Find Your Artistic Voice by Lisa Congdon

Author:Lisa Congdon [Lisa Congdon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
Published: 2019-08-19T16:00:00+00:00

Fortunately there are some things we can do to consciously navigate influence so that we can get ourselves away from outright copying. First and foremost, let go of any idea you may have that you are immune from influence. No one is free from influence. Owning your influence is the first step!

STRATEGIES FOR NAVIGATING INFLUENCE

Get to know and honor your influences. Bow down to them. Thank them. Write them letters of appreciation. Read about them. Ask them questions (even if they’re dead), and imagine how they might answer. If you see art that you like for the first time, don’t just grab the image and pin it on your inspiration board. Find out who created it. Research the artist’s story; learn about where they find their inspiration and what drives their work. Find out who influenced them. The work that inspires you is part of someone else’s creative journey. Begin to see the connections between the work you love and the artists behind it.

Copy another artist if you need to see where that leads. Hey, that’s totally fine. Go for it! Sometimes copying is a great way to push your skills or practice in a style that you admire. But when you make a piece of art that is directly and obviously inspired by another artist, always honor and give credit to the artist you copied. And never, ever, pass it off as your own for professional, paid purposes.

Collect and use as many influences as you can. The more influences you have, the more of a fusion you’ll create and the more diluted each of your individual influences becomes. When you have just one main influence you are far more likely to just be mimicking that one artist, whereas when you use many influences in your work, you are creating a mash-up, which means you’ll ultimately be making something totally new. Only have one influence? Look for more! Is your influence part of a genre or movement? Explore that genre or movement for other influences that might inspire you. Collect many influences until you don’t need them anymore.

Make a list of your influences and what aspects of their work you admire. Each time you make art that draws from an influence, acknowledge it. Keep a growing list of all the artists you find yourself wanting to mimic. As you make that list, name all the things about each artist’s work you idolize. Do you like their use of color? How they render figures? Their use of line work? The shapes they create? Then, be conscious of how you are transferring those influences into your own work. Always ask, “How am I transforming this influence into something of my own? How am I innovating?” And, if you are in the beginning of your path and you insist that you are making work that is not influenced by other artists, I urge you to go about digging deeper. Start by making a list of all the places you find your inspiration. Are

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