Your Artistic Voice – Do You Have One?
A recognizable style that appeals to collectors is an obvious asset. We all know it when we see it. That work couldn’t possibly have been done by anyone else other than the artist who created it.
Where does artistic style come from? Is it a calculated decision, like a chosen trademark, or something more organic?
Distinctive style emerges from two things: life experience and mastery of material.
Without life experience, mastery is mere technique. Without mastery, your vocabulary for expressing life experience is limited.
Artists create; then they reshuffle ideas or parts, recycling them into new projects. They continually form and reform art, dancing over and over again with the core elements of color, media, and subject matter.
All the while, they’re living–experiencing the joys and sorrows of being human. The fear, the faith, and the unpredictability of their unique life.
Jazz great, Charlie Parker, once said, “If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.”
The same is true of any form of creative expression. Authentic style is a combination of communicating an emotional truth and mastery of your chosen materials. The more you acknowledge and feel the emotional truths in your life, the more they infuse your art.
Distinctive style emerges when you tell the truth about life, using materials that are so familiar that they’re like a language you learned as a child.
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If you could describe your artist’s voice in one sentence, what would you say?
I’d love to hear….
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If you liked this blog post, find out what Barbara Bowen (creativity coach) had to say about how resistance enlivens your creative process at the smARTist Telesummit 2010. Check it out.
Written by Ariane Goodwin
Posted under smARTist Telesummit 2010 Home Study Edition
Tags: 2010 smARTist Telesummit Home Study Edition, Ariane Goodwin, Barbara Bowen
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672 days ago,
Eddie Hudson said:
Living in the light. Light illuminates, makes known, brings attention to and informs. Light is knowledge, truth, revelatory and uplifting. If there is a better way to explain how my life and art are one, I would describe it. But looking at my art, poetry, stories and living, that best describes me.
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671 days ago,
Sandy said:
This is the bane of my artistic existence… I follow the energy and excitement. Ideas excite me and I want to bend my approach to align with the idea so that I do not have a signature style. It has hampered my career but not my spirit and that comes first.
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671 days ago,
Carol Griffin said:
The exploration of color fascinates me!
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670 days ago,
Kamilla White said:
Humor, plays on words, and unusual juxtapositions (with or without birds, but usually with!)
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669 days ago,
Sari said:
I’m a bridge builder…In style,I bridge Impressionism & Expressionism, helping people to find their way from figurative to abstract…In subject, my favorite thing is to build a bridge between say art & medicine, or cold literature & warm aesthetics, eco-ethics & airplanes…With people I like to bridge the gap between the dentist & the opera singer, the accountant & the dancer, the teacher & the teenager…It makes me happy to bring things together…A favorite poem is ‘Sous le Pont Mirabeau’ by Guillaume Apollinaire…(must read if you don’t know it…)
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667 days ago,
Mike said:
It’s always been words for me, more specifically the written word.
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661 days ago,
Ariane Goodwin, Ed.D. said:
Wow – look what happens when I take off. I was at the CODA conf. in Savannah while ya’ll were popping in your savvy comments here.
So, first, thanks for giving me a peek into your world.
Light, color, humor – these are all common themes for artists. What, specifically, about each of these is your gift to our collective creativity?
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658 days ago,
Ann said:
People have always said that my paintings are soft, and that they recognize my style…but I’ve noticed that the biggest mistake I can make is to pick up a brush and settle in to paint a “soft” painting. They come out mush. But when I pick up a brush and really try to paint what I see, try to put in contrasts and colors that I see, they come out surprisingly soft and atmospheric, and those are my best ones. I think it comes down to not “trying” to be yourself, just BE yourself, and your style is there.
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658 days ago,
Ariane Goodwin, Ed.D. said:
I love this idea that trying to do what your audience sees doesn’t work at all for you, Ann, but responding to your authentic artistic instincts in facts gives your audience what they then see.
However, some artists feel as if they are being themselves by moving between diverse styles and mediums and content – so much so that their audience would never be able to pick out one of their works in a group show – so it’s a bit more than just “being yourself.”
That said, you obviously have developed a style that fits being yourself – fantastic!
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658 days ago,
Ann said:
Actually, I think that diversity of styles example still falls within the realm of “being yourself.” I know a lot of people do vast experimenting, I think it’s a part of the whole creativity thing, i.e., trying new techiniques and such, and for some people truly, it’s their gift.
So I’m NOT saying that people should have a recognizable style (although I bet they do if you look really hard;) ), but sometimes the diversity of their product IS their style, it’s them. And when they do it, they are definitely being themselves–especially when they’re not TRYING to; they’re just being! and they defy labeling!If they tried to limit or contain their output, they would not be truly their self, they might feel they are pandering, and they might be miserable about it. Their authentic style is perhaps exploration and variety. We see this played out on American Idol each week, some people “consistent,” and some people full of surprises and range. It’s all good.
So, I stand by my statement, although it’s probably not very clear, haha. I still think by being yourself, without “trying” to be, the style is there.
:)
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658 days ago,
Ariane Goodwin, Ed.D. said:
Great response, Ann, and I totally get what you are saying. AND… if being “yourself” is not at odds with other desires, like selling your art consistently and to a fan base of collectors, then by all means go that route. I’d just have to add, if I were coaching an artist, that endless experimenting which doesn’t eventually develop into an energetic fingerprint that is unique to that artist is going to make building a base of fans a lot more challenging, and make articulating what you do to that fan base nearly impossible.
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658 days ago,
Sari said:
re: the soft…
memories are the fodder for automatism, where you just let stuff fall out onto the canvas…at a point in your career, you start to have exhausted those images from your past & you arrive at the present…At that moment you start to produce mush…So, you start looking outside of yourself for subject…& you find that what you produce is solid & good…But, an artist should know, that in order to freehand create without getting mush, you have to have new experiences, new memories, that have impact on your life…You have to get out there…
Then you can work without subject directly in front of you once again without getting the mush…
You may end up preferring your new direct subject in front of you style…But there are ways to return to that early creative person who had so much to say, looking at a real object was not entirely or at all necessary…
(If this is not what you meant, that is ok, I just felt that it was an opening for me to clarify the mush versus realism question-since so many artists fall into the stuck in realism place as they get older…me is one…)
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