What makes it your own?

To find what makes your art unique and what your voice is comprised of, you often need to get to the heart of the matter. When working as an expressionist, you're drawing upon those inner parts of yourself at the core of who you are. They are that unique set of values, experiences, memories and motivations that animate your life. While the rules of art and techniques have a place, the real juice in your art, the part that gives it energy and life, comes from this inner part of you. Getting clear on that and creating an awareness around it brings vitality to your expressionist work. 

My art is motivated by my own inner joy in finding that place of wonder I experienced as a child in my grandparent's Tucson backyard - doing the things that kids do: watering cactus, chasing horny toads to try to make them squirt blood from their eyes, (They really DO that!), and building forts from cholla skeletons and ocotillo sticks. The desert was a place of absolute magic for me and my siblings.

Spending the night at my grandparents house was an adventure. Grandpa would bring a tarantula visitor to the kitchen table to demonstrate what a gentle giant the big hairy spider really was. At breakfast, we'd see the long morning shadows of a dozen or more prairie dogs in the backyard. Elusive little buggers, they'd pop back into their burrow the minute the back door creaked open. What a time of innocence and creativity! When I paint, I can once again enjoy that feeling that there's magic in the world, just as there was magic for me in that big backyard and continues to be magic in the alchemy of paint and personal expression.

In my studio, anything can happen, and in my life, I'm still watering the cactus!

Journaling, daydreaming, list making, mind mapping, and long thoughtful walks can all bring little tidbits and epiphanies about why you paint and where your own self expression comes from. Jot them down when they occur to you.. Collect them and allow them to inform your work. It's where all the juice is!