Yesterday was one of those wonderful autumn days where the wind was blowing in a bit of a chill from the North and the sky was covered in a blanket of steely gray clouds. The kind of day where all you want to do is eat warm delicious food, slip on your warmest wool socks, and snuggle in with your favorite sweater and a sketchbook.
The process of collecting and storing ideas is ongoing for me. My sketchbook goes everywhere with me and I'm constantly describing colors, shapes, textures, and movement. As an artist, I see potential inspiration all around me, and I don't want to filter the thoughts, because you never know when an idea might be a perfect fit. Some of the ideas have been there for years, and what may not have turned out to be anything at the time, may inspire me to create something beautiful today.
I once described to a friend that in my head I see my ideas in a carousel of pictures (I'm not crazy, really!). Every time I come up with an idea, or usually on Friday nights when my friends say, "Oh, you could try this..." a new picture is put into the carousel and it just goes round and round, until I do something with it. I've found that keeping this journal of creative dreams helps me calm the constant need to produce and allows me to focus on what I truly love.
My guys are also budding artists so on crisp, rainy days like this, they love to join me on the bed to snuggle in with a stack of art supplies, a good book, and a cup of hot chicken noodle soup. I feel so fortunate to live in a creative home and to have my kids grow up around me feeling free to let their ideas soar.
How do you collect and store your inspiration?
