You have an assignment today.
I'm going to give you some music to listen to while you read what your homework is. If you don't see a music player, click over to the blog. You'll need it.
Today - Take a walk. Through your art.
I subscribe to hundreds of blogs. Sometimes I have more than a thousand unread posts because I don't have time every day to look through them. But I love em all.
And as I spend more time with each one, I could guess the artist at 20 paces for most of the consistent bloggers. Whether you think you do or not, you have a style. You gravitate towards certain things and you repeat and refine them. And that's a good thing.
I had a great conversation with a coworker this week about how differently people see you than you see yourself. If you get just the right friend, they may describe you to yourself. You may be surprised. If so, that's very cool. You just met someone new :).
So is the case with your art. Look at it like someone else would for a day or two. This is hard. Harder than it sounds. Get someone to help you. Make them describe your style. Then refine it. This is who you are when you create. Don't change it - intensify it. It's your true talent.
I think if I took a walk through all my art I'd find little monsters popping out more often than not. Lots of animals. Few people. Quirkiness. Irreverence. Humor. I think I'm a little offbeat. I like to make fairly clean, defined designs. I like vivid colors.
But here's the good part.
That's not what I like to look at. I love ooh-ing and aahing over the shabby chic girls. The vintage and collage artists. The mixed media people. All the things I can't make look good. I love them. I wish I had those skills. But I come home to what I do, and try to make it better.
Now I would never give you an assignment without a prize.
So here's the deal. You study your art. You leave me a comment on this post by Sunday at 5PM central telling me your objective description of your style.
I will give one of you the Martha Stewart Encyclopedia of Crafts. :) I won one for the blog header contest, and I had already bought one, so one is for you. Be honest. Be descriptive. Be timely. :)
In my crazy imagined world that I turned to art, I would see people walking down the street with owls for balloons.
So I made my world. :)I used the new Animal Stories set, with Summer Sun, Dusty Durango, Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point Blue and Black to create this card for this month's Stampin' Success contest. The greeting is with the new Modern Label punch. Fun, yeah? I'd love to see someone sassing their hiney down the street with floaty owls on strings. I just would.
Hope you have a great Thursday. I can't wait to see what you tell me.
(PS - this version of this song is not the best one. The best one is available on Itunes. It's by Katie Reider. I'm sad to learn that Katie died last year on July 14th. She had the voice of an angel, and this song is a lifetime favorite. RIP Katie. XO, me.)
Have you signed up for the UBlue Cyber Club? Attended one of my Webinars?? Come on - get your geek on! :)
Want to see my other blog?
Have you signed up for the UBlue Cyber Club? Attended one of my Webinars?? Come on - get your geek on! :)
Want to see my other blog?
You are amazing. And I'm honored that you take the time to comment on my blog when you have so much going on!
ReplyDeleteI was just trying to do this objective viewer thing with my writing; I was reading a story I wrote and trying to read it as if were someone else's words. Talk about hard! I think the more you do something, the more your style emerges even across genres (or crafts) to some extent. And once upon a time I was an artist but I'm focused on other things now so my style is not well developed.
So there you go - some morning ramblings from the writer formerly known as an artist. Can writers enter the contest? :)
Hi Blue (I know your name is Lydia, but in my head, I call you Blue) I loved your writing today AND your card and I loved the bird one you did the other day. I too subscribe to too many blogs but I love how they touch my soul in different ways. Most are stamping ones, but there are others that just sing to me. Yours sings and stamps so that is perfect! I love the insight you give to everyday things and I love when you send us to other blogs. I went to some of the twitter things you alluded to the other day but I don't know how to get to twitter on my own, so that is your job -- keep us moving towards the brightness. Anyway, I agree, it is difficult to see our own style sometimes, but it is there. It doesn't work to try to copy someone else's style even if you love it. It is theirs. We must all accept our own and learn to love it. I tend to be pastelly and clean -- not a lot of frou frou. I like to do cute. HOWEVER I love bright colors, I love beautiful as well as cute, I like -- sometimes -- lots of embellishments. I find I can love them when others do them, but if I try to stick on ribbons and/or charms or if I try to do collage it just doesn't work. So that I leave to those whose style it is and I just have fun with my own uncomplicated pastels. Thanks for all you do to stimulate my mind. I love it. Hug the kitties. tonilea
ReplyDeleteOkay, let's take this in order.
