Inspiration Thursday, Creative People, Stella Tartaglia

Since I began my blog a few months ago, I decided that I wanted to write once a week about ideas, artists, physical things, or people I have met that inspire me to be creative. I have written about many things already, nature, Van Gogh, children, color, to name a few. But something has always fascinated me and inspired me at the same time, people who devote their life to being creative, sometimes after their children have grown. These types of people seem to be content and immersed in their desire to be artistic, or creative, to the point where their journey of creativity is as important or more important than the end result. I have decided that every few weeks I will have an interview with someone I have met who leads a creative life and try to see what motivates them to lead such a life. Why are they happy doing something artistic? Is it fulfilling? What is it about that artistic activity that they love to the point that it becomes a passion?
I have read some of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s work about creativity. He is a scholar at University of Chicago. Here is an excerpt from an article, “Enhance Your Well-Being Through Creativity” published by the University of California,:
“Psychologist and author Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi (professor and former chairman of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago), believes that although creative persons are different from one another in a variety of ways; they all have one thing in common: “They all love what they do.” They are not driven by dreams of fame or making lots of money; instead, it is the opportunity to do the work that they find most enjoyable. He found that it is not the career that determines the level of happiness; it is how these individuals perform their work. They derive a certain level of enjoyment from their work.

Through interviews with many people of various skills; such as, architects, athletes, chemists, engineers, historians, musicians, physicists, sociologists, and writers; Csikszentmihalyi has identified some commonly mentioned key elements of an enjoyable experience:

There is a balance between challenges and skills.
Action and awareness are merged.
Distractions are excluded from consciousness.
There is no worry of failure.
Self-consciousness disappears.
The activity becomes an end in itself.”
So here is my first interview of a highly creative woman, born in 1916 in Philadelphia, Pa., Stella Tartaglia.

Stella went to Frankford High School in Philadelphia where there were no art classes. She then married and raised 3 children. Around 1970, she said she felt free and started a painting class at the Frankford YMCA and fell in love with painting. M.M. Cohee was her instructor. She started her painting abstracts and Stella soon learned the structure of a painting, as well as the importance of looking for shapes and the use of color. Around 1980, Stella took art classes with Leon Sitarchek at the Cheltenham Art Center and began to study sculpture. She realized she really loved the form and produced some amazing pieces.

Ms. Tartaglia, almost 94, now lives in a lovely retirement community outside Philadelphia and wishes she had people to paint with. Her eyes lit up when I asked her about painting and sculpture. She said she misses it and when she did do art, the time would fly by and she would feel so content. She said there was nothing like making a piece of art and then displaying it for everyone to see. She showed at Woodmere Art Center, Abington Art Center and the Art Alliance in Philadelphia.

It was a pleasure meeting Stella. She is full of life and clearly loves art. It is very apparent that painting and sculpture gave her much satisfaction and a feeling of contentment. As I was about to leave, she said, “I feel like maybe I will start to paint again!” I sure hope she does.

And thanks Joe, for introducing me to your inspiring grandmother!!

Read more at:Inspiration, It’s the Little Things.