For artists who plan to go professional with their skills, there inevitably comes a point where someone will ask about your signature style or artistic focus. Apparently you must have this recognizable style whether you are are a painter, dancer, singer…whatever. I’ve always found this a very troubling issue, because at first it seems so restrictive.  That you have to work in this style forever and you’ll never grow and learn anymore. Or maybe finding your style is more figurative in the sense that you have to find yourself and when you believe in  yourself, all your work will be tied together naturally. Somehow it has to naturally happen and before you might even know it, others will already have noticed your style in your works.

I read a few articles online, Finding your Style and Finding a Signature Style and in the end feel sort of ambivalent about the whole topic.  I suppose my only conclusion is that you can’t find it…it really finds you.  It’s like growing up…you can’t just decide to do it…it happens gradually until one day you realize, hey, I’m a big kid now.  (Something like that!)  I suppose now is the time to look back and really go through my own body of work and see if there are threads that tie everything together. I’m still so much in the experimentation stage that I find it hard to tied together all my whimsies and fancies… What are your thoughts on artistic styles and a signature style?  What’s your style?

Posted on January 29, 2010 at 4:06 pm | thoughts + discussion | 10 comments

Hello dear readers! Yes, I am writing this post from my hospital bed totally bored and annoyed that I can’t do much. No worries as I am feeling just fine – it was a scheduled surgery I had to get done and I’m anxious to move forward and go do some messy painting to release some energy!  Since I can’t share a work in progress photo of my work this lovely Thursday, I thought I could list out my projects instead.  Even though I can’t do much physically now, my mind is active and I’ve been planning out some future art projects such as…

• mixed media birds with hats from the ArtTrader Magazine contest, my plan is to have paper collage with watercolor on top, then acrylic on top…then drawing with pen and ink…maybe even glitter?
• bookbinding some journals with my leather scraps for covers, I had this idea to create journals that already had ink splats in them, so no one has to face a blank page – not sure if it’s a good idea or not?!
• need to finish my acrylic experimentations
• want to start more messy action painting of acrylic on canvas, but with a paper collage background first
• drawing some ATCs of squared headed people…bizarre thought just came to mind…

What are you up to in your studio or perhaps planning to start soon?  I would love to hear about your adventures in creativity…it’s so fun to share experiences because I think it pushes us forward together.  Don’t hesitate to comment below – ciao ciao!

Posted on January 28, 2010 at 8:39 pm | work in progress | 6 comments

I know it’s considered pretty geeky to watch and subsequently become obsessed with anime series. Stories range from classic romance to funny, whimsical characters and even quirky or downright weird at times. I’ve certainly gone through my fair share of passionate obsessions. I have a 200GB drive filled with subbed anime from my college years! Although it’s impossible to follow all the series, the bright side is that there’ll always be something new to watch.

One of the more popular stories that made it’s way to the USA audience is titled Trigun and you might have heard of it already. I learned a great phrase from that series…“love and peace,” says Vash, the main character (I’m pretty sure this is not the first time I am mentioning him on the blog).  It might sound childish and simple-minded, but hey, it makes me happy and I have no issues learning life lessons from cartoons. I totally love watching the newer generation of animated movies like Shrek and Wall-E that aren’t so classical fairy tale like.

The image you see above is a desktop wallpaper I designed for myself. I thought it would be nice to share it with you as well, perhaps you can print it out as a card or even wall art.  I got the idea of offering free art from illustrator Stephanie Fizer (an artist I totally admire) and she offers occasional free downloads and pick-us-all-up messages, too.  I really like her free art for the IndieFixx Feed Your Soul Project - you can see the print here. Enjoy and happy Wednesday!

Posted on January 27, 2010 at 9:19 am | designs, free goodies | 2 comments

Happy Tuesday to everyone!  Today I released another graphic art print in my etsy shop titled, “Enjoy The Ride.”  It’s dedicated to my late father-in-law who was a professional cyclist and had a wonderful and exciting career.  I am trying to piece together his story and design a book about his career here in Italy.  Previously, I had never known that cycling was such a huge sport, especially in Italy…it’s pretty cool when you learn something new and discover a whole different world where people have found joy and passion.  It makes me happy to know there’s always something out there for us…

As you can see from my illustration, I’m pretty much saying… rain or shine, enjoy the ride... and I truly believe in having that perspective in life.  We need positivity and a good perspective on life no matter what happens.  I read a blog post about gratitude and it’s definitely around the topic I’m currently pondering.  The most moving quote from that post is how “Most of the things that we are grateful for have longevity. Most of our frustrations are short term, and are usually caused by ourselves.” Oh so true!  I hope we can all stop to think during times of trouble and check ourselves to see if we are causing more misery than necessary.  Be grateful, be happy and enjoy the ride…smooth or bumpy.  :P

Posted on January 26, 2010 at 11:52 am | designs, store, thoughts + discussion | 4 comments

An American abstract expressionist artist born in Rotterdam, Willem de Kooning is considered one of the most important artists in 20th century.  There’s a Pulitzer prize winning book about his personal and professional life, de Kooning: An American Master, which is the next book on my reading list.  I was intrigued to read the book after learning that de Kooning was always in doubt with his work.  What?  A great master in doubt?  I find it very humanizing and started thinking perhaps it’s necessary for artists to doubt…otherwise we would never experiment and push ourselves to the limit in order to grow – always seeking that something…that feeling when you know a work is complete and the excitement that surges inside of you.

Willem de Kooning, Elegy, 1939

De Kooning’s work also came to mind as I’m experimenting with more freedom in painting and techniques that stem from spontaneity.  Abstract expressionism is sometimes called action painting – perhaps they aren’t the same thing really – but the idea is to spontaneously drip, splash or smear paint onto the canvas to emphasize the physical act of painting itself rather than the finished work.  De Kooning actually destroyed some of his ‘bad’ paintings, which is so weird if he was supposed to be concerned more with the action rather than result of painting.  It was mentioned that he regretted destroying works later in life, more interesting stories compelling me to read the book and find out more!  I’m just so attracted to the idea of not having to plan – sort of stream of consciousness painting and seeing what happy surprises pop up.  Perhaps this is an opposite reaction to my past job as a project manager?  Of course, this style of painting is also really messy and fun…maybe it’s just regression, going back to finger painting!  As I ponder my thoughts, I keep looking at de Kooning’s work, taking in the energy and visual inspiration.

Willem de Kooning, Pink Angels, 1945

Hope you can draw some energy from the idea of action painting as well.  Thanks for stopping by, now go splatter some paint somewhere…feels good, doesn’t it?

Willem de Kooning, Gotham News, 1955

Posted on January 25, 2010 at 9:36 am | inspiration | 2 comments