Artist Story: Renee Prisble Una

I see my life as connected to my art, knowing that my art is generated by my life. But recently, the divisions in my life could not have seemed greater, even while in reality, the connection between my life and art could not have been closer. It was extremely liberating to cut through these contrived barriers.

Art vs. other interests

I’ve been making art since I can remember. I was exposed to museums and various artists, and at an early age I wanted to be an artist. My practice and idea of what being an artist means has continued to change throughout my life, and I hope it will continue to do so. Because art making is foundational to how I perceive of myself, I’ve often viewed other interests as distractions, interlopers, or at best, inspiration. I’ve come to learn that such compartmentalizing is foolish.

Art vs. meditation

My art during grad school explored concepts of emptiness that I couldn’t validate through my research into art criticism. Try as I might, I couldn’t find a positive definition for the idea of emptiness. During a slide presentation, a viewer asked me about the “Zen influences” in my work, and I was caught flat-footed. I made a mental note: Look up Zen. This, along with personal concerns, led me to the practice of Buddhist meditation. The more I meditated, the more I began to understand my own work! The meditation practice began to drive my next works, however, which made me uncomfortable. My work became overtly Buddhist, and I felt sabotaged, convinced that religious work was a fast track out of contemporary discourse. A panic set in, and I began to create barriers between my art practice and my meditation practice.

Art vs. teaching

Not long after I began meditating, I began teaching part-time at the college level. This was a major milestone, something I’d always wanted to do. Teaching was 50 percent of the reason I went to grad school. However, my motivation for teaching was to have time to make my own work. I never really thought about what running a classroom would be like, or even what I’d teach. My first year teaching was difficult in a way that no amount of preparation could have prevented. Because it was difficult, and at times even painful, I treated teaching like a job. Teaching was what I had to do to earn money, so I could spend time in my studio. I had three disparate parts of my life: art, meditation, and teaching, and I was working hard to keep them apart.

Collapse and Collaboration

There was no sudden moment of insight. I think it was fatigue that allowed everything to collapse into a wonderful tangled mess. I now see that these three practices are inseparable. My studio work has settled into a space where Buddhism is expressed in the process more than in the final product. My meditation practice has become a reliable means to be present and aware while in the studio, making way for new inspirations and technical insights. It has also influenced my teaching. I now see my liberal arts students struggling in an educational system that has taught them not to see, think or feel, but to regurgitate and pursue the quickest path to an “A.” When they get to my class, they are overwhelmed and untrained in seeing, thinking and feeling. I am motivated to help them, sharing contemplative texts and exercises to help them bridge this gap. In researching to help my students, I have found wonderful books that have been useful in my studio practice. I’ve finally discovered what so many teachers already know: The best teachers are always students. My curriculum remains close to the materials and practices of my studio, so my studio practice remains integrated into my teaching. I also find myself creating small projects of my own on campus—in part, to make use of tools I don’t have, but also as a way of working side by side with my students.

Now after the collapse of my construct, everything is working together—not just art, meditation and teaching, but also biking, mushroom hunting, and cleaning the house. Everything becomes integrated into creating, awareness, and learning.

Renee Prisble Una is a sculptor and installation artist working in Chicago. She earned her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1998, and her MFA from the NYSCC School of Art and Design at Alfred University in 2002. She has shown work at The International Museum of Surgical Science, The Polish Museum of America, The Freedom Museum, NAB Gallery, Northeastern Illinois University, and Loyola University, She currently teaches at Loyola and Wright College and is also a student and member of The Shambhala Meditation Center in Chicago.