Finding Your Artistic Voice
INTRODUCTION
As a newcomer to the art industry I’ve become aware of a valuable distinction: There is a massive difference between art created as an outlet and art created as a product for the public. I also, however, believe that creating art to sell it should not involve “selling out.” There is a magical ratio between creating images people want to see and the artist feeling he/she has created something they feel is made with their creative voice - something that they feel is genuine.
Introduction
The Struggle to Understand What “Good” Art is to the Public
The Struggle Stay Genuine and Create Good Art
The Struggle to Practice
THE STRUGGLE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT “GOOD” ART IS TO THE PUBLIC
As mentioned in the introduction, I shamelessly identify as a newcomer to the art industry. I have been humbled countless times on the difference between natural creativity and sellable or good creativity. Before diving into the concept of what makes art “good” I should note that any art that brings positivity, value, or contentment to one’s life is good. However, I do make the claim that good and bad art exists as it relates to technical skills, composition, color choice, and an artist’s relative use of style and medium. I also believe that there is an observable difference between high quality art that sells and low quality art that doesn’t (it should be stated that bad art does sell, but if it makes the buyer happy then more power to them). The remainder of this blog post will focus on “good” art as it relates to the latter description.
My view of good art has mostly been driven by my appreciation of technical skills, color choices that trick the eye into perceiving depth, and composition. Other factors that surround the art would be attention to medium quality, framing, cleanliness, and other relative areas of presentation. As such, I know what attracts me and what artists have created styles that are both highly successful and meet my definition of good art. As an owner of an art business, it takes considerable effort to not steal those ideas and run with them. But stealing art for personal success is, in my opinion, the lowest of lows. In the world of graffiti, for reference, nothing makes you look more like a poser (a toy) than biting a successful writer’s style and giving them no public acknowledgment or respect (keyword being public). I don’t want to be a fake.
Since I know what art I consider to be “good,” the question of what good art is according to the public is relatively easy to answer; identify what I believe to be good and find artists that have found success under that definition. What I have found to be the harder question is “how do I create good art under the same definition using my own artistic voice.” In lay terms, how do I find my style and how do I make it successful? Welcome to the plight of every career artist on the planet.
THE STRUGGLE TO STAY GENUINE AND CREATE GOOD ART
If we accept that copying is not an acceptable option when creating and selling original art, the struggle to find your own style becomes the most important struggle to overcome. In the process of developing my own style I have found that, more often than not, I am frustrated with my ideas because they seem incoherent. I have creative ideas all the time but very rarely do they have a structure that appeals to my desire to be consistent. If I were a commercial artist, this type of creativity would be extremely useful - it provides a fluidity that is usually hard to come by when drawing or creating for other people. But when developing a brand out of art, it’s hard to navigate that fluidity so that one’s art is instantly recognizable. A concern I still have no answer for.
Another pitfall in the style-development process is the constant push to try new things. But more than that, it is the constant push to try new things that are sustainable. A quiet fear of mine is creating something that produces overnight success only for me to wake up and realize I didn’t enjoy making it. I wholly stand by the concept of only being in the creative business if you find joy in the work. I do not believe success is worth anything if you create art in spite of yourself and for the benefit of others - if you have found a style that speaks to people but leaves your spirit depleted, you have sold out. Thus the struggle to stay genuine and create good art is defined by its boundary of sustainability, which in my opinion, creates a harder challenge that yields a more valuable reward; the right to earn your voice.
THE STRUGGLE TO PRACTICE
I struggle to create things that are not intended to be complete pieces. This makes practice a relatively difficult concept for me. It has often left me with paralysis-by-analysis or with feelings of doubt when developing a new idea. I have also learned that practice is exceptionally difficult when the voice you are searching for has not been found - which creates a bit of a paradox.
With that in mind, this last portion of this entry is for anyone that finds themselves in a similar situation. It’s worth reminding myself and anyone interested that the decision to practice should not be determined by motivation or emotions. It should be determined by understanding what you are chasing and why. If you have sound reasons, practice is a requirement. If you don’t, let that guide you to find another way to develop your creative voice so that practice feels valuable and not draining.
To all who have made it to the end, thank you for your time and, as always, stay classy.
Blue
