I Got Style!
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Beth E Peterson
Text and Artwork:
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I was recently asked, "Which style of mine do you think I should go with." *scritchin' head* Well, gee, didn't that start a train of thought....
 Now, that was the quick and dirty answer, but it carries a great deal of merit, as we'll see. Let's explore a little deeper in this concept of style... What factors come into play as you think about choosing your style....Or is it perhaps more about letting your style choose you? As an art student long ago, I often waited for the 'style fairy' to come along and plonk her magic wand on my brushes or potter's wheel... There was a huge mystique built up at school around having a "style", and I never felt like I had one. Especially in my painting. I made art...but what was its style? My paintings didn't look like Birchfield or van Gogh...my clay works didn't look like Volkos or Leach... Let me pass on some wisdom that my father taught me. An artist's style isn't something that they take on or off like a coat. Trying to copy another artist's style, famous or not, can lead to interesting discoveries about what you like or about your own artistic vision, but ultimately your style is something that is --should be -- intrinsic to you. Copying another person's style and taking it as your own will automatically sell yourself short and impede you in finding your own 'voice'. Your work will develop a flavor...a style...as you keep making more and more art. You will simply fall into doing what you like best, if you allow yourself the time and the space to do so. If you explore and experiment, but also allow yourself the freedom to develop your own way of being through experience in working in your media, without the self-conscious limitations of trying to work in a particular 'style'. Your artwork's style, then, in its best definition, is a reflection of your own personality and preferences. The more work you produce, the clearer and more focused your personal style will become. You will continue to grow and experiment as you continue making art; your style itself will stretch and mature. In many cases it will remain very similar throughout your working life as an artist. However, this should not be taken as an axiom, and should never limit you in your work. Drastic changes in style can be seen as an outgrowth of a change in a person's life circumstances, thoughts, emotional well-being, understanding, etc. These changes, then, mirror the changes in the artist, and as such are valuable expressions of that person. Look at van Gogh's work. His early paintings, such as "The Potato Eaters", look nothing like his later work, as represented by "A Starry Evening". Or the differences between Picasso's blue period and his cubist statements. Both men had changes occur in their internal "landscapes"...their psyches. These changes naturally effected their artwork. The same is true for a number of other artists as well...Periods of personal growth, or of personal distress, will normally be expressed in an artist's work, one way or the other. I suppose that what I am trying to say is that style...your own personal style...is fluid. You will naturally gravitate towards what satisfies you best...what makes you happiest. As you grow as a person, what makes you happiest may change. Your style will change as you yourself change. ;-) And that is just as it should be. |