talking about inspiration

This post should have been yesterday's night post, but I
didn't manage to finish it. A short roundup of yesterday..
I manage to ride my bike to the places I had to as I
planned - yay! Then I wanted to pick up my son from
school to go to the doctor with him, but we missed each
other, since he forgot it. I ran and ran not to let him
waiting for too long in front of the door. Gosh, my thighs
were hurting afterwards! Sadly I didn't manage to fulfill
my other goal to clean a spot :( I was so tired, I didn't
even had the energy to wash the dishes or to put the
washed dishes in the cupboard. Chaos ruled again in my
kitchen.



I made this picture to show Inger, that if I say chaos, it is
for real (and this is nothing in compare to e.g. my kitchen
table ;)). I only don't really want you to see it ;) But anyway,
this chaos has served me well. You'll see why ;)

Yesterday morning I found a message from Leina, that I
won an award. That reminds me, that I also got another
award from Alecia just after I posted about the last award
thing and still haven't said a peep about it. Thank you, girls!
I always feel honored, if I'm awarded, but I also feel the
pressure at the same time ;) I know, some of you feel the
same. So, I won't pass the pressure to others this time. I
hope you understand... Thought, I heard some sighs of
relief? Instead I would encourage you all to talk about
inspiration (as requested by Leina's award) either in your
own blog (don't forget to let me know, once you did! I'm
curious, you know ^_^) or by commenting here.

I'm about to observe everything and anything of my life
in my journey. So, would you join me this time to get a
better understanding of how inspiration and creativity
work for me?

Every single thing, that I've seen, heard, feel, smelt, tasted
and experienced is memorized in my brain. While smells
and tastes (and a hungry stomach) inspire me mostly to
be a creative cook, all other things are my inspiration
materials for other things. Nature, landscape, music, film,
silence, art and craft, light, shadow, dirt on the wall, water
splashes while taking a shower, technique, waiting people,
voices of people, people and the way they simply are,... just
to mention a few. All those inspirations have to mature first.
It happens subconsciously. My brain and senses do it without
my command.

Oh, let me tell you a funny story in between. My family and
I were once on the airport for a reason, that I don't remember
anymore. We were walking and chatting, as a group of persons
went by. One of them was talking in a strong Javanese dialect.
From one sentence to the next, I suddenly spoke in his dialect,
as if somebody else were talking through me!! I was so amazed
and a little bit embarrassed afterwards *lol*

Back to my journey.. To get me creative I need the right
impulse though. Often it is my feeling and mood. Different
than Leina, I can't create, when I'm in a bad mood or scared
or worried. Good and sad mood do the magic, as well as
colors, textures, patterns or shape of something. So, if I
want to make something, I either first need the right mood.
Or I take the material I want to use and look at it, feel it,...
Slowly the impulse comes up and also some tiny details of
the other memories come up like puzzle pieces of ideas and
my brain starts to match them around and build something
new. Sometimes the more ideas I implement, the more are
coming (I then get the problem, where to start and where
to stop - which is worth another observation for sure).

After the first photo above, I enjoyed some experiments.
Just for fun (BTW.. the inspiration of taking the out of focus
photo came from Heather's photo, as she was tagged on
Flickr). I sorted them. At the first sight, they were only
something blur. Colors, which would better suit for autumn.
But then after starring at it for a while, my mind has create
an imagination out of it.




Another example...

I first saw the chin, then the nose. As I draw the nose and
mouth, I wasn't really pleased with the mouth. So, I made
another layer and took a second try. You won't believe me -
the 2nd mouth has exactly the same shape as the first try.
Hmm.. I starred at it again. Finally I realized, it was the
form of the lips, which a sister of an old friend of mine has.
I haven't met my friend for a long time - over 20 years. But
just a few days ago, I saw her name and her avatar as I was
browsing a friend's profile on Facebook.


Another chaotic corner in my kitchen ^_^

As for jewelry, beads and other objects it is a similar process.
An object like art (of the same or of a totally different category)
or architecture or a flower could also give me an impulse to
create. It could be the shape or the color(s) or the technique
or the functionality. So it's only a tiny detail of a thing, which
makes my brain immediately browsing my own needs, habits,
feelings and other inspiration materials to form a new thing,
which I can call my creation.

So, now it's your turn to tell me about your inspiration :)


'the head must bow before the heart'