Identity, Voice, and Shifting Perspectives
Artistic Voice is a thing I didn’t really think about until recently. Now, though, not only am I working to find my own voice, I’m also creating a presentation for the 2021 Annual TAEA conference (Texas Art Educators Association).
Currently, artistic voice seems like a magical thing that is beyond my understanding. I am taking it on faith that if I “do the work” then I will discover my own. It seems like it might be one of those things that a person can have but not realize until years later.
I have finally allowed myself to embrace the identity of an artist and I feel like an artistic voice will fall into place in time as well. And as far as shifting perspectives goes, it’s the title of this piece (which you may have noticed in some pics as a WIP):
I thought I was going to title it something having to do with clamps or pins or something tangible portrayed in the painting. Instead, I flipped it over and realized I’d already written “Shifting Perspectives” on the back at some point… I don’t remember when - but it felt right.
In the image you can see two arcs overlapping in the lower left quadrant of the circle. Those two arcs don’t overlap in real life. The magnifying glass causes the things behind it to shift in my view more drastically than usual with even the slightest movement of my head. I wanted to capture that. I wanted both views to be true and right. I want people to remember that this is true in the real world too - that there are different views that are both true and right.
Wow, that’s the deepest interpretation I think I’ve ever had for my own art… and I’m still not even sure exactly how I feel about this piece.
I’m still learning watercolor and I think that’s part of what makes me feel like it’s hard to hear my artistic voice at the moment… I’m trying to figure out how much of what I have to say with my art is affected by the medium I use and my technical ability with it.
Do you feel like the medium you use changes your voice? Do you know what your artistic voice sounds like?
