Trust

As artists it is easy to take detours down the roads of self-doubt and lack of self confidence. It is too easy to compare ourselves with other artists, both living and dead, and also compare our performance with that of yesterday, last week, month or year.

When we step out of the present, we step out of clarity in the moment, and into confusing back roads. When we worry too much about the outcomes of our efforts we sabotage our success in the moment.

That is why trust is so important. As we travel down our creative paths, it is important to trust in the moment. Like hiking, if we just put one foot in front of the other, take each step at a time, we will eventually reach our destination.

This digital collage is a reminder to trust in the moment, and trust in the abundance of the universe. There are enough ideas for everybody; we do not need to be competitive with ourselves, or anybody else. Inspiration, and success is all around us if we just have trust and faith. Trust in the flow of life, and life will reward us with a never-ending supply of all the creativity and inspiration that we need. Just trust. Create. And enjoy.

Ten Things That Nourish My Creativity

I have been thinking a lot about inspiration this week and came up with this fun list.

There are many things that help nourish my creativity; here are just some of them in no particular order. What inspires you?

*My non-rational mind

That part of me that's prone to daydreams, flights of fancy, and yes, fears and forebodings. Even my sleeping mind nourishes me with dreams that fuel my creativity.

*Materials

Paints, acrylic, oils, watercolours, inks, pencils, mediums, brushes, canvases, beautiful paper, charcoals, pastels, oil pastels, fabric, beads, found objects, you name it, even other people's 'junk' has been known to be hoarded by me to re-cycle into art. Nothing is more inspiring to me than having good materials to work with.

*Life's Little Treats

Chocolate and a cuppa, what's not to like?

*Nature

Sunsets, beaches, trees, plants, flowers, bird song, cicadas, butterflies, frogs, possums, mountains, rocks, rivers....Ah, what a splendid world we live in.

*Other artists

From the Renaissance to the contemporary, with everything in between. Nothing gets me more inspired than looking at great art, and hearing other artists discuss their work. (As for my favourites, well, that's another 'Ten Things' list)

*The unseen world of spirit

Meditation, intuition, synchronicity, illumination, epiphany, I am open to divine guidance wherever I can get it. To quote Leonardo Da Vinci 'Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art'. Couldn't agree more.

*Food

A full tummy and that warm, fuzzy feeling you get when you share your food.

*Good books

I am curious about so many things and a good book can really fire up my imagination and leave impressions in my mind that can linger for years, even decades.

*Leaving it be

Sometimes the best way to fire up my creative enthusiasm is to do something totally different like go for a walk, mooch at the cafe, or, one of my favourites, go to the markets.

*Create, create, create

'The appetite grows by eating' (Francois Rabelais). Or, the more I create, the more I want to create.

Calling my muse

I've been a little blocked this week and decided that rather than wait for inspiration to hit, I would have to do something to help encourage it. I have been really enjoying discovering the world of artists blogs, something quite new to me, particularly the artists that encourage challenges and the use of prompts, such as the Creative Every Day, Arty Girlz Challenge and Awfully Big Art Adventure blogs, so I decided to break out of my routine and utilize some of these methods.

My goal was to set myself a challenge that would help get me out of a mini 'rut' and break away from my usual routine so I wrote a bunch of words on slips of paper, and drew some out randomly. The words I got were 'pink', 'inspiration', 'white' and 'quote'. I loved the synchronicity of drawing the word inspiration, as it's something I have been wrestling with this week.

I did a little research and found this quote by artist Albert Ryder (1847-1917)

'An inspiration is no more than a seed that must be planted and nourished'.

This really resonated with me.

I really wanted the piece to reflect the inspiration I have received from looking at the work of other artists, especially the scrapbookers, mixed media and collage artists, which is why I chose the approach I did. It helped me deviate from my routine big time!

Lately I have been looking for ways to incorporate re-cycling into my art, and use up all the bits and pieces that tend to accumulate over time (I hate to throw anything away 'just in case' it could end up in an artwork one day), and this seemed a perfect opportunity to rummage through my stash.


Symbolism has always interested me, and the way things can have many meanings and associations depending on the viewer. For instance the flower made from beads represents several things to me; mandalas and how much they inspire me, the five senses and how we interpret and appreciate the world around us through our senses, love and romance and the feeling of being 'in love' with the world, and the beads also remind me of the lovely friend who gifted them to me and who also inspires me.

I chose the cloudy background because inspiration is often a gift of grace, I love the way that ideas seem to just fall out of the sky sometimes!

I also set myself a time limit, I wanted this work to be finished in one afternoon, as my tendency is to keep going and going on a piece until oftentimes it ends up being abandoned, or taking so long that it loses its feshness.

I am not one hundred per cent happy to call this work a finished piece, and am resisting the urge to have another session with it. But there are some things I really like about it and it really did the trick of getting the creative juices flowing again and was a very valuable and worthwhile exercise to do. I would highly recommend breaking out of routine and giving yourself a creative shake-up once in a while. I am raring to get back into the studio and go on with my ongoing projects now. And I owe a big thank you to all the inspiring, creative and talented bloggers out there. Thank you.