What is the goal of the Ioda?
As the Army advertises, it’s to “Be All That You Can Be.” As member Wayne Gunn put it so distinctly in three words, “We’re artists, dammit.” Because we are busy dealing with responsibilities of jobs, social obligations, of paying the mortgage and bills, we tend to forget those three words. Talented visual artists and designers often lose sight of themselves because they are so busy waiting tables (doing work for clients, not themselves). The Ioda provides that little space in your life to be and maintain your creative self while moving forward with a group of peers interested in the same goals. You may not achieve getting an image in every day, but the prod is there to keep you moving. The goal is the continuous creation of the path, not the end of the path. The path is made up of the steps you take upon it. The image making steps you take determine the shape and the structure of your path. The Ioda is the landscape upon which image-making paths are made.
