Episode 22: Talking About Your Art, Saying No & Finding Your Style

Editor's note: During Della's dilemma I accidentally referred to her as "Bella" several times. My sincere apologies, Della. It was a genuine slip during recording, and I'm very grateful to you for sending in such a thoughtful question.

In this episode of The Creative Couch, I respond to three thoughtful creative dilemmas from Penny, Helen and Della, exploring talking about your artwork, setting creative boundaries and finding your artistic style.

Penny is preparing for her very first open studio after years of creating mixed media work. She's not worried about whether her artwork is good enough or how to price it. Instead, she's anxious about something many artists quietly dread: talking about it. We explore the difference between talking about your work and explaining it, why viewers don't always need definitive answers, and how conversations about art can become much richer when we invite other people to bring their own experiences to the work.

Helen is a professional artist whose realistic drawings have helped her build a successful creative career. Alongside creating and selling her work, she also teaches, but she's realised she's developed a habit of saying yes to almost every opportunity that comes her way. We discuss why the habits that help us build a creative career don't always help us sustain one, how to become more intentional about saying yes, and why protecting time for your own creative practice is every bit as important as creating new opportunities.

Della is a self-taught linocut artist who has spent the last six or seven years developing her printmaking practice. Recently she's found herself worrying about whether she has a recognisable artistic style, while at the same time becoming increasingly frustrated that her more ambitious prints don't always match the images she has in her imagination. We explore why style is often something that finds us rather than something we consciously create, the gap between our eye and our ability, and why spending more time drawing may be one of the best ways to become a stronger printmaker.

Also in this episode, I share a recent Loving Lately recommendation: the Paul Noble language courses. As I continue learning Japanese, I reflect on why his calm, encouraging approach has made language learning feel so enjoyable and why his courses might be worth exploring if you've ever wanted to learn a language yourself.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why talking about your artwork doesn't mean explaining it
• How to have more natural conversations with people viewing your work
• Why artists don't need to have all the answers
• The difference between building a creative career and sustaining one
• Why saying yes to every opportunity can eventually hold you back
• How to make more intentional decisions about your time and energy
• Why artistic style is something you discover rather than design
• The gap between your artistic eye and your current ability
• How observational drawing can quietly make you a stronger printmaker
• Why growing as an artist often means becoming more discerning, not more certain

Each dilemma is explored through both its emotional and practical layers, with ideas and exercises you can apply to your own creative practice.

If you have a creative dilemma you'd like me to explore in a future episode, I'd love to hear from you. You can email me at:

thecreativecouchpod@gmail.com

If you're feeling stuck in your own creative practice and would like support, you can find out more about my creative coaching, workshops and artwork at:

www.sammarshallart.com

You can also find me on Instagram at @sammarshallart.

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to the Creative Couch. I'm Sam Marshall, artist and creative coach. This is a podcast for anyone navigating the ups and downs of a creative life. Each week I respond to three real creative dilemmas sent in by listeners, exploring both the emotional side of what you're experiencing and some practical ways to move forward. And from time to time, I'll also be joined by other artists to talk about their creative life, their practice, their challenges, and what keeps them going. Hello and welcome to the Creative Couch. Welcome back. How are we all on this um slightly breezy Sunday here at Laxton City? In Laxton City, as I like to call it, it's not really a city. It's a very, very small village with about uh 25 houses. But uh myself and and my wonderful neighbour. Um I have got wonderful neighbours. I've also got a really difficult neighbour who lots of you will know from my stories. Um, but I've also got a wonderful neighbour, and we uh jokingly refer to Laxton as Laxton City. Anyway, it's really windy here. Um, it has been unbearably hot. Um, I've been in London this week and I was doing a Japanese, intensive Japanese language course, and it was really intense. It was really intense. Um there's a video for every single day of the Japan course on my YouTube channel. If you haven't watched it, then please do go and have a look. Um, so every day during the week, I um I did my Japanese language course in the morning. Can you see Marple in the corner there? She's just gone out. Um I did my Japanese language course in the morning. I did uh and then I tried to do something Japanese in the afternoon, and I also tried to see two exhibitions. So there's five days of uh videos up on YouTube. So do have a look um if you'd like to see what I got up to in London. But but a lot of the time I was moaning because it was so hot, it was just so unbearably hot. Um, but it feels