It all started with reading yet another post about another artist being inspired by nature. {{{Groan}}}}

I know that there are a lot of artist whose work are truly inspired by the great outdoors . God’s country.  Mother Nature. But, I also know that this is the acceptable, go to answer for so many creatives. One artist had even gone as far to ask,

“But how then do you explain the intricacies of inspiration when someone asks?”

As if creative inspiration is far too complex to explain, so why not give the same dumbed down answer. Fiberista, rather than dumb it down for you, I am going to explain the intricacies of my inspiration in left brain terms.

The back story: I spent 20 years as an art director in the meat grinder that is the advertising industry. I had to come up with cutting edge, original, but not too out there, ingenious visuals for projects on the fly under deadline and at a moments notice. In other words, no time to go outside and look at daisies. But, really, would looking at daisies really help me generate that brilliant visual that will please the client/boss/customer and sell that commercial real estate/telecommunications testing facility/breakfast sausage? Design is insanely competitive. Designers find “inspirations” in others work all the time.

But If I am copying another designers ideas as a work around rather than using my creative know how, then am I actually signing up to never rise to the top of the industry?

For 8 years I freelanced with all the major ad agencies and in house departments in Birmingham. My schedule was quite full. Most of what I was called to do was join the creative team in the 11th hour of a big presentation, to add some extra energy to the team.

We would pull 3 solid days of late nights, meet the deadline…. and here is the important part…I would go home, take 3 days off and do what I needed to do to revitalize myself.

I had several job offers from my clients and I would systematically turn them down. I knew what made me a good designer was being able to do what I needed to perform for them, and that unfortunately did not jive with a typical work week.

The more you feed your brain with all the lovely things and experiences,
the more information will be at out fingertips when we sit down to make art.

 

There are no set rules to feeding your head with all the creative ammunition you desire. Here are a few things that I do.

What kept me inspired and full of energy was to stop trying to be inspired.

Yep, stop slamming my head against the wall. Fill my life with beauty, get clear on what I love in every day life, and surround myself with more of that.

For those years freelancing, I spent much of that time, just living my life.

Hanging out with friends, having parties and making insanely lavish invitations for them. Spend a lot of time volunteering at the botanical gardens not to be inspired by nature, but to be around the gardens that I loved and watch the tensions melt away. I went to the beach. I went to lunch. I went to art openings. I took art classes in metal, and raku, and mosaics. I made jewelry. I dyed fabric. And I learned to knit. All things that surrounded me with love, beauty and art. And I took care of myself so I was mentally able to pull from all of that everyday life and put it into my creative work.

Hear is what I know: yes inspiration is intricate.

It lies within the subconscious and dances with the right brain when we sit down to play with our chosen medium. Operative word here is play. I have seen many an artist pick up an image of a beautiful colorful scene and stylistically mimic what they see. Yes this will create a piece of art engineered by your left brain.

But, what if you reached into your subconscious and really let your inner artist play and communicate?

Put the image away, and just start putting paint to paper? Everyday we are struck by beauty, ugly, quirky, mundane things that catches our eyes. Those images squirrel away in our subconscious, are judged in a nano second about how we feel towards these random things.