Branding

Let's get straight to the point. I think too much!
But in some ways this is good. I have a thesis show coming up this Spring and part of that is having a unified body of work. This is also important, if say, I wanted to apply for grad school, or was submitting a proposal for an exhibition.
I also read a number of art magazines, art quilt magazines, and articles by fellow crafter/artists who sell their work and they all push this idea of "branding". The main article that pops to mind shows a quilt artist who uses the repitition of small squares in EVERY SINGLE QUILT she makes! Other's always use the same combination of colors, or the same theme.
I, on the other hand, am all over the place. Chickens, flowers, rattlesnakes, anxiety, mushrooms-who knows what I'm going to address in my work. Light, dark, bright, monochromatic, it depends on the subject matter. So here I am banging my head against the wall just sure that I am a complete failure since I can't even limit myself to one media let alone one particular color scheme or repeating shape!
How will I ever decide what my show is about? On my project wall I have everything from dolls about Mother Nature, to a traditional log cabin quilt, to a nightmarish piece about sea creatures and now I can't get the image of tightrope walking over razor blades out of my head!
Leave it to my husband to sense that I need to talk. So there I sit eating my egg and ham breakfast when he says, "So how's your art stuff going? Having any inspiration?" and out poors this confession that I'll never succeed because I can't master what I've been told by an art quilt magazine. More was said but in a nutshell his response was "Please, don't become a conformist". This man is a genius! His simple phrase brings back a wave of other things I know to be true. To quote Barbara Sher in Live the Life you Love, "You can and must go after your dreams with your individuality turned up all the way or you'll wind up with somebody else's life!"
So I start thinking outside of the box. What things do I LOVE to put into my work? Layers (whether literal or implied). Silk organza. Complementary Colors. Assymetrical compositions. And most often something that is not as it first appears. Duh. I knew all this about myself all ready! I let a darn magazine psych me out. So, I got out some paper and made a list. I'm putting it up on my wall so I don't have to go thru this again.
For those of you that know me in person you know that I have a tattoo on my right upper arm that looks somewhat like a bastardized ankh/infinity/cross. If you ask me on a bad day what it means I'll tell you its how I sign my art. On a good day I'll tell you that it means We Will Be Reminded Until We No Longer Forget. This is one of those moments people. So when all else fails, write it down.