Where To Find Inspiration?

With the final end of year exams approaching like a hare in a race, I feel more and more overwhelmed and at times it’s hard for me to find ideas for new posts, but thankfully, I have my ways.

Any type of artists, whether be a writer, a painter, a photographer or even a blogger, has had to face this handicap at one point in their path: block. Writer’s block, painter’s block… The lack of inspiration.

I’ve been talking about this in some previous posts, but they were especially directed to NaNoWriMo participants or writers only, if I remember well, thus I talked about taking a break from the story, setting goals everyday, and participating in challenges like NaNoWriMo to stimulate the desire for writing.

Today I’m going to focus on art in general and I’ll show you my tips to find inspiration again.

Firstly there are prompts.

What are prompts? They are words, themes, images… which will help to wake the dormant inspiring self inside each of us. For example, for this blog I use the Weekly Photo Challenge, hosted by TheDailyPost and Picture it & Write hosted by Ermilia. I’ve even heard about the Weekly Writing Challenge, but well my blog posts can’t all rely on prompts, you know, I have to write some posts coming from my, and mine only, mind and my own sources of inspiration.

Prompts are just made to guide you.

But then what happens when I want to write/paint/shoot on a idea of my own? How to make an idea appear in thin air without the need of prompts?

Awaken your senses. 

See. Hear. Taste. Feel. Smell.

From day to night, be aware of everything around you, that is happening to you. You can be inspired explicitly by watching a TV show or reading or you can be inspired implicitly, subtly by the warm coffee in your hands in the morning, the bright blue sky, the apprehension/excitement building up inside as you head to work…

Sometimes the most creative artistic final product can come from the simplest of things. For example, the most awesome idea for a story that ever hit me had been inspired by an advertising I watched years ago from today. And I still find it to be the most awesome idea I ever got.

Music is a great source of inspiration too. And this I think works best of all kinds of art that exist. (well music can inspire music too, right? Right?)

Music is a terrible thing, don’t you think? It can control your feelings! By music we can lose control of our brush/pen/fingers… It helps us to blend with our inner deep ideas, with nature. And we find inspiration.

Now as I think of it…

We have to think to find inspiration. It’s all in the mind in the end. Everything that is outside: prompts, TV, music, etc has to go through our brain and we have to transform them into art. That’s how we get inspired.

And the final driving force of inspiration is in fact our feelings themselves!

I mean for something to trigger inspiration inside of us, we have to be touched by it. It has to trigger our feelings. Then only we will be able to write/paint/whatever.

For example, if we look at the blue sky and it looks just so banal to us, it won’t be thought as being inspiring. On the other hand, if we smell the perfume of crushed leaves on an autumn floor and feel like a sense of bliss of being connected with nature or whatever strong feelings this might trigger, then we are inspired. Because it has touched our very deep core. Then we might leave these feelings as such or go further and start drawing an autumnal landscape or writing a scene in fall weather… or play the harp, if you wish.

It is often said that artists are crazy and apart from the world. But I find that artists are the most human humans in this universe! Isn’t it human to feel, to be connected with everything around us? I guess the only difference is that artists aim to share their feelings to everyone out there, instead of keeping these stuffs to themselves.

So I think a great conclusion to this post can be:

LIVE to find inspiration. 

Be eager to embrace life and everything that this Earth is offering us. Inspiration is found everywhere. So wake up!

And do art!

 

An Evil Nymph.

 

PS: The photos in the post come from my Instagram pics. If you wish to follow me, here’s my username: anevilnymph