224 - 5-Minute Mentoring: Finding Your Unique Artistic Style

Have you ever wondered how to discover and cultivate your unique creative voice as an artist? Or more importantly, why this is even an important thing to do? 

It’s a question I get all the time, and this week’s episode of 5-Minute Mentoring (and on my blog), I’ll be sharing how I discovered my unique creative voice and how you can access a great resource that will help kick start the journey to finding yours.

Please Note: The registration for the conference mentioned in this episode is closed and the resource mentioned in this episode is no longer available for sale. You can find all of our current resources at: https://www.matttommeymentoring.com/resources.html

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

One of the biggest questions I get all the time from artists is, Matt, how do I find, locate, uncover, allow to emerge whatever my unique creative voice? I'm going to answer that question and give you a great resource today that you can use to help continue that journey today here on 5-Minute Mentoring.

UNKNOWN: 0:19

5-Minute Mentoring

SPEAKER_01: 0:20

Have you ever wanted to have someone in your life who you could ask real questions about your art, your business, and even your walk with the Lord? Well, that's exactly what we do every Friday here on 5-Minute Mentoring, where I answer one question from one of my awesome podcast listeners in order to help you start really thriving as the artist you know God created you to be. Hey, my friend, so glad that you're with me today. You know, one of the things that makes art sales... really a lot of fun and a lot easier is having a unique creative voice that is a recognizable style and voice that when people see it in the marketplace, at a store, at a gallery, online, they know, wow, that is really unique or wow, that looks just like Matt's work or whatever it might be. That is a huge, huge thing that every artist needs to have as a real focus of their artistic journey so that they can really develop themselves in the marketplace and allow themselves to stand out in a way that, again, is unique, is profitable, is fulfilling. And one of my listeners today, Karen, had a question about how to do this specifically in her life. I'm going to be back in just a minute to answer her question. Here's Karen.

SPEAKER_00: 1:34

My name is Karen Naber. I'm from Indiana, and I am an abstract artist primarily working with acrylics. And my question is, how do you go about coming up with your own inspiration ideas? I'm really good at copying other people's work and other artists. However, coming up with my own ideas and style is a lot more difficult.

