Finding Your Voice - Off the Wall Friday

I've been floating for a while now.  I'm not beating myself up for it, mind you  since I've learned over the years that creativity cycles ebbs and flows like most things in life.  But hours of working your way through someone else's  traditional quilting pattern gives a girl time to think.

What is the voice of my artwork?  Have I found it?  Was I actually looking?  grin

hmmmmmmm, after a little research I found suggestions on how to!

Curves, Color and Joy - My Voice

• Which design element is important to you - shape, line, value, color and texture? Which one do you see taking center stage in your pieces time and time again.   Me, I'm a color girl first and foremost with Value doing a lot of the work.  
• What are you trying to say?  This takes some thought because you have to decide what is important to you.  Some artists have big political statements; some artists want to change a mundane moment in life into something noteworthy.  Some are storytellers; Some artists want to convey the emotion of what they see.  The list is endless.  I think, and I could be wrong, for me its  all about emotion and beauty. 
• How Are you trying to say it?  This is all about developing your own working style from  inspiration to the design process to the method of construction and completion.  Yes, you will be influenced by those who have taught you and those you admire, but in the end you need to find out what works for you.  I remember, taking a master class where the teacher was surprised to see me piecing my work.  Apparently, everyone else was fusing.  I at once looked up and said should I be fusing too?  She laughed and said no, the texture the seams are making is amazing.  I realized then and there that I don't need to do what others are doing, but what is right for me.  
  
• Where's the Commonality?  Start linking our pieces by what things they have in common.  Explore old elements while adding the new.  Working in series helps with this tremendously but even stand alone pieces should still share some elements with your body of work as a whole.  
• What Do You want to leave out?  Accept the fact that you don't need to be anybody's idea of an artist but your own.  There are a lot of elements out there that are considered art.  You do not need to put them all in your work.  Work the way you want to work, saying what you want to say and don't apologize for it.  Centering on what's inside of you rather than what's out there in world of art will only strength your own voice.  

I'm sure there are more things to consider, but that's a good start.  Finding one's voice is definitely a work in progress but a rewarding one.  There is nothing I better than hearing one of friends say, "Oh Nina, I could tell your piece right away"

It might be good.  It might be bad.  But its definitely me.

So What Have You Been Up To Creatively?