Can You Soulprint?

As I blogged about before, I love electronic music, although my all-consuming-passion for electronic music is a bit diminished now as compared to how I felt in that blog post. Now I’m heavily interested in Indie rock and rock offshoots. Ahh, such is the life of a passion pluralite.

BUT! Even if I’m not in heavy-discovery-of-electronic-music mode, MitiS is still one of my favorite producers. I linked to his tune Please Go in the other blog post. A few days ago, he posted something on his Facebook page that got the gears spinning in my brain. And I posted about it on my own Facebook page.

At the time he posted this, I was also writing the second About The Art post about Mend, my artwork depicting a teapot. That post is less about the process I went through in drawing Mend, and more about the fact that I love tea. But it all fits, you know? I mean…

I create Soulprints.

Art doesn’t come from nowhere. It comes from a place within you, a place you might not even know exists. People say things like, “I love tea,” but they don’t realize that just saying that out loud is a bigger expression than the words can imply. Everyday words can be woefully inadequate at allowing us to express ourselves. And a lot of the time, we need the ability to produce something about what we love to really, truly express it. Some people write or dance. Some people act. Some people create music, like MitiS. Some people draw pictures, like me. It’s all creative expression. And there’s value in the expression, no matter how skilled or unskilled we are at the techniques.

Can You Soulprint?

People have asked me if they can create a Soulprint. Almost like they’re asking my permission to be influenced by my style. While I can understand the need for asking in this world of copyright infringement fears, the question confuses me a little bit. Of COURSE other people can draw Soulprints! I didn’t patent the STYLE. As long as you aren’t directly copying, it doesn’t matter if you’re influenced by the style. Just like there isn’t only one watercolor painter in the world, there isn’t only one person who draws with thin black lines of ink. I mean, even just plug Zentangles into Google Images and you find LOTS of people using a style similar to mine. The difference is that mine are all entirely drawn on the spot, instead of taking preset patterns and putting them together as is done with Zentangles.

I coined the term Soulprint because the first one I created, Cosmic Sundae, was made of thin lines of black ink on white paper and looked reminiscent of a fingerprint. While I’ve incorporated color and my style’s evolved a bit, it hasn’t lost that original fingerprint look.

Yes You Can!

All good art comes from a place within the artist’s soul, so we could say that ALL art is a Soulprint. It’s true in a sense, but I think for something to be a Soulprint, it should have a general fingerprint feel to it. Otherwise, it isn’t a SoulPRINT. But I don’t think it has to be exactly in ink, and it doesn’t have to be exactly how I draw them. But it most definitely has to come from some place within your soul. If you can create from within yourself, you can definitely make a Soulprint.

So, if you’ve ever wanted to create a Soulprint, just go give it a shot! Get some paper and a pen and just draw from the heart, from the soul. And if you wish to tag me on Twitter or on Facebook or just email me what you come up with, I’d LOVE to see it. {: