Finding Your Personal Voice

A lot of artists get caught in the vortex of trying to find their personal style. After all, when we look at a Picasso or Van Gogh painting, we think that is their personal style. And it was. For a moment in time, abstract faces or sunflowers was what interested these artists at some point. Because the art world has curated what paintings we see, unless we do a personal deep dive into the full range of an artist’s work, we connect an artist with a specific style of work. The reality is that the great artists of the past had many different personal styles. Their interests shifted throughout their careers and so did their work. We only recognize a glimpse of what they are famous for and I believe that’s the false pretense that has us searching for our personal style as if it is a static destination.

Looking back on my life, I consider my personal style as something that is constantly changing. In my twenties and early thirties my personal style was to wear floral everything - dresses, paper bag waist pants (a truly unfortunate choice), and mostly pastels. As I got more mature, I went for a business look and for the past 15 years, I would describe my style as sporty. I know this concept applies to my creative style as well.

When I started making art over two decades ago, I was interested in making representational work - landscapes and things people would recognize. At that moment in my time, I had that style. Now, I paint and create work that is abstract, non-representational and has more personal meaning. That’s my current style. It only makes sense if you were to look at my beginning work and see the progression to what I make today. It’s like saying “This is who I am” without taking into consideration all the life events that took place to shape your choices and bring you to this exact moment in time.

I offer that, perhaps, instead of looking for our personal style, we should put our attention on what interests us right now. Because tomorrow you will be a different person. You will have a different perspective or you will experience something that shifts your life. With the life shift, there will undoubtedly be a creative shift. And if you decide to follow the creative shift to wherever it takes you, I believe this is where you will find your authentic voice - whatever that is today.

As always, thanks for checking out the blog. I appreciate you joining me on my creative journey and I hope that you find something here that is of value to your creative endeavors. Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question, I’d love to hear from you!

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