a bit cooler now, so uh so that's good news. Um, it looks like it's going to be a cooler month, cooler week moving forward. And I came back to total chaos in the house. Um, I was having this air source heat pump fitted, that didn't go according to plan. I'm having part of my garden dug up to make space for a parking area because I've got problems with my neighbours. Um, I'm the the studio is still being built. The council came around this week. I mean, it's just it has been non-stop with bits and pieces happening. Um, but you know, slowly but surely we're getting there. It will be worth it in the end. I have to keep telling myself that I'm not good at living in absolute chaos, and it feels like I'm living in chaos, and I have been living in chaos for quite a few months. Anyway, anyway, anyway, on to today. So thank you to everybody who sent in dilemmas. Um, in fact, I didn't get any dilemmas last week. I got a flurry of dilemmas the week before, but I didn't get any last week. So my pot is running dry, my friends. So again, the pleas going out, please send me your dilemmas. Do send me your dilemmas. Any dilemma, I'm I'm hungry for any problems to look at and to try and help you with. So do send them into the creative couchpod at gmail.com. Um, I'd love to hear from you guys. I'd love to hear from you guys. Right, moving on to today's loving lately. And this is going to be a bit of a sad one for me. Um, my loving lately today is my wonderful friend Francis, who many of you know. Um, I've talked about it over the past few weeks and my stories. Francis has been very poorly in hospital, and sadly, Francis died on Friday. Um, so my loving lately today is my wonderful friend Francis, who has brought the most amazing joy to my life for the past 20 years that I've known her. What an amazing woman she was, right up until the very end. Humour, intelligence, creativity, just the best, one most wonderful friend, a small blonde girl in the middle of the countryside with a small brown dog could ever ask for. So, my loving lately today, I want to honour Francis. And I've I have a lipstick named after her last week in London, so I'm wearing the lipstick. I'm gonna wear the lipstick forever to remember my wonderful friend Francis. So today's podcast is dedicated to Frances. We love her very much. She's always gonna be with us. So today's podcast, Francis. This is for you. Right, on with normal service. I I I wanted to do that, I wanted to do that. Um, I wanted to to remember her in a way, and um yeah. Okay, onwards, right, my friends. So today I am answering Penny's dilemma, I am answering Helen's dilemma, and I am answering Bella's dilemma. Okay, right. So, as always, how I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna unpack them using sorry, the using the formula that I have now in place, which is I'll give you a summary of the dilemma. I will then give you the emotional layer behind the dilemma, my my my uh my interpretation of the emotional layer, what's going on behind the dilemma, and then the practical layer, and then some homework. Okay, so let's get into this. Right, Penny. So Penny wrote in to say that she is a self-taught mixed media artist who began experimenting with ink and watercolour before finding her way to the work she now feels most connected to. In a few weeks' time, she'll be taking part in her very first open studio, sharing the space with a friend who makes jewellery. And interestingly interestingly enough, she's not anxious about whether her work is good enough or how to price it. She totally trusts herself with that. But what fills her with dread is something quite different, and that is talking about it. So this has um this has sort of this parallels with Jen's dilemma last week. But Jen wasn't anxious about talking about her work. Jen was trying to find a way to encourage people to talk about art. But there there are overlaps here. So um Penny jokes that if she could spend her life hidden away in her studio without any see without ever seeing another person, she'd be perfectly happy. But unfortunately, she's running out of room. So if she needs, if she wants to keep making work, she has to let some of it go, sell it and and and actually, you know, leave the studio. Um she says selling her work isn't really about building a career or being in the spotlight. It's simply the practical reality of making um creating space to make more. She worries she'll be asked what her work means, why she made certain choices, or or what she was trying to say with the work. And she feels completely unprepared for those conversations. She even talked about um whether art school has one big advantage because students are forced to talk about their way and defend their work. Um and she joked that it sounds more like an inspiration killer than education. Yeah, Burrenced within her email, I think are two beautiful sentences that seem to hold the answer to this dilemma. She wrote that my work has more to do with expressing a feeling about a place or a subject than being realistically depicted. And she also wrote that I'm also more interested in people finding their own feeling about the work than explaining mine. And I'm going to go back to those two sentences because those two sentences for me were the core of the dilemma. And alongside all of this, Penny uh moved to Portugal four years ago. So she's still finding obviously communicating and speaking Portuguese tricky. So she writes that during the open studio, her husband will be there and she'll have friends to kind of help kind of interpret what she's saying to the people who are visiting. So really, I think Penny's