"The most ridiculous thing we could ever say is that this poem is mine. Because we're not self sustaining, were not self creating, technically nothing we do is original we're just imitating."
My mentee shared this video with me about a week ago, and I can't tell you how many times I have replayed it over and over and over again. I am completely infatuated. How could you not be?
Throughout art school, you are told over and over again that you need to define your own "style." What does that mean? It means that if somebody were to look at 10 different pieces of art, they would quickly be able to distinguish which one belonged to you. Given that they have viewed your art before. I can't technically say this is something I stressed about as much as others did, but it is definitely something I considered before creating anything. I have come to learn that stressing the idea of "your own style" is stressing for no reason at all. In school, I had so many incredible influences all around me. One week I wanted my work to be geared more like this, then I would come across another persons project that I fell in love with and I wanted my work to reflect more of that sort of style. It's not a matter of if you are capable of doing it or not, because if you have a desire (for anything really) you are fully capable of seeing it out. I'm not saying it would be easy or come natural... but you're definitely capable.
-Side thought: I believe that God would not place a desire in our hearts that he would not meet.
If you have a desire... it's there for a reason. All the odds may be against you. but see it out anyway. See what comes from it.
The thing with style is that ultimately... it IS what comes natural. I can confidently say that through out school.. when my natural style came out... I hated it. I knew what I liked and what came naturally to me definitely wasn't that. So I fought it. My work was all over the place at first and then as time went on I thought I had gotten pretty good at this whole faking a style thing. Truth is... I was the fool in this story. I look back now through out my portfolio and what I hadn't noticed at the time, is that my favorite pieces... the work that I enjoyed thoroughly from beginning to end have most my my natural style to them. I created them with the same hand that I once hated. So how could I just change my mind and like it? Let me tell you.
It's not about "style" in the sense that all of your characters look like this and all the trees you draw look like that. For me, it's without a doubt.. the inspiration you gather before hand. It's what motivates you to create something in the first place. It's that lightbulb moment that your grab ahold of and persevere with. You hold on to that idea, and you water it. You give it light. Then you watch it grow. As you're doing these things, you are naturally imitating something that God has wanted you to see. Something he wants you to learn about. Quite honestly, it's God's way of communicating with you. And the totally awesome thing about all of this... is that as he has communicated this something to you... you are creating it to communicate the same thing with the rest of the world. You are literally his hands and feet. Sometimes it just takes us to take a step back and look at the big picture. (no pun intended)
Every single one of us has a style. And that goes far beyond just the style of our art. It's the way we live out each day. We're always being influenced by all the other styles around us. And we're even being told which styles we should imitate. Sometimes, we have days when we don't like our own style. But, if we pay notice to the things that grab our attention, if we persevere and grow with each project we set our hearts to, and ultimately if we listen when God is trying to teach us... then we're going to feel more confident in allowing our unique style to shine through.
