Evolution of a Style

I was cleaning my garage today, which I find necessary to do every so often.  Usually it's in response to an inability to get my car into it's parking spot, but today, it was because I needed to clean out my spare bedroom - company's coming - and the spare bedroom is where I store all that overflow from my studio.

What usually happens when I do this is culling...throwing out things I couldn't part with during the last *cleaning* ...is that I spend time looking at older work and class assignments from 10 years ago.  What I found today actually surprised me in a curious way.

We've talked a lot about artistic style on this blog - it's a wide ranging topic with so many points of view. Where does it come from? Can you invent it, or is it part of your visual language, instinctive?

I found this early gouache painting - probably from a design class, which would put it about 1999 or 2000.  I don't think I even thought I could be a *real artist* at this time. 

But today, as I was deciding whether to keep this or throw it away, I noticed something curious, something that has been recurring in my work over the subsequent years...the dots.

This is recent work, early 2008.  Not only are the colors similar, but also the use of the dots.  The image on the left is poured oil on paper, the image on the right is oil on panel. 

I did not remember doing the gouache assignment when I started working on the Elements series.  In fact, I didn't remember it at all until I found it today stuck between the sheets of a nearly empty drawing tablet.  And while I'm sure  the dots in the design assignment had more to do with a pattern exercise, the dots in the Elements Series have a totally different meaning. 

In the Elements Series, the dots represent something transformed, not what it appears to be, or a spirit journey.  This  symbolism came from my research into aboriginal cave drawings and the various theories around why the original artists made the marks that they did, to either indicate that the image represented a spirit animal, or a pathway symbolizing an evolutionary journey.  While I now consciously use the dots to communicate a meaning, I find myself curious as to whether this mannerism evolved out of a design assignment or if it became part of my visual language only when it held meaning beyond the pattern.  I don't know.  There was a long period of time where there were no dots at all in my abstract work. 

This image at the right is a WIP...although I think it's nearly finished.  Yes, there are tiny red dots, but you probably won't see them in this photograph. 

Do you ever wonder where your stylistic tendencies evolve from over time, whether there's a connection simply through successful pieces of art, or if there's something deeper behind the work?  If I had received praise for a design project featuring geometric shapes, would I now be doing large triangles in primary colors, or would I have become a sculptor?  

I don't think it actually matters where the inspiration or motivation evolves from, as much as it matters how you use it in a mindful way.  Painting dots can be a simple exercise in repetition, or it can add depth and meaning to your work.  How do you see it?

Comments

[Martin]

I believe there is a lot of influence in our childhood too. I know that my favorite illustrated children books still have an influence on what I do now.

[TracyW]

Interesting food for thought!

Actually, reviewing back over old blog posts helps me to see patterns and tendencies in my work. I do think that if an image makes an impression in us, it's permanently stored back in our brains, only to be brought up at any time when we try to recreate the similar feeling the original did.

[Peggy Guichu]

I'm going to assume your DNA or spiritual inner tracking devise has everything to do with the dots. I, too, do a lot of dotting and have wondered why. Reading that cave paintings had this, too, is very exciting. Afterall, we are all connected. Maybe it was your spirit that painted in the cave and it's an ancient remembering. Whatever it is I just love your new painting. And the dots really do add to the feel of the work for some reason so it's working.

[Bonnie Luria]

It is so interesting to comprehend where our styles are birthed. And can we change them or should we.
A teacher I had and admired said, " I don't want to teach you to paint like me- I already do that. I want to teach you to paint like you".
And maybe that's like saying don't have green eyes.

That could be part of what you found when you looked through your past.
It's good to keep those things around.

We learn, we absorb, we tweak as we go, and in the end, we have our own signature.
I found this to be a very timely post.