I didn’t know what I was searching for..
In my last post, I told you about my little self-discovery project—printing out all 261 paintings I've created since I began fine art painting in 2020, cutting them into individual cards and looking for patterns.
I promised I'd let you know what I discovered.
Well apparently I've had a style all along.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Looking for Clues
I spread out those 261 little cards (shown above), moved them around, grouped them and looked for what kept showing up.
Some things were easy to spot. My subject matter is overwhelmingly inspired by nature—animals, flowers and landscapes. I love unexpected color, organic shapes, thin lines and layers of visual texture. Stencils, stamps, collage, scraping and marks appear again and again.
And then there was something less tangible: atmosphere.
I kept finding paintings where I had softened and blended color, creating areas of light, mist and a little mystery. And when I thought about what I most want my paintings to feel like, the same words kept coming up: magic, wonder and connection with nature
Polar Bear Woman - Kachina Women Series 2020
What I Didn't See
Only after I'd done my own assessment did I run everything through Claude. I was curious whether AI might spot patterns I'd missed.
And, of course, It did!
It traced a trajectory through six years of paintings and pointed out connections I hadn't consciously recognized—from the glowing moon and animal companions in my very first paintings (Kachina Women series), to the atmospheric Expanding Light, to animals emerging from atmosphere in Land of Dreams, and now the soft atmosphere and botanicals of Where Dreams Bloom.
Then it Noted Something that Stopped Me:
“Comparing Kachina Women (2020) to Where Dreams Bloom (2026) is comparing two different skill levels in service of one unchanged vision. That's not common — plenty of artists' subject matter drifts as much as their technique does. Yours didn't drift. It deepened.”
Expanding Light - 2022
And Then, That Word…
Deepened.
Of all the words it could have chosen.
Deepen is my word for 2026.
But here's what I find especially interesting: it certainly didn't feel like I was following one clear path while I was painting all those paintings!
I would stumble onto something that excited me, explore it for a while, then wander off in another direction. Sometimes I'd find my way back to it months—or even years—later.
Looking now at Land of Dreams, painted in 2024, I can see that I was already combining an animal with the kind of atmospheric world that intrigues me today. But I didn't recognize it as a direction yet.
Land of Dreams - 2024 (art prints available)
I kept experimenting—sometimes moving toward softer edges, without quite creating atmosphere, then circling back to texture, animals, flowers or glowing areas of color.
I didn't really know what I was searching for.
Which brings me back to that word: Deepen.
Earlier this year, I felt ready to stop spreading myself quite so wide. There's nothing wrong with creative meandering—I'm pretty sure I'll always do some of it!
But I wanted to know what might happen if, instead of finding something interesting and then moving on, I stayed with it long enough to see how deep it might go and what else it might have to teach me.
Where Dreams Bloom - 2026
What happens if I stay awhile?
Strangely, the whole realization gives me a sense of relief.
Artists hear a lot about the importance of developing a recognizable style, especially if we hope to build a sustainable art business. And yes, that's something I dream of.
But the bigger dream is the art itself.
To keep growing. To stay curious. To make work that feels like mine. To follow what intrigues and excites me rather than trying to manufacture something recognizable because I'm supposed to have a “style.”
Maybe I can stop looking for it.
Apparently, it's been there all along.
And now I get to go deeper.
That's exactly what I've already been doing with foxes. And after discovering how much I loved creating the dreamy atmosphere of Where Dreams Bloom, I've found myself wondering what would happen if I brought those things together in a bigger way.
A fox. Atmosphere. Perhaps some flowers. Texture and marks. Something real emerging from something dreamlike.
I don't know exactly what it will look like yet.
And that's the best part.
I get to find out.