To be honest, it is very hard to be original nowadays. But still every artist CAN be authentic. So, what’s the differenc original vs. authentic? And what has it to do with connecting dots? What the hell is artistic voice???

Let’s imagine for a moment that every of your creation is a sentence. You may draw a boquet of flowers but in fact it is a statement : life is beautiful. You may as well represent an animal and the meaning would be : love the nature, respect animals. Once you become artist (once you start to create more and more) you develope a tendency to use a particular group of ways and means. That could be a subject of your work but also the techniques, colors, methods.

All of those that you adapt and keep as your favourite would create your artistic language. Like you use some particular color often, because it expresses something important in your language. Once you understand it then you know why is it important to be true to yourself, enhance your inner voice.

Art is a way of communicating with the world . To be valuable we need to speak our truth to the people. We need to be authentic.

As an authentic artist you may express ordinary things (not original) in a very unique way. That’s the difference. Showing things in that particular (characteristic for you) way.

There are numerous manners how to master your artistic voice. I will mention a few of them but today’s focus will be power of connecting dots to stimulate your creativity.

How to enhance your artistic voice?

Simply by taking off boundaries limiting your creativity and mind. Mind that it is a long lasting proccess – strongly related to your life’s philosophy.

I’m explaining; when you usually talk with a friend or someone important you talk about things that matter to you. You talk about your life. What is in your mind is important to you. It is just as with art. You want to convey with your art things that matter (even when it is just a flower it still communicates the values of beauty, nature, love and balance).

The more you explore important topics both in your life and in your art the more it blends. There may be your personal favourites – techniques and subjects that would stick with you and over time become a part of your artistic style in other words – artistic voice.

Be conscious about that, and remember to create your unique combinations. You can use some particular group of symbols or context. You may use a variety of techniques, colors or mediums. If your stay consistent, with time you will create some recognisable style. Don’t expect that your artistic voice will shape itself overnight. It requires from you patience, consistency and a lot of experimentation. And this is where connecting dots comes in.

For me experimentation is an essence of my creative proccess. Exerimentation means trying new things. Exploring new techniques, buying new materials (often without the clue how to use them). And above all mixing medias.

As a great exercise you can think of a few favourites techniques or two mediums and the possible ways of combining them. The more distant mediums are the more interesting may be combining them. For example : the piano and a glass beads.

My own example : combining polymer clay and embroidery. That’s my two dots that I connected and since that moment created a vast amount of amazing art based on the first idea. It has developed into cetain style that I still master.

Other ways of finding and developing artistic voice

 

• As it is important to experiment and search for ways of self-expression it is also important to be curious. That would also help to grow your artistic voice. Think of what keeps your attention and explore that topic more.
• Learn about history of art, research modern art, know what happens around you!
• Peruse your intention and motives. What makes you create this or that. What would you like to tell with your artwork? What is it for?