question is, you know, how do you become comfortable talking about your work when it feels so completely unnatural? And I think that that is a dilemma that a lot of us can uh relate to. Um, but I don't think, you know, it's funny, I don't think it is a confidence problem here because I think Penny trusts the work. And I don't think she's questioning whether it's good enough for people, you know, she's I don't think she's questioning whether she thinks the work is good enough or whether whether people will buy it. But she's, I think she's questioning, you know, the whether she can perform the role that she thinks the artist is meant to play. And I wonder whether Penny has built up this idea of uh of a proper artist who is somebody who can confidently confidently sort of analyze every decision, you know, decision, talk about, you know, exactly why they chose that sort of paint mix or you know what uh what was the exact reasoning behind the um you know the the colours that they chose. And I think that that's only one version of an artist. You know, there's many artists out there who are wonderfully articulate about their work, and there's also other artists who are you know very quiet, instinctive, and and still discovering what their work means. And and some artists never explain their work at all, and that's fine, you know, that's fine. And I think for Penny, she's not exhibiting because she's craving attention, she's exhibiting because she wants to make work still. And I think those are those are two totally different uh motivations, and and you know, Penny says that she could quite happily disappear in her studio and not see anybody. And I suspect there's quite a lot of us out there who relate to that, who think actually, you know, that would be ideal for me too. So I think perhaps the question isn't really about how I learn to talk about my work. I think it's more about how do I remain myself and true to myself while inviting other people into my creative world. Because I think that that exhibiting doesn't require you to become louder, to become more confident, to become more extroverted or more self-assured. It simply asks you to be present. And I I also think a lot of the anxiety around this is um you know mixed with the fact that you know Penny is not Portuguese, isn't Penny's native language, you know, she's still learning the language. And so often with that, obviously, there's gonna be anxiety around you know, being able to articulate yourself properly, using the correct words, and then it's also the anxiety about whether you're saying the right thing, whatever the right thing you think might be. But I do think those two sentences, you know, my work has more to do with expressing a feeling about a place or a subject rather than it being realistically depicted. And I'm also interested in people finding their own feeling about the work than explaining it myself. That Penny is it really. That those two sentences tell me more about your work as an artist than any polished artist statement could, you know. Um, and I think you you've you've already answered your question here, essentially. So I think let's move to the practical layer here because I think one of the biggest misconceptions artists have is that they think that talking about your work means explaining your work, but that's not the same thing because I think explaining suggests that there's a correct answer, whereas talking is about sharing your experience. And I think that you you don't have to decode every piece of work that you've ever made. In fact, you know, most artists don't fully understand their work until years later, or perhaps not at all. I mean, I I don't have a clue sometimes where these creatures come from out of my head, or the compositions that I choose, and the weird creatures that emerge that I instinctively just put in my drawings and you know the strange elements that that that that that that appear in my work. I I can't analyse that. I don't know where that's come from. I'm not really bothered. You know, you guys can think what you want in terms of, you know, you can come along to my work and think, oh, you know, really, really excited by that. I wonder why Sam did that. And I could say, quite honestly, I don't know. I don't know. That's okay. You know, that is okay. And I think that um, you know, rather than trying to feel like you have to explain every piece, I would say talk around the work rather than about the work. So I'll give you just some examples what what you know that might mean. And that oft is often what I do when I'm making the work. It's you know, what what first caught my attention, what first caught what first inspired the piece, you know, what made me create this lino cut or this etching, you know, what was the initial uh um you know the foundation behind this, and then you know what I enjoyed whilst I was doing it, um, you know, what surprised me about the making process, um, you know, what materials I I enjoyed making. So rather than talking about the meaning behind the piece, which maybe you're not sure of, and that's okay, you talk about the work in general, and I think that's a nice sort of way to talk about your work. And then if somebody asks you, well, what does this piece mean? You then start to ask them. You know, you you could sort of say, Well, you know what, I'm not really sure. I'm you know, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on that. You know, what what do you think when you look at that? You know, what part of the work are you interested in? Um, and and you know, what what makes you ask that question about this piece in