16 Can you be a good artist AND sane!? Mental health, addiction, and authentic expression w/ John Piacquadio

Podcast

Oct 11

16 Can you be a good artist AND sane!? Mental health, addiction, and authentic expression w/ John Piacquadio

finding a meditative state through fly tying

John and I chatted about meditation, and what it is to be “good” at it. He speaks to the meditation he finds through tying flies, saying it’s “like a little surgery” in that you can’t be doing or thinking of other things while tying. The process made him curious — he knew what the inside of the fly looked like, so could he convey that in his art?

“So then I thought: ‘I wonder if, in some sort of way, or in a magic way almost, or in some spiritual way, have I imbued the nature of the fly or the essence of the fly in some way where I can just like spit it out in a painting?’”

— John Piacquadio

JOHN PIACQUADIO

John Piacquadio is a Montana-based artist and fly fisherman, often drawing inspiration from fly tying and fishing in his work. In this episode of the Montana Diaries Podcast, John shared his rich life story from growing up as the child of an Italian immigrant, to the tension between his religious upbringing and his education, to being an art student and drug addict obsessed with originality, to settling into himself as a sober maker and fly fisherman. John was incredibly vulnerable about creativity, mental health, and everything in between.

The story of John’s life is fascinating, but so is his creative process. He explains finding flow state through fly tying and connecting with nature, and how he connected with his art more when he started depicting those things rather than only focusing on subjects that would be considered “groundbreaking.” Letting go of pretension in his art and embracing sincerity ironically lead to the success he craved as a younger artist, and it helped him come back to himself as a sober minded person.

John’s work is incredible, so do yourself a favor and go check it out at the links below! If this episode resonated with you, then please go review it on Apple Podcasts — reviews help us get more guests like John!