The Phenomenon of Finding Your Artistic Style

This is the first article in a series on “Finding Your Artstic Style” on the Willa Wanders Blog.

“Question everything. And then question it again.”

I remember it as if it were yesterday. I had just started playing around again with watercolor painting and hand lettering after a very long stint away from making art. I was madly in love with Instagram at the time and looking at everyone else’s art was a many hour per day hobby for me.

I was taking a lot of online art courses and having the time of my life. It felt like I wanted to try everything all at once. Somehow the idea that being able to make things my own, and not simply be good at making a replica of what an instructor demonstrated, came into my consciousness.

It felt to me that originality and signature style were highly valuable traits to have and that they were something that I “needed” to put my attention towards.

Being the curious thinker type that I am, I immediately began to wonder about whether or not this was something that was even true, ie everyone must have their own artistic style or at least be trying to have one, and whether or not this pressure even applied to me.

I mean, I knew that I didn’t have the personality nor the thick skin to pursue becoming a “fine artist” or “painter.” So I was frequently asking myself at the time if it really even mattered to me whether or not I had my own style.

I had so many questions (still do)! I don’t think my questions can be separated from the question of finding your artistic style. Here are just a few:

Is there a value to having my own style if I am not trying to sell what I create?

Am I trying to impress other people with my creations even if I have no intention to sell what I create to other people?

Should I be trying to find something to make that I actually do want to sell? Or is it okay to just make things with no intention of selling them?

Does proficiency, even mastery, of an art form have rewards all it’s own without having a definitive style?

If I wasn’t concerned with creating unique work, could I have less stess and more fun? Or is creating something unique part of what I would find fun and rewarding if I tried it?

I don’t have the answers to these questions for anyone but myself. I believe that we are all different enough when it comes to what we need out of our art practice and what we find personally satisfying.

As far as my thoughts about this topic go, I mainly just want to be a voice for having self compassion. I would like to help people not get wrapped up into subconscious pressures that they never chose for themselves (aka conditioning).

One thing that seems like it would be a no brainer is that if an artist wants to sell their work, that they would be held to a higher standard for having their own style. But honestly, with the proliferation of social media and our access to seeing the work of so many artists, I’m starting to think that “finding your own style” is sort of a losing game, because there are just bound to be many artists working in styles that are almost indistinguishable from each other at this point.

Maybe that’s just me speaking from social media burnout, but it never fails to blow my mind when I see art work that is so similar to a favorite fine artist of mine. I always think to myself, “Gosh, it is really true that there is nothing new under the sun. I thought this artist’s work was so original, and now I see that there are other artists whose work is so similar to theirs. Were they inspired by their work or did their styles develop independently yet similarly? And why does this even matter? What is it about the human psyche that drives people to need to be original?”

Here’s why I decided I didn’t care about finding my own style:

First, I do not want to get psychologically caught up in constantly asking myself “is this really my style?” every time I create something. I don’t want to judge my work and think, “Is this a good representation of me or or a bad representation of me?” I don’t want to hold onto anything that tightly.

If you are into that kind of thing, you do you boo! It’s just that I decided a long time ago that I am here primarily to relax, to have fun and to find peace and calm.

My body and mind don’t need any more pressure than what I have already been conditioned to stress out about. Adding pressure to find my own style feels to me like an unnecessary burden that would disrupt the reason that I make art to begin with: nervous system regulation.

When I create with the guidance of a talented and inspiring instructor, I easily go into flow state. Too much thinking and worrying if this “really is my style” and I won’t be able to get into my blissful flow.

Second, one of the reasons why the mixed media art thing has really captured my heart is that I absolutely love learning new things.

Learning for me comes a lot easier when taking courses from other people and I find it truly fulfilling to learn from another person and master what they are teaching. Once I feel that I am good enough at something, I tend to get bored very quickly and I long to move on to the next challenge of learning the next thing.

I don’t often take the time to slow down with one thing that I actually find my own style with it, and I’m truly at peace with that. Not long ago I was making and selling junk journals that I call “Willa Journals.” I did that for over a year and did find that the journals that I was making had a bit of my own flair, but I could only keep making them for so long before I absolutely needed more challenge for my mental sanity.

So even if I could find my own style, I might get terribly bored with it. I love to continually evolve.

Thus my conclusion: Finding my own style is not something that I feel is important, necessary or even healthy for my personality type.

But, even given all that I have just revealed here, I wonder about one final thing: can a personal style evolve naturally without an artist even trying?

What will happen if an artist just simply makes a lot of stuff? Will something emerge that is uniquely their style?

The photos in this blog post are all photos of work that I created during the past two years. I can sorta see my own style. I’ve heard that it is harder for us to see our style than it is for other people.

If I look very intently, here are the themes that I can find in my own art, the stuff that I can honestly say I haven’t gotten bored of:

• abstract botanicals

• my favorite colors: pinks and corals, yellow greens and blue greens

• the play of grunge and messy vs. clean lines and neatness

• the play of bright colors against neutralized, dirty colors

• collage art

• useful art, functional items

• mark making

• hand lettering and typeography

I didn’t do anything to force myself to have a style, all I did was make a shizz ton of art over the course of many years.

Is that the stress free way of “finding your style?” You tell me!

One last thought: There’s also nothing particularly original about any thing that I just identified as “my style.”

Many artists are doing pretty much the same style, of course with their own unique “hand.” But I think you get the point.

Everything I love seems to be trendy right now, so why bother trying to think for myself if we are all subconsciously drawn to the same things (anyone remember the line from Portlandia, “put a bird on it”) . . . especially when what I want the most is simply to relax and have fun.

Is it just me or do you experience this phenomenon? I am looking for contributing authors/artists for this series. Please reach out to me at willaworkshops@gmail.com if you would like to participate.

Or if you would just like to leave your thoughts as a comment here, I would love to hear from you!