SPEAKER_01: 2:01

Well, Karen, thanks a lot for your question. Thanks for all of you who ask questions all the time. You can do that at matttommymentoring.com forward slash podcast. You can leave me a little voicemail and we look through those every week looking for great questions like Karen's to answer here on on 5-Minute Mentoring. So, Karen, how do you do this? How do you find your unique inspiration, your unique voice? Well, first of all, and I tell this to people in the mentoring program all the time, I don't really believe that your unique voice is something that you find as much as I believe that it's something that emerges over time. And that comes as you're in the studio, as you're doing the work, as you're continuing to fill your creative well, as you're continuing to do the things that are super important for all of us as artists. It's important to realize also that all of us start in a place of emulation, which is kind of what you're describing in your question there. All of us start out looking at Pinterest and going to take a class and looking at artists that inspire us. And maybe you learn to, for you, you're a painter, for me, I'm a weaver. Maybe you learn the techniques that you've learned initially in the context of a class from a specific artist or a specific style and so you kind of work on that and you push that and you create work around that but then something begins to kind of itch inside of all of us as artists and we're like hmm is there more or oh I'd love to do that or I'd love to see if I could push it this way and so you move from that emulation just straight up copying and straight up creating work in the style of really into what I would call exploration that is you now move from just one inspiration into looking at life Lots and lots of different artists, art techniques, things that are out there. And you just begin to play and you begin to explore and you begin to think, okay, what can I begin to bring into a cohesive expression of my art that continues to work together? Like I said, cohesively to create work that really is beautiful, that's unique, that resonates with me as an artist, resonates with the market. I know for me over time is I began to master a lot of my basketry skills, I got kind of bored. And so I started looking at other ways to incorporate different materials, different treatments, different surface designs, different positioning, different shapes, all of that into my baskets in order to get a much different aesthetic. Well, that took several years, you know, of playing around, of listening, of, you know, making ugly ones and making beautiful ones. And, you know, it just, but I was always pushing and I I think that's the thing with all of us. In that exploration time, you got to realize that that may be an uncomfortable time. It may be a time that you're just kind of realizing what you don't like as much as what you do like. But eventually, you move through emulation and you move through exploration and you start to get into what I would call autonomy, which is your uniqueness begins to emerge in a way that's uniquely you. The techniques, the materials, the limiting factors, the inspiration that you've chosen, all of those sort of things start to kind of click and start to work. And all of a sudden, not only you start to recognize it, but others around you in the marketplace, other artists, you start to get this kind of idea that, wow, okay, what I'm doing is really resonating with people. There's a difference here. There's a maturity that's coming in the work. And that's really how that unique voice starts to emerge. I look at my own journey, not that it has to take everybody 25 years, but I started making baskets when I was like 19 years old, back in the mid-90s. I did that for 15 years just as a hobby, just kind of playing around with traditional patterns, traditional materials, that sort of thing, until 2009 when I started to push into my work more and really try to find something unique. Now, even though I was doing kind of traditional work back then, my work was unique in the materials and limiting factors that I had and that sort of thing. But when I really got focused on going in artistically, that's when things really took off. And it took, like I said, a couple of years, but it wasn't long that all of that inspiration, all of that work, all of that studio time, all of that exploration that I'd done in the studio really began to pay off. So first thing I would say, Karen, trust the process, continue to fill your creative well with lots and lots of inspiration. Do the work, show up in the studio on a regular basis, every day, do something with your art so that you know that you're consistently showing up in the studio. Push the concepts that you know, explore, play, make ugly stuff, do experimental work, make time to just play and experiment in the studio so that you can try out the new ideas that are coming. And most of all, I think just listen. listen to your heart, listen to the materials, listen to the results of what you're creating, listen to the market and other artists that you respect that you've given permission to speak into your work and trust the process that over time, as you do that, your unique voice will emerge, all right? Also, I think, you know, continuing to develop mastery in your skills, continuing to make sure that you're not just resting on your laurels, but you're continuing to enlarge your capacity All of those things are really, really, really important for allowing your unique voice to emerge. Now, Karen and everybody that's listening, I've got a great little mini course that's called Finding Your Unique Artistic Voice. And I'd love to get that in your hands. It's just 37 bucks. It's a great little video series that I did on this process where I go a whole lot deeper into uncovering the process of how you can allow that voice to emerge. You can grab that right here in the show notes. Just click the link and it'll take you to our website you can get immediate access to it and you can grab those videos the worksheets that go with them and continue the process of finding your unique voice all right Karen thanks for your question thanks everybody for listening I love you very much and until next time remember you were created to thrive all right bye hey my friend real quick before we go I want to make sure that you knew about the thriving Christian artist conference yes we're doing it this year it's going to be virtual it's going to be incredible wherever you are in the world you can attend It's going to be Friday and Saturday, March 5th through the 6th, 2021. It's going to be online. We're going to have some incredible speakers. I'm inviting all my friends who are artists, great business leaders, ministry leaders, people like Teresa Dedman from Bethel Church, Stephen Roach with the Makers and Mystics podcast, Shea Bynes, Gene Oliver, Jim Baker with Wealth with God, Mark DeJesus talking about healing the heart, Alan Arnold, the story of with. We're going to be talking about art licensing, overcoming Dr. Darlene Mayo is going to be there, who's a world-class neurosurgeon talking about renewing your mind. We're going to be talking about social media, how to find your clients. Listen, there's no other conference in the world that's like that, that helps you thrive spiritually, artistically, and in business. You got to be there. All right, so click the link that's right here in the show notes to find out all about how you can register for the Thriving Christian Artist Conference. Early Bird is only for a few weeks, and that's$100 off the ticket. I don't want you to miss that. So make sure you register today. Get your seat and join us March 5th and 6th for the Thriving Christian Artists Conference. It's going to be a great time, and I hope to see you there. All right, bye.