How do I find my artistic voice? (Ask me Anything)

“How do I find my artistic voice?” someone asked this in an online group I’m in. Sometimes, my best writing comes when someone has asked a question and I’m writing to just them. Here’s my answer –

So there’s the philosophical bit, above (I had mentioned the Ira Glass “But there is this gap” quote). Now to the practical, from my own experience. I have been some kind of maker since childhood. I had a business and teaching artist practice of metalsmithing and metal clay, which shifted, in part, because of having children.

Since transitioning to “artist,” unbound to a specific medium, here are two things that have helped me with what you’re talking about:

Creative Sketchbooking

1. The workshops on creative sketchbooking by Lisa Sonora. See also her book, The Creative Entrepreneur, under the name Lisa Sonora Beam. I have taken all of her 3-4 major workshops, The Magic Book, 7 Creative Powers and Creative Practice. Of those, I think 1-2 are still available, and she’s lowered the price back to something more reasonable. Highly recommended. Really life changing for me.

Lisa says that as we commit in the sketchbook, we commit in our lives, and in our art. I still have a not-daily creative sketchbook practice, and I don’t draw. It’s not a drawing type sketchbook that she teachers. LOVE her.

Working in Bodies of Work

Show of Medals that You Wouldn’t Want to Earn by Elaine Luther at the Orland Park Public Library, Orland Park, IL.

2. Since, let’s see, about 2010, I have worked in bodies of work. You can see these on my website if you want, the Medals that You Wouldn’t Want to Earn (those started in 2006), Our Ladies of Perpetual Housework, Balance & Tension, and now my textile works, which fall into the categories of quilts/protest banners or doilies with words on them.

I think I hear you saying you want to work in a goal directed manner to find your voice.

How have I done that?

It is useful to make a lot of work, using whatever means works for you to get yourself to do that. Regular studio hours help. I have long used applying for shows and opportunities to give myself external deadlines.

More recently, I think in terms of bodies of work and solo shows. I think of myself as always working toward a solo show.

Have a system for idea capture. Have a sense of urgency about your art career. Make a lot of work. Explore an idea over and over again, in different ways, until you’re tired of it. Make the art that only you can make. Trust yourself and let yourself make anything you want, even if you have no idea why yet that you’re making it. Just make it, you’ll figure it out along the way.

Write, write, write about what you’re doing. This will help you figure out what you’re doing and why.

In the beginning of my artist journey, say 2006, I was making things to process my own life and grief. That has changed, and now I’ve moved from the personal to the political, which is still personal.

I too worked for years to find my voice, find my style. One person told me, all you have to do is limit yourself to certain colors and materials and boom, there’s your style. That can certainly make your work recognizable, but I think you’re talking about something deeper, process and content.

Be Vulnerable

Lastly, be vulnerable in your art. The thing we are most afraid of, letting people see us, is terrifying, because well, it’s vulnerable, but that’s the thing that makes our work most interesting and most alive – when we are doing it not for attention but because we need to. The thing is, is that people aren’t thinking about us when they look at that art, if they connect to it, they’re thinking of themselves, and how they connect to that subject.

That’s the magic, the power. And it won’t work on everyone, only the people who need to see it.

P.S. It’s the kind of work, this finding your voice, that you struggle and work on for years and then one day, you look up, and go, “Oh, there I am,” and other people are thinking of you for a specific kind of work, and then you’ll look back and you’ll see the path you took, see the side journeys that seemed to be failures at the time, but they weren’t, they led you to yourself, to exactly who and where you were meant to be.

A photo by Elaine Luther from “The View through the Windshield” photo series.

P.P.S. I remembered one more thing I’ve done along the way, that I didn’t do in order to find my style, but it helped.
When I had little kids, and the little ones were very little, I couldn’t do much art. I did this photo project I called The View through the Windshield, and I would take photos, at first with my point and shoot camera, and later with my phone, while the kids were in the car, in their carseats, and unable to run away. One of them was a runner.

I would take photos at red lights, or I’d see something and pull over. The rule was, I could get out of the car, to get the shot, but I had to still be touching the car. I could stop, pull over, or park, and get out to take the photo.

Here’s a sample photo, above, taken this from the car.  From taking all those photos – and I’m not saying they’re art photos in and of themselves, I’m not claiming to be a photographer – but through the process, the commitment over time, I learned what I like and I developed my eye.

What do I like? Rust, urban spaces in transition, reflections, shadows, some graffiti, really huge bridges, shapes that create and opening and frame the background in an interesting way. Some of these could become quilts. I have thoughts, but haven’t gotten to those yet.  I wrote a blog post once called, “Not inspired by nature.” That was on my old blog and it’s gone now.

Something like that could work for you. Doesn’t have to be photos, but some, regular, on-going practice. In the same vein, doing the 100 day projects helped me because of the stick-to-itiveness required. And having a regular studio day where I can’t leave and I have to work til the end. Constraints, it’s all about habits and constraints. And keeping the faith, in yourself and the value of your work.

A page from the sketchbook of Elaine Luther, 2023.

Another thought – What Fascinates You?

P.P.S.S. Find one thing to explore that fascinates you. I’m interested in layers and transparency. You probably don’t know this, by looking at my work, because it’s been at a low level simmer for years, and it’s not there yet. There’s maybe one successful instance.
But I could work with that idea for years, in different ways, with different materials.
What endlessly fascinates you? Explore that.

Books and More Posts

I was at a conference yesterday and recommended a book to someone, making me realize I should come back to this post and recommend that book, and some more, here.

The book is Do the Work by Steven Pressfield, a sort of more concise version of his book The War of Art.  I like Do the Work Better.

Also helpful: Making Room for Making Art by Sally Warner

I have this post, Choose an Art Practice that is Sustainable, and that Sustains You, which is very relevant to the topics above.