3 Ways to Create Your True Art When You Are Influenced by the Art of Others that You Know & Love
What is our Truest most authentic Art? We are influenced by so many who have come before us. Colors we love, techniques we admire, are ingrained deeply. We all learn from each other. So then how do you make the leap to something that is truly yours?
The brilliant writer Anne Lamott, gave a Ted Talk about her ’12 Basic Truths Learned from Life and Writing’ as she neared her 61st Birthday. As she says, life is a ‘mixed grill of happy anticipation and dread’. She compares it all to writing, but I see it as being about all creative work: art, music, dance, etc.
Substitute ‘created’ for ‘wrote’ in her quote and she says it all:
‘You’re going to feel like hell if you wake up someday and you never wrote the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves of your heart: your stories, memories, visions and songs — your truth, your version of things — in your own voice. That’s really all you have to offer us, and that’s also why you were born.’ Anne Lamott
Here are 3 ways to get to that authentic original place of true creativity:
First of all, create enough of whatever you do to move past your basic go-to habits. We each have a vocabulary of Art sourced deep within our memory of colors we love, techniques we admire, and subject matter that draws us. These have been built up over the years of being drawn to creativity of others. Ask yourself what can you do differently to create a new experience? Can you shift to a 4″ wide brush to apply color? How about working larger? Smaller? Pastels instead of paint? What would shift the habit into new territory? Create a series of pieces done in this way, seeking out the next new thing you can try.
Secondly, create personal art. Instead of painting from a picture, look for your intuition to guide you. The imagination is a wonderful resource if we learn to Trust Ourselves, and dive deep. Not every piece is a masterpiece but it can always be painted over with white and re-used. We either create the art we love, or we learn something new about ourselves. Always journal about what doing this piece taught you. What did you like doing and what was frustrating. It’s all about the process. I find the pieces I struggle with, when left alone, tell me what they need. Often I end up liking them the best of all.
Thirdly, when art gets ‘hard’, take a picture of it and put it aside. Try to keep the imagination engaged so the art is fresh, alive, and vibrant. ‘Hard’ means you’ve slipped into ‘thinking’ mode. Thinking can’t do the great art. Instead, it doubts, questions, compares, and calls on other people’s opinions. You fall out of Flow. Taking a picture, seeing it in another format, often highlights exactly what it needs. Keep the good parts, and don’t be afraid to play with the rest.
The most important thing in all of creating is to never stop. There was a time in my life when I couldn’t paint. Life shifts were too great and I lost my focus. But I took a different path and found a passion in making and teaching jewelry. This went on for 9 yrs before I found the strong desire to paint again. I couldn’t paint the way I used to. I had changed, and so had my approach to art changed. But new doors opened along with new techniques that I loved. When you’re ready, you’ll find your way. Just keep moving forward, because as Anne says, ‘….it’s why you were born.’
What do you do to create True art? Have you created truly from the soul and what did that feel like? How do you pull away from the same safe art that’s easy to do? Leave your thoughts in the comments!