Nature's Edges Mixed Media
“When you know yourself, you are empowered. When you accept yourself, you are invincible.” Tina Lifford
Our “artists voice” is one of our most powerful tools we as artists have. It is the essence of what makes our work unique and identifiable. It’s not just a style, but something much deeper. It’s our point of view as an artist. It’s what sets us aside from everyone else. It’s our soul signature.
But how do we develop our own unique artistic voice? Understanding our own identity helps considerably. We find it when we are aware of what makes us feel good, when we can stand firm to our values, know what skills we have and which skills we need to learn, when we know what we are passionate about, what causes are important to us, and when we no longer compare ourselves to others, but we rejoice in who we are.
We all have times in our personal or professional life when we wonder which skills, we are good at. We asses our talents and interests to see which we perform best, which ones hold our interest the longest, which ones make us the happiest. Some of them are obvious to us at a young age, whereas others can be hidden talents we need to uncover.
When people start out on their creative journey, they often want to conform to what they perceive as a successful style. They move from one type of work to another without having a cause personal to themselves. Others just want to be technically correct. They want to learn the skill of rendering but choose not to have an artistic voice.
Having something that is important to us that we want to share with others is a strong step to finding our voice. For each of us it will be different. For some it is the human form for others, colors, shapes, lines, patterns, nature, politics, objects, architecture, flowers, etc.
Nature grounds me and has since I was a young girl. Art is my way of expressing my fascination with nature. What is it exactly that I love outside of the calming effect it has on me? I love its’ texture, the lines, forms, and colors I find in it. These are the things that I hope are reflected in my work. Maybe it was making mudpies as a child sprinkled with grass and flower petals, making porkchops out of broken concrete pieces, or planting sedum in a rock wall with my aunt. But the various tactile feelings of those textures are with me today. When I seek out new techniques, they need to be something I know will relate to my love of nature and geological forms.
Finding our artistic voice takes courage and time. We must be true to ourselves and our creativity. We must develop our own style, our own color palette, symbols and lines. know our medium and master the techniques we use and use subject matter we are passionate about. In the end it is a view of our thoughts through a visual dialogue with the viewer.
“Artistic Vision comes from a mind clear enough to fall in love with what we see.”
Chogyam Trungpa