by Susan Wutka Accetura

This is the sixth article in a series on “Finding Your Style” on the Willa Wanders Blog. All artwork and images by Susan Wutka Accetura @myconnecticutkitchen.

So...in contemplating how to define my style, I've discovered I don't really need to.

Finding your style—the struggle is real.

If anyone took a moment to look at my collection of work the reaction would likely be “um, yeah, she’s all over the place!” 

Bright florals, grungy collage, some bold blocky prints.   A clean and bright re-covered notebook beside a junk journal that looks like it came out of the recycling bin. (It did). 

Earlier this week I needed a display tree of sorts for my gift tags, so I made one out of an old bucket, some rocks, a piece of a porch railing and some rolled tubes of sheet music.  It was perfect.

Looking at my desk (and resting my arms on the pile as I type this) there are torn papers, painted papers, vintage papers, an exacto knife, a collaged canister of rolled paper tubes, mason jars of brushes, pencils, pens, palette knives and a rogue bottle rocket,  a crystal punch cup full of glue sticks, gesso, mod podge, washi tape, an old stencil, scissors, partially made holiday tags, floral tape, a snowflake craft punch, alphabet rubber stamps, bottles of ink, clothes pins and, somewhere, my phone.

Limited color palette? Not happening here.

After a bit of pondering on this ‘finding my style’ conundrum,  permit me to share a few deep thoughts:

(1) Who the heck cares?  I’m creating because I love the process.  I want to cut and paste and paint and tear and sew and sculpt because it’s what I love to do—work with my hands to create something.   If I try to force myself into one style, what am I going to do when someone posts a cool video about using poke berries to dye t-shirts but I’m a watercolor artist who only paints with pale hues?  I want to try it all.

(2) Maybe it should be less about finding your style, and more about finding your purpose and following your passion.  I’m beginning to realize that my passion is to fill my days with joy creating beautiful things out of mostly recycled materials….and my purpose is to share that joy with others by giving away and selling my art, and exposing others to the joy of creating through small workshops.

(3) Styles change.  I grew up in an 18th century farmhouse, so we were ‘rustic’ and ‘primitive’ and ‘farmhouse’ before it was fashionable.  (And raising three boys our own 21st century colonial went from shabby-chic to mostly just ‘shabby’ and sometimes more accurately described as ‘ransacked’.)  Today it may be gelli printing with earth tones, next month there could be a Bedazzler revival.. Trends change, and so do our interests….which is not to say we should follow trends, just that we should feel free to change artistic styles when the inclination hits.  (For some folks that could be every decade, for some of us perhaps hourly.)

Maybe having a defining style might make you more marketable if you’re trying to really establish yourself in the art world….you need that 7 second elevator speech that describes exactly what you do. 

Well, if anyone asks, I’m going to go with “I’m a mixed media artist specializing in upcycled materials weaving hodge podge with mod podge for a joyful wabi sabi aesthetic.”  How’s that for style?

Do you have thoughts on what Susan wrote? Please share in the comments below!