Feel Free to Express Yourself!

Collage by Shelley Klammer
Collage by Shelley Klammer

Expressive Art  Does Not Require Technique

 

Expressive art is not a technique that you learn with your mind so that the result will be "art" but more of a joyful process of exploration of your inner world through spontaneous art-making.

 

You likely have the deep urge to express yourself honestly but you may not been encouraged to be your most unique self.

 

Expressive art requires no special talent, skill or inspiration. Because your natural, original style is already within, you are already good enough to begin. You are creative and whole, now and always. 

 

Talent Arises Out of Self-Love and Acceptance

 

Your creativity is available at all times and needs only an invitation to reawaken. Talent as an artist comes from taking risks and feeling everything. This invites spontaneity.

 

In my opinion "good" art is authentic art, no matter what it looks like. In authentic art you do not pre-plan anything during the art-making process and learn to embrace whatever is expressed without judgement.

 

As soon as you try to create something "good" you can easily become tense and self-critical. Creativity is about loving yourself just as you are and allowing yourself to express yourself as you are meant to - without shame or judgement.

 

There are Two Ways To Create

 

This is an educational site. I invite you to explore and learn more about creating without preplanning. As an expressive artist I like to explore intuitive drawing, painting and collage and I share my creative process with you here on this site. Your original style will be different than mine. As a former gallery artist I have both a "cultivated style" and a "natural intuitive style" of creating. It is the intuitive way of creating that I share with you here.

 

I once visited an artist's studio and she also had two distinct styles of painting. Her one style was realistic with a heavy emphasis on trying out new techniques. She told me that she liked to challenge her mind to stretch in new artistic ways and that she often copied other artist's styles and techniques. "I work very hard on these paintings!" she told me. This is what I would call her cultivated style. She painted this body of work for the results they produced.

 

When I pointed out several of her almost primitive, tribal paintings she laughed. "Oh those are easy!" She exclaimed. "I do those just for myself for relaxation." I have been drawing like that since I was a child." She told me that those paintings just poured out of her effortlessly but that she thought they were strange and not very marketable. To me they were beautiful in their rawness and aliveness, full of risk and adventure. These paintings were the outpouring of her natural, intuitive style. She painted this body of work for the love and passion of the creative process.

 

It is my aim here on this site that you fall in love with your own creative process and yourself along the way. If you have not tried creating like this since you were a child you will be amazed at how much creativity you have inside of you. There are worlds upon inner worlds for you to discover. It is truly an endless adventure.