ReplyDelete1) AAAACK!
2) Thank you, thank you for this post. This question has been rolling around in my head for a few weeks now, because I just recently started blogging.
3) I still don't know what my style is, because I still can't separate in my mind what I actually DO, versus what I WANT my style to be. This is made more difficult because I have some form of ADHD and I want my style to be lots of different things, and that's probably not possible :) This fact is reflected in the diverse styles of the people who are in my "Places I Love To Visit" section of my blog!
4) I THINK MAYBE my style is uncomplicated vintage, that is, vintage with a minimum of frou frou.
5) Thank you again, for this post and all of your posts, for the funny, the beautiful, the thought-provoking - ALL inspirational!
6) I WILL continue to think about this question more objectively - *promise*!
I love your owl card, but I want to add some tails and make kitties. *grin*
ReplyDeleteI know my style tends toward clean and neat, without a lot of embellishment. I gravitate to blue, but I really do try to use a lot of other colors. I'm not afraid to try unusual color combinations. Although I love the look of shabby chic, I find it very difficult to create the look. I use a lot of bright colors and a lot of black as an accent to make things stand out.
So far I love your taste in Music. I really enjoy listening to the tunes.
ReplyDeleteI'm not even going to try to comment on my art style. I think I'm trying to round up a style just so I can claim one.
Oh carp on a stick! I only read the title of the post and actually took a two mile walk around the neighborhood!
ReplyDeleteNot really, I lied.
Anyways, I never considered what style I have when creating cards until recently. I know I like simplicity but my stuff always ends up to be very involved. I know I like organic, earthy textures and colors but some of my work doesn't include those things. I must have a "hypocritical" style! Or a "what in the hell am I doing" style. A "I can't make up my mind" style?
Sooooo, here's my story that will gross you out- sorry if i make you barf but it really happened.
Last Sunday evening Ray (DH) and Kelly (DD) made brownies. Now I am not ordinarily a "chocolate" person but I do ADORE the edges of brownies. One time while flying a commercial flight I saw a really cool brownie pan in the SKY magazine that could bake your brownies with many edges. Must get that pan someday. But I digress. I didn't eat any brownies that evening but woke up about 12:30 am hankering for brownie edges.
I sneak into the kitchen and find a HUGE piece of brownie with three decadent edges. Ray was awake and watching T.V. but didn't hear me get the brownies. I thought I was so clever and sneaky taking the brownie back to my bedroom and eating it in bed. I did just that and fell into a deep slumber- totally satisfied.
The alarm rang at 6:15 am and it was still relatively dark in the house. I immediately got out of bed and started to leave the bedroom when I realized that I dropped a piece of brownie on the floor right in the bedroom entrance during my "sneaky excursion". I reached down to pick it up and was going to take it to the trash. Now, mind you I had only been awake for 10 seconds when this happened.
This piece of brownie had a hump on the top. I thought to myself "that's odd, the brownies that Ray and Kelly made were flat". I mean it felt like the brownie I ate last night and it looked like the brownie I ate last night.
But then something made me bring it closer to my face and I sniffed. Why I did that, I don't rightly know. Oh yeah, Cletus told me to. That's it- that's the ticket.
I sniffed and realized that I had just picked up a PIECE OF POO! Well, Hi-dy Hi! It was Mr. Hanky from Southpark sitting in my hand not a brownie!
My dog, Einstein is very old and he must have managed to drop a chunk that night. Thank God we have acid-stained cement floors and not carpet. He was very considerate in that this chunk was quite solid and well-formed just like.....well, just like a freakin' brownie.
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. Cletus is a dumba** when she first wakes up in the morning.
Have a good day Kydia!
Hi Lydia, I have been thinking about my art style. One of them is to copy, I do that really well, I do come up with some great stuff all on my own and then I may even add a bit of something that was inspired by oh, say someone like yourself. I love this card and it inspired me to use the ballons inside a card that I made. I would love to send you one to say thanks if you will email me. Oh, and so that you don't think that you are emailing some phsyco I am a friend of Marie from the blog from combat boots to rubber stamps. So really I guess that I could just get your address from her.:)
ReplyDeleteI love all the wonderful things you do here on your blog and well I hope to have just a bit of the talent that you have when I grow up.
Oh, and by the way I loved this card even more in person! Now I know that you are phsyced!!!!
Hee Hee.
Hope to hear from you soon.