particular? Is this something, you know, are you you know, not in a way that you're trying to flog it, but just be curious as to why it is that they're asking that. And then and then I think it becomes a dialogue, doesn't it? And it becomes less about you, more about them. And then I think that can be a really lovely way to feel much more comfortable in that situation. And and it I think it's I think it's really important that you prepare for this the best way you can, I think. Um, and not in the way to prepare like you're going for an interview, but just to kind of feel like you you have, you know, um set the foundations for you to then utilize your answers or your responses in a way that gives you security and comfort that you know you're going into this weekend or two weekends or whatever it is, you know, you've done a bit of homework, you've you've got you've done a little bit of research, you know that you've already got some answers in place or or some suggestions in place, and you've also got some conversation starters. So this is my homework for you, Penny. Um, I would like you to prepare three simple uh three simple sentences before your open studio studio. Now these aren't artist sentences, these aren't be, you know, these aren't like, oh well, my work explores the liminal space between XYZ, which you know often it what the hell does that mean? You know, not a manifesto, not a statement, just three sentences that and it could be something like, you know, I loved working, I love working in mixed media because it allows me to build atmosphere rather than simply describe a place or you know, just three sentences that feel true to you. And I think you've already got two sentences there that you wrote down. So, and then practice saying them aloud until you feel feel comfortable, and then prepare some questions that you can ask the visitors. So, you know, um, what what was it about this piece that made you stop? You know, what what what does this piece make you think or feel? Again, this relates to what we talked about last week with Jen, you know, so gently kind of encouraging the viewers, the the uh the people who are coming to your open studio to to kind of, you know, dig in a little bit deeper, kind of get them to sort of trust their own responses and um you know, start having that that conversation. And I think the most important thing that I want you to realize here is that you don't have to carry the whole conversation on your own. It's not as if they come in, they ask you, and you stand there and you just chat, chat, chat, chat, chat. You know, it can become a really fruitful conversation. And I think that you don't have to become a different person when you're exhibiting your work. I mean, in your email, it almost suggests like you feel like you have to become the artist, Penny the artist, and you have to kind of put on this different persona, you know, you've got to get you got you've got to put your artist hat on and you've got to start speaking artist talk. And that simply isn't true. You can just turn up to your open studio as Penny, as somebody who isn't that comfortable about doing this, but is willing to give it a go and just be curious and see what happens. Okay. But I think you you you already know where you are with this penny. And I think that you the one of the greatest gifts I think that any artist can do is give the viewer space to explore and respond to the work in front of them. You know, give them that space, give them that time to look, and then, you know, and then create that dialogue. It's like exactly what I said last week. When people come to my open studio here uh in September, my first thing is, oh, hello, nice to meet you. What's your name? Thank you. Thanks so much for coming. Yeah, do go in, take a look around. Would you like a cup of tea, cup of coffee? Can I get you da-da-da-da-da? And they say, I mean, hopefully they say yes. If they don't say yes, I will always say, Oh, well, I've just got to dash inside to put some washing on, or I've got to get scattered inside to go to the little or something. So where I remove myself to give the visitors time to have a look at the work. So I think that's a great gift that you can give them. Just give them some space, give them some time, and just see what happens. And I and I think try and move away from the idea that you're going to be grilled, you know. People are wanting to come to your open studio because they are curious about the work that you are making. They are not wanting to come to interrogate you, to make sure that you can pass the test of being an artist who can talk about their work. They're simply not. They're just just lovely people who are wanting to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday or a Saturday just having a mooch around and looking at some people who are making creative things. So I think just take the pressure away and you know, enjoy it. Try and enjoy it. Best of luck, Panning. Let me know how you get on with that. Right, moving on. Okay, Helen. Right, moving on to Helen. So Helen is a uh professional artist and um she makes beautifully observed realistic drawings that have become a really, you know, have become the foundation for a successful creative career. And alongside creating and selling her work, she also teaches and she balances the many demands that come along with uh being a working artist. And Helen's dilemma from the outside seems like a lovely one to have. You know, opportunities keep arriving, people want to work with her, and she's built a career that many artists aspire to. I mean, I know this because I know Helen. And um, but