An Interesting Take on Being a Self-Taught Artist

Spots of sunlight slipping through the trees brighten a mood that has been in the doldrums the past few days. The light catches the splashes of the water rushing between rocks.

I can’t resist. I grab the camera and without putting on a coat, slip out the sliding door. The temperature is pushing 50 degrees, but the wind makes me shiver. I don’t care. I take a few photos of the brook, enjoy the view, noticing different nuances in shapes and movements and light. My little oasis.

One thing about being a self-taught artist is the excitement of new discovery. Instead of taking lessons and being taught someone else’s style and beliefs and getting inundated with a lot of info all at once, my learning is through doing, reading, and talking with other artists. It’s a slower process, but it makes discoveries more exciting.

I take in the new information when my brain says, “This is interesting, maybe I can work with this.” Sometimes I need to read or hear something mentioned more than once before I realize it’s something I could try. Or maybe, it’s just at that moment, I’m ready for the next step in my artistic evolution and the universe provides.

I like working like this. It’s part of my belief that life is a continual treasure hunt. There are those whose focus is constantly on the end goal … which is OK for them. My path isn’t so straight. I take lots of detours, get distracted by some shiny object (or thought process), or work on multiple projects at a time so one or two end up on a back burner for a while.

Sometimes I don’t even know what the treasure will be until I come across it. I may scuff what I initially think is an ordinary stone along the path until one day it rolls just the right way revealing the glimmer of a gemstone under the dirt. I may read about the same concept by more than one artist, then one day, someone says it in just a way that sparks my creative passion.

And an old analogy I’ve carried for years comes streaming back to consciousness – of me, as a little girl, running home with a handful of wildflowers shouting, “Mummy! Mummy! Look what I found!”