Finding Inspiration

What inspires you?  Where does inspiration come from?  What makes an artist start creating?  How do you find the spark?

Even in writing a blog post, one has to have an idea, an image, a thought that wants to be conveyed.  And every artist, including yours truly, sometimes stares at an empty screen or page or canvas and feels as if there is nothing.  The well is dry.  I'm blocked.

Sometimes it's because ideas feel too big to capture, and every attempt is just a frustrating exercise in inadequacy.  Sometimes it's because you feel as if you've said it all before.  Or someone else has, only better.  Sometimes it's because you just don't feel you have anything important enough to share.  Or you just feel blank and listless.

A little bit of all of that for me today.  I've been mulling over this idea of inspiration and how to find it.  So once again I picked up my new camera and started ambling around my home, looking for inspiration.  Here's what I found:


I found that sometimes you stop seeing beauty right in front of you because it's "ordinary" and always there and you've just stopped looking.

I found that how you focus changes how you see.  And that looking at the same thing in different ways lets you see beauty in different ways.

I found that the mistakes and flaws and the roughness are the most interesting part.



I found that looking at something from a new angle makes it fascinating.

I found sometimes you need to look more closely.

I found that prayer, reflection, and light always inspire.

I found that nature inspires us, even in it's barren winter state, even from a distance.



It occurs to me I could stand to apply these observations to my life as well.  Look at what's already there, and really see it.  Focus, on one thing at a time, but in different ways each time.  Adore the mistakes and roughness.  Look at the same thing from a new angle.  Look more closely than normal.  Pray, reflect, look to the light.  Allow nature to inspire, in every state of it's beauty.

So go find your inspiration today.  In your creativity and your life, look closely, see, focus, find the flaws, find the light and nature and beauty.  Be inspired.

And then please share it with us.