she's noticed a pattern that is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore, and that is she says yes a lot, more than she wants to. And that's interesting because this isn't somebody who can't say no. Like I say, I know Helen, and I know Helen is quite strong-willed, and I don't doubt that Helen can say no, you know, and she writes that she recently turned down a piece of work because the pay was so low that accepting it would have meant that she undervalued both herself and her work. So it isn't about weak boundaries, it's more about a fear of missing out alongside this desire to please people and a kind of lingering worry that perhaps saying no today might let me just turn this screen up, might um uh you know, uh uh reduce opportunities somehow tomorrow. And um I think you know, she she writes that she recently stepped away from a long-term commitment that had become personally um stressful, but almost before she'd had the chance to enjoy the extra breathing space, she'd filled it with other self-imposed um commitments. So I think Helen's question is this really, you know, how do you automatically uh stop saying yes and start protecting your time enough to breathe, to experiment and to make your own work? Because when I first saw Helen's email, I thought it was going to be about people pleasing. But the more I read it, the more I realized that that isn't what's really going on. I think that that absolutely people pleasing is part of it, but I think Helen is is making decisions based on a chapter of her career that is no longer that no longer exists. I think that what's happened here is that Helen has uh, you know, as many artists when we're starting out, we are told that we need to say yes to everything, every teaching opportunity, every opportunity to take a commission, every opportunity to go and give a talk, every opportunity to do this, do that, do that, do a workshop, do a craft fair, we say yes to because that is how you build your business, and that is how you build your confidence. And every contact feels important. Now I think what Helen's doing is that she's actually moved away from that part of her business now and her part of her career, but she's still operating within that space. And I think that um it's important that Helen recognizes that and realizes. Is that she's no longer in that space. And this is something that I can relate to. You know, over the past few years, I have gradually stopped saying yes to teaching commitments, but I've still said yes to more than I actually really wanted to do. But this year, I mean, literally a couple of weeks ago, I got an email saying, Would you teach with us next year? And I said no. And I said it in a really lovely way, but I looked at it and I thought, I don't want to do that anymore. I don't need to do that anymore. I would rather have the time to make my own work and run workshops here from my space, from my studio. So I am now, I'm aware that I don't have to say no. However, part of me then thought, oh no, I've said no. What if they never asked me again? And you have to sit with that uncomfortable feeling. Because the truth is they might not. They might not. And that's okay. But you know that you are doing it through a, you know, a you're doing it from a a um a place of uh what's the word? You're doing it from a place of uh uh knowledge. Because I knew that those teaching commitments next year would cause me stress. And also the fact that I'd have to write all the copy and everything in the next sort of few weeks. I just thought I don't want it, I can't do it. So I think that's the important thing. And one of the things is I think another important feeling is Helen, trust your instinct when something comes in, when something lands in your email, if your immediate response is, oh no, you've got your answer. You've got your answer. That's how I judge it. If it comes in like you think, oh no, I don't want to do that, I should do that. That's when you need to say no. Okay. Um, I think it's about protecting yourself, isn't it? I think you built your career up to such a space whereby you can absolutely say no to a lot more things and have that space for your yourself. And I think that we become so accustomed to filling our time as creatives, and we are told that we need to be as productive as possible every single hour of the day, needs to be full and productive. And if it's not, then we start we start to panic. And I do wonder whether part of this saying yes to everything is um possibly, I'm just gonna throw it out there, um, the fear of that uncomfortable bit of that empty space, you know, because once you've said no to everything or no to the things that you don't want to do because you want that space, you've then got to sit in that space. And that space then becomes time where you have to do something with it because you've said to yourself, Well, I want this time to make my work, and then that comes and then the time's there, and it's like, oh god, what do I do? I've got to make the work now. And sometimes it is just easier just to keep on teaching or to have other commitments which don't require you to sit in your studio and think, right, what do I what do I do now? Um if that makes sense. I I I I know that myself, you know, I know that myself. I know it's much easier for me just to keep on teaching and coaching, teaching and coaching, teaching and coaching. And I'm craving that time to sit in my studio and make my work, and then when it comes, it's like, oh my goodness, what do I do now? Oh, I'd rather be teaching. However, okay. So I think the practical layer here is that you need a