I have had to unlearn. First of all, even if you feel like you’re in competition with someone else … do they know that or wish to be? Ha! That is ego driving the competition and realizing and understanding that other people don’t think about you in that way as much as you think they do is very important. In my early 20s I took advantage of the mistakes my coworkers made in the work place (because let’s face it, we think we know everything in our early 20s) and wanted to prove I was “better.” That attitude lead to me being a great worker, but with very shallow relationships. It wasn’t until I realized I was the only one in this made up competition and all I did was create more work and emotional set backs for myself. Learning to stay in my lane, being happy with what I am working on and producing is the only thing that matters. To have the confidence and patience to believe I will find my audience and not worry about comparing my supposed success to the supposed success of another is humbling. We are all hear trying to do our best the best way we know how, and that’s all that matters. There’s plenty of enough business and support to go around.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Time moves differently for creatives. I have the blessing and the curse of being equally right and left brained – my family likes to say it’s because I’m a Gemini. I have the ability to understand (and love actually) how to create spreadsheets, crunch numbers and be organized. On the flip side, I also have the ability to go to a time warping zone where numbers and information don’t matter and live in what is commonly called “organized chaos.” The unfortunate part is these two sides of me cannot exist at the same time, it’s one or the other with no in-between.

Being a non-creative, or predominantly left brained person has a freedom to it. You can create the spreadsheets, crunch the numbers, go from business meeting to business meeting, and with the proper organization you can leave it all there on the computer/paper. Once you’re finished with one task it is very simple to compartmentalize and move on to the next.

Being a creative (right brained) isn’t that freeing. The things that plague creatives is how to express what is going on in their overcrowded thoughts. We are the informational junk drawers of the world. We are highly emotional beings that hold on to everything we hear and see. Whether we are actively looking for it or not, all the information we take in on a daily basis is a potential muse for our artistic creations. That’s why you will find that the majority of the creative community consists of people who feel most comfortable with themselves and tend to be more introverted. We process everything and use that processing to better understand how we feel, why we feel that way and how to express that. It doesn’t mean all of us are walking around sad all the time – it just means we have something to say and words sometimes aren’t enough. We can’t break our days up with a bunch of individual meetings; if we do then we don’t feel we have enough time to start a project. Once we start a project, get into the “zone” and lose all sense of time we want to stay in that space for the longest uninterrupted stretch of time that we can. It’s like being in a waking dream state or active meditation. It’s actually pretty fantastic. Also, where non-creatives may enjoy a break from the hustle and bustle, creatives do not thrive in calmness very well. We thrive with projects and feel a bit lost with nothing to do.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bassmediaservices.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bass_media_art/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100085848266251

Image Credits
All images were taken by myself (Bass Media Services)