Meet Diana Motta

We recently connected with Diana Motta and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Diana, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

Every time you attach yourself to external validation, titles and achievements you limit yourself. The biggest addiction people have nowadays is the addiction to external validation. Every time you define yourself by how many likes you got on social media you give your power away to external validation. It takes a deep connection and a serious effort to direct one’s power inwards. You must be able to rely on the connection with your own soul, which is your connection with the divine. Your connection with your soul is the most powerful and unbreakable source of self esteem. Your soul is unlimited and your soul is connected to your potential. Your inner strength and all your talents come from within. One needs to rely on the power that is inside. And only you know what that is. It’s a personal understanding, and no one can touch that. When you are in touch with the most genuine part of yourself, you trust the strength of your soul, because that’s the true desire of your heart, then nobody can touch that. You need to be able to let go of your external attachments. Your self confidence doesn’t depend on anything external. But you must be willing to go through the process of detaching from your titles and external validation. Is it a process? But if you are willing to go through this process then your self esteem is real and unbreakable.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am a professional astrologer. I am a spiritual scholar. I am an artist.

My spiritual practice and being an astrologer is more than a job for me, it is a way of life. I live by spiritual principles and so its natural that these principles and concepts also started showing in the paintings.

I’ve been through miraculous stories in my life that completely changed my awareness and the perspective I view things. In a way, I am always trying to capture this zest, this feeling of awe, surprise and elevation.

It’s like I am constantly challenging myself, but at the same time I need to know when to rest.

My process of painting is a battle between having control then losing control, trusting and letting go, and going trough this process all over again. The idea of magic and beauty are present through the process because what I do is a total surrender.

Like my Astrological chart readings, I have to pay attention to every single detail of the chart, make them work together as a whole, and make sense of all the information in a bigger picture and create a narrative out of it. The same process happens in the painting. When I do a Chart reading I see past lives and reconnect them with the clients present life. I believe the process of layering in my painting works in a very similar way. The final images are built with so many layers like an alchemical process in motion, its about anticipation, living in between worlds, living above time where the process of creation is at play.

That’s where my astrology work and my paintings intersect. The processes are exactly the same.

My paintings have to do with composition, speed, and surface. How I apply the properties of paint into the canvas through time, the relationship of my body with the canvas. I use my intuition flow to dictate and construct the compositions. I am interested in organic gestures inspired by organic forms and how I abstract them from nature and from my surroundings. I am looking for representations of truth which are a constant shift of polarities, it’s a battle between temptation and transcende. My practice is a relationship with the unknown, its based on chance and evolution.

It’s a complete surrender.

The whole process of building an image is a miracle to me. I am constantly going against my doubts and fighting my anxieties. And that’s how and why the miracle is revealed. That’s also when I know the painting is finished and it’s completely revealed. It’s an act of total devotion.

I’ve been through many elevated consciousness situations in my life, like foreseeing the future and miracle stories that science and physics cannot explain. Not only do I want my paintings to express this experience but I want the process as I am painting them to be this experience. That’s what my paintings are, I am dealing and connecting my work with spiritual laws. I believe in the similarity of form. So if the process of painting was a miracle story for me, then my paintings are more than just paintings, they are objects of connection.

There’s a cabalistic principle that I apply in my life that’s called restriction. I also apply restrictions in my paintings. I am not interested in my paintings making sense at all. So I restrict figurative shapes to reveal themselves in the painting as much and as long as I can. After I restricted them so much, and they still insist on coming in, I reevaluated the whole picture to see if they belong there. If that’s the only solution, and they belong there, then I know it’s the time to let them in.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Being flexible is very important, because the life of an artist is so unpredictable. You need to be able adapt to the circumstances in order to make a living. It can take some time to have some kind stability in this business, and by that I mean the commercial side of the art. You need to understand how the money works for you, so you will need a lot of patience. That’s why being flexible in your routine will help you to persist; You do need to persist. I know it sounds so cliche, but it’s true, if you persist long enough, you will end up making it.

So be true to yourself, work hard and never give up.

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

Its so funny how as time goes by I acknowledge more and more that life works in cycles. Just like the seasons in nature, life has different phases with different purposes and lessons that we need to go through. And many times they come back around. There’s divine timing for everything. When I look back at the things I used to do 10 years ago I am able to have a birds eye view now and understand how that was good for me at that time. I never thought I would go back to having a studio at home, but that’s what I have been doing for the last couple of months. It has been almost a year that I have been working at home, so my studio environment has changed. Now that I have a home studio, I understand the importance of being in touch with my privacy, my emotions and being more in contact with myself. It also made me change the scale of my work, so I went back to a practice that I used to do in the beginning of my career. It has been a true journey through my past and a rescue of my first creative ideas. But now I have a more mature perspective on the paintings I used to do ten years ago. It’s the new version of myself honoring my past.

So my biggest area of growth has been self care by honoring my roots.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @dianamotta__ | @dika_astral_english | @dika_astral

Image Credits

are works by Diana Motta