filter, Helen. I think that every opportunity that comes in shouldn't receive the same automatic yes. And instead of asking yourself, can I fit this in? I think you need to ask yourself some immediate questions. So the first immediate question is, how did I feel when I read that email? That's the first question. You know, what was my gut response? Does it genuinely excite me? Does it move my career in the way that I want it to move? Is it financially worthwhile? Now it's interesting that I put the financial, financial one a little bit further down because actually uh for me anyway, uh the financial side of things is actually not that important. It's more about the other things that come along with the teaching. You know, how how far away is this teaching place? Can I do it online? You know, how much in petrol will it cost me to get there? How much will it cost me in time and energy? And what will, I mean, the most important one here is what will I have to give up if I say yes to this? Because saying yes to it might mean that you're saying no to a day in the studio. It might be saying no to um experimenting with a new idea, you know, it might be saying no to a day of rest, which you probably really need. Because every time you say yes to something, you're saying no to something else. And I think that's important as well, important to remember that. Um, I think we often think that opportunities cost hours, but actually what they do is they cost attention. It takes a lot to organise teaching, it takes a lot to organise a workshop, it takes a lot to, you know, organize all these things. And it requires our attention, and often our attention as artists could possibly be better focused on making our own work at that time, depending on what stage you are at. And I think, you know, there is definitely ways that you can phrase this, and I've experimented with different ways of responding to to um uh to opportunities when I wanted to turn them down. And I I, you know, most recently I've just sort of said, I don't have the capacity at the moment, you know, and I I you know I don't over-explain, I don't go into loads of detail, but I just don't have the capacity um to give the time and attention that that this opportunity deserves. And that's being really truthful, that's being really honest, and it doesn't burn bridges. So I think having some stock phrases that you can use back to those responses that come in. But I think one of the most important things is you just give yourself time. So that opportunity comes in. Thank you very much for this response. Let me check my diary and I'll get back to you in a few days. So you're not saying yes, you're not saying no, you're giving yourself some time, and then you can go through that process of evaluating, asking the questions, and then choose your answer. Okay, so I hope that that helps, Helen. So bit of homework. Um this is the homework. Have that response. So don't answer immediately, don't say yes on the spot, answer back and say something like, Thank you very much, let me check my diary, have a proper think about it, and I'll get back to you in a few days, or get back to you tomorrow. That git creates space. And then I want you to have that your own checklist. So go through those questions that um, you know, what does this cost me? Is it financially worthwhile? Time and energy required. If I say yes, what am I saying no to? Because the time you protect is your time, that's your time that you want. You're telling me that you want. And I think it's important that you, you know, start practicing creating that time because you absolutely have the power to do this, but it you've just got it's just got to become uh a much smoother process than at the moment where you're saying yes and you're getting resentful and all of this. You know, you need to have a plan in action and then move it, um, and then move it forward. Because I do think you are you're still operating in that kind of begin. I'm beginning and I need to say yes, whereas actually you don't need to say yes, you built up a really successful career, Helen. You know that you have ways to create your own money. And you know, if you turn down an opportunity that was a teaching opportunity that would take up, you know, I don't know, two weeks of your of your time, for X amount of money, and it would be, you know, maybe traveling across the country. You know that actually in those two weeks you could probably do a couple of online workshops for yourself, have one week entirely to yourself to make your own work and still make and still make the same money. But you know, it's a we you know, it's a no-brainer when it comes to that. So I think the challenge is no longer creating opportunities, it's recognizing what opportunities are worth your time. So I think I'm gonna leave it with that, like leave it like that. Thank you for that, Helen. I hope that's helpful. Um okay, moving on to Bella. I'm just gonna go and turn a little bit. Give me a second, I'll be back in a minute. Um turn up a bit. Okay, right, so Bella. So Bella wrote in and she said that she is a largely self-taught lino cut artist who's been making prints for six or seven years. And last year she began selling her work at local markets, an experience she found hugely rewarding, and she's now preparing to open an online shop. She says her work is um inspired by a rich mix of interests, including history, nature, literature, and folklore. And for many years, she has happily followed whatever captured her imagination. And she describes those early years as a joyful, um, a joyful journey of learning, while there was no pressure