This was one of the warm-ups that I completely lost myself in last week. The work is rough and the paper in this sketchbook is thin so you can see marks coming through from behind. It’s not by any means complete. It’s just a drafty warm-up grid of collage sketches.

But. I love it so.

Part of every art journey is discovering who you are as an artist. That’s part of the fun. Trying new subjects and mediums in different ways, different contexts and slowly learning your own preferences. Learning what it is you like to make—no, have to make—and how.

This is the creative journey. And I believe this is how we find our natural, innate style.

So this little grid of collages feels like me. It’s hard to explain, but as I made them and when I finished and then just took them all in, I just felt…expressed.

I have to ask myself, why, of course. Why do these little rough abstract sketches made out of magazine pages feel like me? What about them is “my style.”

I don’t think it’s a matter of medium. I can’t say that—oh, collage is my medium. I don’t want to work with anything else. I love to draw and paint too much. And for that matter, I can’t say that I feel most like myself when creating abstract art. I love many other kinds of expression.

It has more to do with shapes and texture and color—and simple little compositions that make me feel…something. I’m not sure what. For now, all I can say is happy. I believe these are just clues…this sketchy piece is pointing the way to finding who I am as an artist, what is my style.

And so my art journey continues.