The Blog Carnival….a group of jewelers get together via the web, once a month, to post on a topic that has to do with jewelry. It’s a fun way to hear different opinions from wonderful artists. Hope you’ll visit their sites and read their great blogs. Please post a comment or two. It’s always great to know who is reading and your shared thoughts.
Topic: Inspiration – From Design to Finished Piece
I feel inspiration comes from a collection of experiences, exposures to ideas, and anything that stretches your mind. I try to expose myself to as much learning and sharing as possible. I do encourage myself to partake and give an idea or expression another chance. Even if I don’t find myself in agreement with a certain political view, or enjoy that form of art, or don’t appreciate that music it’s good to keep an open mind. To experience it and to really live outside the box. To listen to others, to view different styles, to try new materials. I take from it nuggets of wisdom, shared ideas, and it opens my mind. It percolates and developes into fantastic ideas. I have tons.
I am always encouraging my students to take workshops even in techniques they are not interested in. I always learn some great thing that adds to my work, inspires me or motivates me in a new direction. Not to mention meeting others that add to the fabric of my creativity and joy.
I am drawn to the juxtaposition of new and old, rustic and polished, zealot and the apathetic, beauty and the beast. I try to incorporate this into my work. I love materials and tools and am always trying to think “what can I do with this.” How can I put this into my work. I must try…I must try…it all. I have time. This decade of my life is for joyful exploration and expansion.
I love asian history, work ethic, spirtuality, and art. I keep coming back to this as inspiration even when I try not to include it. I recently was blown away by the Asian Art Museum in San Franscisco. Unfortunately we arrived far too late in the day on our last day there to see it properly. However, I spent quality time in the Samurai exhibit which was fantastic!
We also visited San Fran Museum of Modern Art to see Georgia O’Keefe and Ansel Adams exhibit along with Richard Avedon’s stellar photography exhibit. I appreciate immensely photography and painting but it doesn’t do for me what sculpture does. Wearable sculpture…jewelry…that’s rocks my house. However, from these exhibits I found a new love of colors, a deep appreciation for the story that Avedon’s pictures told in an artistic way that only few can do. All of it moved me and will effect my work in some way.
Inspiration is all about what moves you, whether good or bad, ugly or pretty, conservative or liberal, fun or sad. It’s all good. It’s about feeling and incorporating that into your fabric. Keep an open mind. Commit to a workshop a month, or a new technique a month, to forming a mastermind group of individuals that represent different views but have a common thread of art, to read a new book, to watch a video from something that you wouldn’t normally watch, to listen to music you think you dislike, to talk to another with a different view and find appreciation, to try a new material. It’s all really good inspiration.
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Very inspiring to enjoy every day, every second like it is your first and last. To enjoy every aspect of your surroundings. Thank you,
Bronwen Heilman