Inspiration isn’t always easy
Some days I wonder what inspiration truly is, what drives an artist to create, and keep creating. I think it’s not just about having that aha moment, but also about constant practice, learning, and pushing yourself even when you don’t feel inspired. By doing so you almost build a muscle memory for inspiration and creation. While I have had so much on my mind with the loss of a friend, and the plans to do more with creating a place to teach, create, and inspire. It has me thinking about that drive.
I decided I needed to spend some time in the studio just making work. Whether or not the work is something that is where my heart lays right now or I am just working on my skills. I knew I needed to just create. So I went to a local store and bought a large selection of flowers. Flowers are my practice, they always have been. While I know Neil always found inspiration in them, for me they seem to be the thing to photograph when I want to push myself to find my drive again. I will practice with different lenses or lighting, just to be working. So I spent five days, a few hours each day, just creating work.
This process is always a bit therapeutic for me. I might not create images that are as deep in meaning or my usual style, but I always leave more inspired after a series of sessions like this. And the past few days have been no different. I have an idea for a new body of work to start. For me this means starting a research process. I love my work to have layers of meaning, which means looking up possible symbolism and meaning that I can add. Did you know that there was a language of symbolic meaning for flowers? If you didn’t know that, look it up. They can mean so many things other than just having a beautiful fauna specimen in an image. I always wonder when looking at an old painting if the artist chose the flowers they used for the reality of the thing they were painting, the symbolic meanings, or both.