When I was on Spring Break in Southern California, I found creative inspiration everywhere. Now that I am home and have caught up with my "after" trip stuff, I am walking around with not an ounce of creative energy in sight. I know our artistic impulses are like the tides, they ebb and flow. I was having a hard time staying in the moment in CA because I wanted to return home to my studio to "make stuff". Inspiration was jumping out of every nook and cranny. The ideas were coming at me so swiftly, I carried a notebook to record them before they slipped away. I have read and heard of this phenomenon, but had never experienced it to this extent before. And now that I am home, nothing seems to want to be made! I have dithered away an entire afternoon and it is time to start chauffeuring. I am sure a creative impulse will be right around the corner. I hope I can talk it into hanging around until I am back in my studio again.
P.S. I made this collage BEFORE all of my CA inspiration. And just to let you know, I dd NOT receive any down loads while chauffeuring. I guess I will sit quietly and wait.
Kathleen, you might like "Flow" by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. He's a psychology scholar, but he writes a lay text about looking inward to master our creative energy for "optimal experience." We've all experienced "flow," and Csikszentmihalyi tells us how to create the conditions that promote flow. I really enjoyed the book.
Posted by: Mayberry Magpie | April 03, 2009 at 08:57 PM
Make your hands move over a blank sheet and that elusive muse will come back, she told me she would! Oh, all while you're being quiet and waiting of course! Sometimes I think making art is like juggling, meditation in motion.
Posted by: Shirley Ende-Saxe | April 04, 2009 at 07:38 AM
just keep showing up in the studio space and just tidy things up make some papers and just be, it will all come to play. easy does it, does do it...!
Posted by: laura | April 04, 2009 at 07:55 AM
Hi Kathleen,
I know just what you mean about inspiration. It seems to ''strike" me just before I'm going out of town or we're having company or something. Not to worry though. It will come back - especially if you've written it down.
Posted by: Jane | April 04, 2009 at 03:25 PM
Wow, Kathleen, this would look great on my newly decorated blog!!!
Posted by: Marilyn | April 06, 2009 at 05:51 PM
God I've been there!! Everytime I leave the house...go out and about...whether to Valley Ridge or just on an adventure around town, then I come home and bam, nothing. Thinking maybe I should move.
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