by Tamara James

This is the fifth article in a series on “Finding Your Style” on the Willa Wanders Blog. All artwork and images by Tamara James @edenscanvas.

A style story of my own.  What’s yours?

Focus on what you know…

It’s easier to see things in hindsight than to feel them in the moment isn’t it? 

You may be right in the middle of your moment if you're reading this.  But someday, today will be your hindsight too. 

When I first started really growing and knowing that I wanted to do art, I named my company Eden’s Canvas.  Eden was my middle name and I knew that I wanted my canvas to be absolutely anything I wanted to choose over the course of time.  Why set limits for myself?  Instead of focusing on what I didn’t know, I focused on what I did know.  This was very helpful for me and still is.

Just because you feel lost doesn’t mean you are.

I started taking classes from artists that I like over a decade ago.  I liked what I made, but a lot of questions came up for me. 

What’s the point of recreating a duplicate of something someone else designed and created already?  And when I tried to create something of my own, I just came up blank. 

I really struggled and spent too much time thinking about how and when, if ever, would I be able to have my own style?  This part of the journey is rough! 

I’ve finally concluded (within the helpful eye of hindsight) that every artist is going to at some point struggle with these questions and wonder if it's worth trudging ahead. 

But you know what? I reminded myself of the wonderful relaxing zone I found myself in as I created from classes and I still liked the end result of the art.  This gave me the confidence to continue.  And this step was just as important as the next one.

The game changer…

As soon as the pandemic hit I started taking a lot of classes.  And I mean a LOT. You name it, I took it:  Fodder School, Wanderlust, Daily Creative Practice Journal, Art Bundles for Good, Mixed Media Art Summit, and even some college classes. Yes I went class crazy!  A little embarrassing but I know I’m not the only one. 

But instead of feeling overwhelmed by classes, I felt like I had my own TV channel of art and it was wonderful.  I absorbed myself in watching art while I did the dishes, folded laundry, cooked, and did bookkeeping, and sometimes doing the art along with the class.  And along the way I found something FANTASTIC!

I took the Willa Journal class and thought “Wow, I really love hand stitching, who knew?”  And I took fabric painting with Sarah Strandquist and I loved that too.

I took bookbinding and I loved that too!  Is it wrong to love so many things?  Absolutely not!  I learned something wonderful from each of these teachers.

Don’t miss this subtle but important moment…

When you are taking a class and you think, “Wow, I could make a 100 of those.”  Listen to that voice!  You just found YOUR style!  Something that is part of you!  When you take many classes and keep hearing that voice with multiple different types of art, they are ALL your style. 

An amazing thing happened for me.  I thought, “what happens when I mix Dina Wakely’s abstract faces that I love so much with Willa’s beautiful “wonky bits?”  Something gorgeous that’s what!

When you start listening to your own voice and start mixing a combination of all of the classes that you love the most, the ones that you could do 100 times, the techniques you keep returning to…then you are hearing your own style. 

Listen to your voice!  Return to what you love the most.  Keep doing it.  And combine them all together.  This is your style. 

In art work that is my own creation, I see Wonky Bits, I see abstract faces, scraps of my own painted fabrics, and many classes that all come together to make something unique.

Something more important than my own style

The journey through finding your own style can be a rough one.  But on the other end of the journey, I found something else so much more important.  I found that it’s not the style of art that is important, but what you do with it. 

I taught my niece and nephew how to express themselves in an art journal after they lost their father in death. I taught an art class weekly to 2 people that needed a good distraction and a break from their lives. 

I sent out as many art tags as I could make to nurses in hospitals.  And I hide small art for others to find.

THIS is my style.

When I look at my art, I see all of the artists that I’ve connected with, and what is the most important is that I can see what is truly in my heart on the canvases.  

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