The Inner You

December 21, 2024

As an artist, it's common to grapple with the idea of what your work "says" about you. You may find yourself questioning whether your painting truly reflects your inner self, or if it merely skims the surface. After all, art is such a deeply personal endeavor—can it really be separated from the person creating it? The answer, as it turns out, is no: the inner you is inevitably in your painting.

This may sound like an unsettling thought, especially if you find yourself overthinking your work, but it’s a reality that offers both relief and a kind of freedom.

Reveal Yourself

No matter how abstract, controlled, or impersonal you try to make your art, it is you who creates it. The brush strokes, the choice of colors, the decisions made about composition—each of these is imbued with something uniquely yours. Even when you set out to create something that is as far removed from your own identity as possible, you are still the one making the choices that bring it to life.

It’s easy to get caught up in the idea of “hiding” or “disguising” yourself within your work. Maybe you’re afraid of revealing too much, or maybe you want your art to feel universal, to transcend your personal experience. However, as much as we might try to distance ourselves from our creations, the truth is unavoidable: the inner you is always there, regardless of what you do.

What’s Not in the Painting

The real challenge for artists isn’t that their inner self is embedded in their work; it’s the other stuff. The things that aren’t there. The emotions, experiences, and details that are left out of a painting are often the most telling parts of an artist's journey.

Why? Because art, at its core, is a reflection of choices—what to include, what to leave out, and what to emphasize. When you step back and assess your own work, you may find that what is conspicuously absent holds just as much meaning as what is present. Your inner self is speaking through both the image you created and the gaps between your brushstrokes. It’s an honest dialogue, even if it’s not one you intended to have.

The question isn't whether your inner self is in the painting, but how much of it you've allowed to show. Are you filtering it through too many layers of self-doubt or fear? Are you keeping it at arm’s length to make your art seem more polished or detached? These are the real questions that might give you more insight into the art—and the artist—you’re becoming.

Trusting the Process

The beauty of art lies in its transparency. The more you engage with the process of creating, the more your inner world will naturally manifest on the canvas, without you having to force it. This doesn’t mean that every work will be an exact emotional transcript of your inner life, but it does mean that your unique perspective will shine through. It’s almost like an inevitable truth: the deeper you go, the more yourself you’ll become in the process, even when you don’t try.

There’s an authenticity in simply trusting that whatever you do will be a reflection of your inner self. Your creativity is like a lens—distorting, refracting, and reshaping everything you perceive, and inevitably casting that vision into the world.

Burden of Self-Awareness

One of the key struggles many artists face is the burden of self-awareness. When you’re too conscious of your inner workings, you risk stifling your creativity in an attempt to control what you reveal. It’s as if you’re constantly trying to present a polished version of yourself in your work, to the point that you may forget to embrace the raw, unpolished side of creativity—the messy, emotional outpouring that often holds the most depth.

The more you try to not reveal something about yourself, the more that thing will come through in your work. It’s paradoxical but true: art thrives when you allow yourself to let go and let your subconscious take the lead.

Art as a Mirror

The act of painting—or any form of art—is a kind of self-portrait, whether or not you’ve painted yourself into the picture. You might not always recognize the reflection at first, but your thoughts, feelings, and experiences are woven into every mark you make. It’s not something to fear or control, but something to embrace.

By accepting that your inner self is always present, whether you’re aware of it or not, you can start to remove the pressure of “producing” something that is completely divorced from who you are. Every painting, sketch, or piece of art is a conversation with yourself—a way of exploring and expressing what you might not yet fully understand.

And so, the next time you find yourself fretting over whether your work says too much about you, remember this: it doesn’t matter. It’s not something you need to hide, and it’s certainly not something you need to overthink. The real task is to let go of the other distractions, the superficial layers, and simply create. The inner you will always be there. It’s the rest that’s the challenge.