Inspiration and Planning

Where do you get your artistic inspiration?  Do you take a walk and look at the natural world around you?  Do you listen to music and see visions of pattern or color in the tones, or themes in the lyrics?  Do you envision scenes as you read a story, novel or poem?  Or is it a little bit of everything all wrapped up in one?  Although I use nature and the wonders of the world for my artwork, the actual imagery that I draw or enamel or create in other media is usually influenced by the written word.  When I read, whether it be a published novel, some Egyptian hieroglyphics, or a well-crafted fan-fic, I see the text acted out in my mind.  If the pictures thus generated develop great clarity, I can put those images down on paper, in paint, or in molten glass.  Good texts and imagery allow me to have a long mental list of projects, and that doesn't even count the occasional "brain storm" images that come out of left field and demand to be part of the group. 

Once you have an image, how do you decide the best method to bring the image to life?  My media is often dictated by time, material considerations, and the desire that I may have to work in one media or another.  I love to draw (thus my adoration for sketchbooks and pencils - once again thanks to my Beady Buddy for the B-day gift), I also love to paint (still working on skills with watercolors, though), and I can bead almost anything and be successful with it (40+ years of practice pays off).  But I love enamel and I can't wait for my latest beading project to end so that I can go back to my enamel work.  And I think that working with glass and metal is where I want to focus for a while.  Beading is a constant in my life, but the large projects with seed beads that I used to spend all of my free time with are not my focus any more.  Am I growing up?  Or maybe I'm indulging myself?  But I hope to hone new skills as I enter the last few decades of my life and I hope through practicing those new skills, I will have new happiness.  So I will continue to look at each sunrise and sunset with gratitude and a painter's eye, the branches of the trees with patterns speaking to me, and listening to the voice of the trees, birds and wind for their guidance.