{"id":43012,"date":"2021-08-16T11:31:40","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T15:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mindfulartstudio.com\/?p=43012"},"modified":"2025-05-06T13:49:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T17:49:14","slug":"you-dont-need-an-art-style-you-need-an-art-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mindfulartstudio.com\/you-dont-need-an-art-style-you-need-an-art-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"You Don’t Need an Art Style, You Need an Art Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Dear Wonderful, Creative You: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most common questions I get from students is this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do I develop my style as an artist?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a logical question, but it’s the wrong question. Trying to develop your artistic “style” is a bit like trying to stare at your belly button while walking. It will trip you up, lead you down all sorts of wrong roads, and make you feel like you are failing utterly at this whole “artist” thing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, I invite you to focus on curiosity. On process. On answering What If? questions. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got curious one day about what would happen if I drew a series of rice grains on a 2 x 2 inch square. I really liked it, so I did another. And another. And another. Soon I started piecing them together into groups of 4, and then 16, and soon it grew into one huge piece where I explored density, movement, and detail in drawing. If someone asked me, “Why are you drawing rice grains?” I would have said, “I don’t know yet, because it feels good, and I’m curious what might develop.” It was an amazing experience of following my curiosity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What if, instead of focusing on style, you focused on incorporating your passions or curiosities into your work?<\/strong> What if you focused on using the same technique or materials as many different ways as possible until you felt you’d arrived at something really interesting, or you’d exhausted the possibilities? Focusing on process answers the question: How do I develop an art style? and also, What should I create today? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, process is where the excitement and the meaning dwell in art. <\/strong>It gets at the why? of why we make art. We make art because it’s fun to experiment, and to see what we can bring into being that didn’t exist before. Much of what you create won’t be all that “good -” some will be okay, and a fraction will be truly beautiful; but when you work this way, the process<\/em> will be magical, and that’s what drives me to make art day after day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don’t need to develop an art style,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

you need to develop an art practice.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n