Find your voice by letting go of everything you think you should be doing and do only the things you can’t help but do.1
Those things that persist in your work are inherent. You may feel uncomfortable about these things. Despite your best efforts, they still appear.
Of course, it’s in this uncomfortable place that the treasure lies.
I’m paraphrasing Jasper Johns. Find the quote in this excellent article by Jerry Saltz — How Philip Guston, America’s Great Painter of the Night, Completely Reinvented the Sublime. I particularly love the observation that Guston was doing all he could not to paint figuratively↩︎