voice and cliche?

Although I do like to experiment at times (like most artists), I believe I do have a "voice" in terms of visual composition (like most artists)... and, of course, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, methinks. It is an interesting topic for discussion and it reminds me a lot of when I was younger (my college years, for example) and listening to lots of music. When a band like Santana or Yes or Led Zepplin would come out with a new album that was "different" than previous albums, I was not too happy. I wanted to hear "their sound" (their cliche sound). I was so "bad" back in those days, that I would not go see Yes, for example, because when they played certain songs in their live shows, they were not "note-on" compared to the studio version of the song. I wanted NO variation. As I make my journey through collage, I am struck by the tension between experimenting with new forms, perhaps, and creating works that seem to be "re-hashing" previous successes. When I came across this vintage image of Vesuvius and the ruins, I was drawn to it and absolutely knew I would be creating a piece with it.

I also knew that it had the potential to be reminiscent of my previous "Day of The Invasion" pieces. I was drawn to create a piece in that style partly because I enjoy doing it and partly because I knew it would look cool and people would likely respond positively to it. So instead of worrying about doing "something new" in terms of different style, I just indulged myself and enjoyed the evening. As my fellow collage artist and friend Kyle Riecker said about this piece on FB, "this is signature Steven Specht". I agree. But is it my "voice" or is it simple "cliche" Specht? I'm not too concerned about it, really. Maybe it's like Santana writing a new song in the style of Oye Como Va...