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Find Your Artistic Voice: The Essential Guide to Working Your Creative Magic by Lisa Congdon (2019)
, 8 Oct 2022
This
is a very enjoyable, simple-to-read sound book with great advice for
artists (from beginners to emerging) on how to develop our artistic
voice. It delves into what an artistic voice is, why is important having
one, how to find it, and the struggles to get one.
The book
inserts ten interviews with renowned professional artists (mostly
illustrators and mostly women) and asks these and other questions to them. They also discuss the creative process in general. The
artists interviewed are: 1/ Sean Qualls & Selina Alko. 2/ Andrea Pippins. 3/ Fin Lee. 4/ Kindah Khalidy 5/Andy J Miller 6/ Danielle Krysa 7/ Kate Bingaman-Burt 8/ Libby Black 9/ Ayumi Horie 10/ Martha Rich. My fav interview was, Kate Bingaman-Burt's.
Ireally love Congdon's delightful
humorous illustrations spread throughout the book.
Our artistic voice is the art that we make when we listen
to our inner truth and convey it to the world in our personal way. Our
artistic voice is made of "all of the characteristics that make your
artwork distinct from the artwork of other artists, like how you use
colors or symbols, how you apply lines and patterns, your subject matter
choices, and what your work communicates." (p. 7).
Congdon says that to find our voice we need to show up, make art every day, be disciplined, practice-practice-practice, 'positivize' boredom and embrace our fears and self-doubt. We also need tons of patience because, as mastering a musical instrument takes years of hard work, so does Art. Embracing our fears and doubts is especially important for beginners, and, that being the case, we have to have compassion and patience with ourselves and our mistakes, with the disasters and the ugly pieces, because they're the stepping stones on which our artistic voice is gonna be built. For the rest, all the interviewees agree on the fact that hard work and expressing our personal truth, who we are, are the recipe to find our artistic voice. Except for some 'geniuses', most professional artists have to work at it. Congdon says, "The unfolding of your voice requires showing up and working hard. It requires being willing to create failures, to ask for feedback, and to go back and try all over again. It requires staying open. It requires moving outside what’s comfortable and being vulnerable." (p. 119).
Congdon says that to find our voice we need to show up, make art every day, be disciplined, practice-practice-practice, 'positivize' boredom and embrace our fears and self-doubt. We also need tons of patience because, as mastering a musical instrument takes years of hard work, so does Art. Embracing our fears and doubts is especially important for beginners, and, that being the case, we have to have compassion and patience with ourselves and our mistakes, with the disasters and the ugly pieces, because they're the stepping stones on which our artistic voice is gonna be built. For the rest, all the interviewees agree on the fact that hard work and expressing our personal truth, who we are, are the recipe to find our artistic voice. Except for some 'geniuses', most professional artists have to work at it. Congdon says, "The unfolding of your voice requires showing up and working hard. It requires being willing to create failures, to ask for feedback, and to go back and try all over again. It requires staying open. It requires moving outside what’s comfortable and being vulnerable." (p. 119).
STRATEGIES TO DEVELOP YOUR VOICE
Congdon recommends twelve strategies for developing our own artistic voice, and they are:
1/ Make art every day, even for a few minutes.
Congdon recommends twelve strategies for developing our own artistic voice, and they are:
1/ Make art every day, even for a few minutes.
2/ When things get hard or tough don't stop; keep going.
3/ Embrace monotony and boredom to
break through and experiment.
4/ Create challenges and
stick to them, no matter who's paying attention to them, even if it's
just ourselves.
5/ Learn to practice mindfulness when we go outside
into the world to notice new things, new colours, curious weird stuff.
6/ Find a space to be alone to create.
7/ Find a feedback partner or
critique group.
8/ Take classes.
9/ Brainstorm.
10/ Develop your
vocabulary of interests, knowledge, and ideas.
10/ Support other artists
and learn from other artists.
11/ Stay open to all experiences.
THINGS I MISSED
The interviews with other artists are very interesting, but I see them fitter for a blog or art magazine. Besides, some of the most important points they make could have been summarized for the reader without the need to go through the whole interview. Also, I would have loved having the invited artists' artwork featured in the book (like 2-4 medium size images per head) as well as their website and social media accounts listed.
MIND
The
book is intended mostly for artists who want to have an artistic career
or are professional artists. Yet, the advice is great also for
everyone, even beginners like me, who want to have a distinctive voice
and express their own world view through Art.
THINGS I MISSED
The interviews with other artists are very interesting, but I see them fitter for a blog or art magazine. Besides, some of the most important points they make could have been summarized for the reader without the need to go through the whole interview. Also, I would have loved having the invited artists' artwork featured in the book (like 2-4 medium size images per head) as well as their website and social media accounts listed.
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