Inspiration

Your muse can be a funny, fickle thing.

She flits around from moment to moment, she is elusive, fleeting and rarely comes right when you need her. Many an artist have cursed inspiration.

Many write about how to power through the times (years even) when she is absent.

When I think of how inspiration hits..for me it's often like this..



If you remember the movie correctly, Greg Kinnear's character had gone through some pretty rough stuff. In a perfect world, life is easy and inspiration readily flows..as we have all noticed this is hardly a perfect world. I think this scene truly portrays how inspiration strikes..it's not like he was looking all over for it..he was not even thinking about creating at that moment..then it just happened..it was time to work..it was a force..and it could not be stopped.

I think finding inspiration in the hardship that is life is where beautiful art can be created. Beauty in the conflict, beauty in the raw, beauty in the mundane.

At times, we as artist's try to force..stage it. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that, but when you think about art that speaks the most to you (I mean really think about it) most of the time it is not the forced or staged piece. The picture that you love of your children the most is normally one that you snapped in bad light, slighty fuzzy and just might not have great composition..but it is raw and honest.

Finding the balance between working only on inspiration vs. forcing beauty is a tricky little spot. I wish I was better at working in forced situations. I'm just not. I think it is my free spirited tendencies..I love the idea of wistful beauty and constant inspiration..that is sooo not my life!!

Take this post for instance..really I should blog about our vacation..I should post lots of {forced} family pictures..but instead I'm choosing to be wistful..it really is a bit of a problem..shame on me.

Stay tuned for the vacation post..it's coming..really I promise..but for now here is the wistful post..and some wistful pictures to accompany it.


I'm not sure why I love this image so..but I do, it's a little "depression era-esque" if you ask me.


My muse often lays in abandoned buildings in rolling meadows.