I believe Art is the language of the soul. I was never good with words growing up, but I would always use art to express myself....it's the primitive gift in a child that I have never lost.
I think people have a tendency to follow another more inspiring figure, and "inspiration" is quite subjective. I often find myself being inspired by someone's way of working, way of life and way of belief instead of one's creations or accomplishments. I appreciate all forms of art whether it's realism, hyper-realism, renaissance, impressionism, abstract, mannerism, expressionism, contemporary, modernism....etc. I don't believe in limiting myself to one style of art, which in a way could be my own bias.
Some people see one style as sacred and another as an abomination. But there's a story behind the creation of every particular style of art; I often wondered if a "master" living in renaissance time would just be doing modernism if given all we have in the modern world and vice versa.
I remembered the observation after having my own child. My toddler communicated his feelings and views first with drawings before he learned to communicate verbally. It was quite an enlightenment to realize art comes much like a birthright to a human being. At the same time, it was a sad realization for me how little value we put on it. This primitive gift was mostly enjoyed at a kid's age, and then it was quickly replaced by other more productive and measurable skills.
To me art can't be judged, and it has to be more than beautifying an object, proving a way of craftsmanship, or mastering an old technique. It has to serve as a means of communication; it might be a thought that can't be adequately stated with words, a feeling that can't be described with languages, or a story that can't be narrated by sentences.
When you see a child's drawing, you might see a circle for the face of a person and sticks for the limbs, because those are the easiest shapes his/her eyes could associate with the human anatomy. But the shoes or a bow he/she drew might be more realistic because there wasn't a simple shape that resembles the object. There are all styles mixed in a child's art, because art is the means for conveying the message, the feelings, and the thought.
There's no particular style in my art, in fact I would pretty much like to learn every style and use whatever is effective in a project. My practice in art is the meditation of how to preserve that most primitive gift.