to define herself or make her work in a particular way. But recently something has shifted. She said that she found herself trying to hone her style by simply by simplifying her compositions and removing unnecessary detail. And at the same time, she's pushing herself technically, experimenting with increasingly ambitious reduction prints and complex multi-block prints. And the problem is that neither seems to be giving her the satisfaction she expected. She often finishes a print and immediately sees what she should have left out. Her more technically ambitious prints frequently fall short of the image she had in her head. And although she doesn't mind making unsuccessful prints, she feels that after six or seven years, she should, this should be happening less often. And I think the sentence that stood out to me the most here was in the beginning, I had even less of a clue, and yet I was happier. So I think Bella is really asking two questions. How do you consciously develop a recognizable style? And how do you become more of a confident and accomplished printmaker without constantly feeling like you're falling short? Okay, right, let's uh let's get into this. So, Della, I think you have two dilemmas here, disguised as one, because I think the first one is about style, and the second one is about craft. So let's look at style first. And this is interesting because I did a post this week or a carousel about style. And I think part of the problem here, Della, is that you're trying to find your style, you're trying to hone your style. And I think therein lies the problem. You know, you wrote to me that I feel I could go on forever this week when you were first exploring, and it was fine. But the last few months I've tried honing my style. And my immediate response is, why? Why have you tried recently, even though you said you could you could perfectly happily go on like you were? Why have you suddenly tried to hone your style? Now, is it because you are opening your online shop? Is it because you feel like there needs to be consistency for Instagram? You know, what has changed here that suddenly made you decide that your style needs attention? Because it sounded to me as if you were perfectly content following your own curiosity until fairly recently. Because I don't believe that our style is something that we create. I think our style finds us. I think style emerges from years and years of turning up and making work. I it's almost like footprints being left behind after a long walk. Some one of my tutors told me this years ago, and it's just stuck with me. You know, it it you you don't decide what your footprints are going to look like before you start working, look walking. You know, you look behind you and then you can see your footprints. I I think that's what is happened here. I think you you've you're trying to force things that actually don't need to be forced. I went to look at your Instagram, Bella, because I was curious. Um, I'm calling you Bella, and it's Della, isn't it? Sorry, Della, Della, Della, Della. Sorry, Della. I don't know why I called you Bella. You're Della. I'm so sorry. You are Della. Um Della, let's I I know that. I knew that right from the word go. Anyway, I don't think that um no, anyway, let's get back to it. Totally distracted by calling you the wrong name. I really apologize. Della, I went to look at your Instagram, Della, because I was curious. I was curious to see what your work looked like. And I was expecting to find, perhaps from what you've just described, you know, a real mix of hotch potch of this and that and the other. But what I didn't see that. I saw consistency, I could see somebody who's definitely got their your own style, and I see what probably you can't see, and that's very often the case. I get a lot of the time I get people coming to me for coaching and they're like, I don't think I've got a style. And I look at them, well, I I I can see your style really clearly. You just can't see it because you are you. It's a bit like, and I've said this before, it's a bit like I was always surprised because you know, I often think you don't know what style you dress like, you know, and then I have friends saying, Oh God, Sam, you would love that. It's really you. And I'm like, What do I mean by it's really me? You know, sometimes we just don't, we're just not aware that we have our own style. And I think I think trying to find your style or trying to force your style is is one is the quickest way to almost lose it, both mentally and and practically. Okay, so I think the technical side here is that you you write that your ambitious prints don't always turn out as you imagined. And then you say something really interesting. You said that I feel by now it should be happening less often. And again, my question there is when you say by now, according to who? Who who sets the the the you know, who sets the standard that in six years you should be producing prints that are successful all the time? It it just that rule just doesn't exist. It is just not something that you know it that that that we follow as a rule, because you you're developing, you're changing, you're your your work is becoming more complex, and therefore there will be more mistakes because you're working in much more of a complicated way. I the more ambitious that you are, the more of a tendency to think for things to go wrong. That's essentially the the way it works. And I I I think that the important thing here is to remember that you are evolving here, you are evolving, and and and you have changed your style, not your style, sorry, your your aesthetic has changed