Being Inspired

I have people email me all the time asking how do you stay inspired? How do you know what to paint? Etc...etc.... Well honestly I find inspiration in lots of places. I love Pinterest, instagram, looking out the windows on trips, books, and other artists work. It's kinda like a giant viewfinder wheel in my brain. At.All.Times. It gets annoying honestly because sometimes the ideas come so furiously I can't get them out. But you know what? Really what doesn't allow them out is ME. I am my own biggest road block to my creative process.

I'm reading this awesome book called time to make by Ginger Hendrix. I am so not gonna spoil it for you. Because you have to go out and by it. (run) And highlight and sticky note and read it twice. And help her become really famous for telling us all what we all need to hear. I can summarize for you this though: she says you need to get off your butt and make stuff. Stop making excuses. Some stuff may turn out like a pile a crap or it may be the next big thing. It may be sell worthy, it may not. You may think oh my gosh I am going to sell these like crazy and they end up in your basement the next 20 years and people will be going through it at your estate sale and yelling whoop whoop I found a crafter. The point is, making is important to YOUR life. (If you are reading this anyways. I always just assume everyone likes to make stuff. Your stuff doesn't have to be paintings. It could be photos, or cupcakes, or bread, or decorating, just stuff.)

Being inspired honestly takes very little effort. The trick is allowing the inspiration in. So many of us put up walls of "I can't do that" that you've started believing you can't. And so the inspiration gets shot down before it has a chance to even surface. I say put on your glasses, pour a glass of whatever you need to get the juices flowing and start something. Then hey....let me know whatcha made okay? Because I love being a part of your story too. Being here makes you part of mine. Right?



oh and PS.....if your making includes baking cookies they are my favorite food group in the pyramid. If you need my address let me know. wink...wink...

To Inspire

I found this tee at a local gift shop yesterday and just HAD to have it. OMG is that a great definition of inspire or what? So I am about to post how to do my texture paintings to hopefully inspire some of you out there to try something new.

Another Note to Self

This has been a weekend of magazines for me. I stopped at the local big box bookstore Friday night to enjoy coffee and glances through all the latest design magazines when I hit the jackpot on the latest art magazines! I found Somerset's Artful Blogging (which I just posted about), Cloth * Paper Scissors Nov/Dec issue and Cloth * Paper Scissors Studios issue. Yes, jackpot! Earlier in the week I'd found Somerset Studio's Where Women Create as well. So here's my brief re-cap of these amazing publications. I could move in and live with Sally Jean. Her studio space just speaks to me...it says come create with me in here! They had several other big name artists all whom I enjoyed seeing in their work spaces. Their space tells alot about them to me. In Cloth * Paper Scissors Studios I found creative spaces of crafters who are more at my level of fame and fortune. In fact I love what June Daley had to say about her space. June had admired the spaces of many before started her new room. After she finished her creative space, she stepped back and realized that she had gotten caught up in too much of what others had and not enough about what she needed and wanted for herself. She did a little changing up and voila! a fabulous space you can see in the magazine. I love seeing what others have, especially how they organize, but I love my space. Here I am with Mailey and lap dog Lily. It's about 10"x10" and ALL windows.

Actually right now it's a bit messy with piles of things to do. Seeing this makes me realize maybe it's time to clean-up a bit! I also found some great new ideas in the regular publications of projects for my students. I love that artists are so willing to share not only their artwork, but their techniques in those publications. What a wonderful source of inspiration! I'm off to clean up my space now! Have a nice evening!