in a way, and you have become much more sophisticated as an artist, and you're able to evaluate your work now in a different way than it than I don't know, 10 10 years ago, six years ago, whenever you know you first started out. That's not failure, that's growth. It's as simple as that. Your judgment has moved ahead of your ability, and that's actually where a lot of artists spend a lot of time, you know, in that messy middle bit, you know, or expectation, our expectation doesn't um uh you know, doesn't kind of meet the reality. So I think that your biggest challenge isn't style, and I don't think it's printmaking, I think it's expectation. I think you're trying to steer something that actually doesn't necessarily need steering. So I I think instead of asking how do I develop my style, I would ask, you know, what genuinely fascinates me enough to keep returning to this? Style is is often most often a result of repeated curiosity, not repeated intention. You keep coming back, you keep coming back, you keep coming back. And I think what was really interesting is that you wrote that you enjoy drawing and you often simplify your drawings for Lino in mind. And then you talk about being underconfident with your compositions. Now, I think you know what I'm gonna say here. I think that you should uh no, I'm gonna say should, let's not should on it, but I do think that actually what would be really helpful for you, Della, is to um is to draw just to draw. So draw for drawing's sake, not for not draw for printmaking in mind. Because I do think the more you draw, the more your compositional skills develop, the more your sense of uh you know, you the more that your sense of um line, you you have a better ability to to look at things and create what you want to create in the way that you want to create it. You spend more time looking, you're much more aware of space. All of those things I think are can be developed through drawing, and drawing will make you a better printmaker. It's as simple as that. Observational drawing, I think, will make you a better printmaker. You start to notice relationships, you notice start to notice rhythm, you start to really hone in and look at things in a different way that you don't when you are thinking about drawing for lino cut. It's a very different thing. I never go out and think, right, I'm gonna draw for a lino cut. I will draw and then I will come back to my studio and I will use that drawing and I will simplify that drawing from there. I will never go out and draw for a lino cut in mind. For me, that doesn't work. Right, so that's the practical layer. I think your homework should be. I'm gonna keep using the word should. It's a word that I really do avoid. Your homework, I would like it to be, Della, is for you to give yourself permission to stop thinking about style for a few months completely. I don't want you to be thinking about whether your work looks cohesive enough. Try not to compare yourself with artists who you think might have found their style. Just genuinely follow what interests you, like you did at the beginning. And at the same time, I'd like you to build up a regular drawing habit. And this is not to make drawings for lino cuts, it's not to post on Instagram, just simply drawing from observation. You mentioned that you've got my book sketch. Great. Start doing some of those exercises in the book. You know, start doing some of the ones which are, you know, really simple. Draw what's on your desk, draw the corner of your room, go out, do a drawing of your house. Those drawings are allowed to exist as purely drawings because I honestly believe that do that drawing will make you a stronger printmaker. Not because every sketch will become a print, but I think you that every drawing will strengthen your eye for composition, simplification, and editing. And all of those things will help you with your printmaking later on. And I think I would like to sort of leave you with a thought that in the beginning you said that you had less of a clue, but you were happier. And I think that maybe that was because you were measuring yourself against creativity, and now you're measuring yourself against expectation, and I think that's that's where it's becoming really tricky. And I think I'd like you to keep the knowledge that you've gained over the past six or seven years, but borrow back a bit of that beginner's freedom. Because from where I'm sitting, I don't think you're searching for your style. I think your style has already found you, and I think it's a matter of trusting that and moving forward with that and not questioning that. Okay, right, guys. I hope you found that helpful. Della, Della, Della, Della. That's so ironic because I've communicated with Della loads of times, and then for some reason I decided to call you Bella. Anyway, thank you for that, guys. Thank you for um sticking with the podcast. I'm sure I've gone on for quite a while. Uh thanks for keeping keeping me company on this um yeah, slightly sad Sunday afternoon. Um but I'm glad I got to do it. I'm glad I turned up, made my notes, and uh and came on here and chatted to you guys. So, as always, if you have a creative dilemma, please send it into thecreative couchpod at gmail.com. Do like, subscribe, tell your friends about it, do whatever you need to do to uh keep this podcast going. I would pick her up, but she just looks so beautifully snoozy that I'm not gonna pick her up. So we're sending love. She's here underneath my feet. Um, I will see you all again next week when we will do this all over again. I'll see you next week. Right, let's stop this end meeting.