Heartsong Studio

“How do you find inspiration ?”

Whether you have gone through a prolonged dry spell, or else have been churning out your art non-stop, there comes a time in most artists’ working lives when they need fresh inspiration.

Some artists seem to be able to work in one small subject area forever. Others explore a single area for awhile and then move on, while a few keep switching horses with every new work they start.

Running out of ideas can result from not enough work to keep the pump primed, but it can also result from squandering too much subject matter in every work.

Writing an article every week about making art is a lot like making art on a regular schedule. At first, I included too many topics in each article. Suddenly panicking at the next week coming up so quickly, I started to fine-slice my topics. Not only did they go further, but they were much more effective, as reported by you, my readers.

But the surprising thing about writing an article a week, is that rather than running out of topics, the inspirations come more readily. The same thing happens with making art. To keep on with your work is to be supplied with the next topic.

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How can that happen ?

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After every piece of art I’ve ever made is finished, there is some unresolved feature in it presenting itself. Sometimes it’s hidden. Especially when I’m awfully pleased with the results. But even then, there is one passage perhaps, which seems a bit more puzzling.

This unresolved passage or puzzling area, is my next job. My new work is to be found in the one just finished.

Whenever I know there’s a break coming up, I try to time things so that I start a new piece to leave for myself to go on with after the break. This is a simple way of easing myself back into working, not having to face a blank canvas after a break in time.

Very occasionally, a time may come, when you feel a completely new direction calling to you. There can be a space of time between works, that feels more or less desperate. It can be scary to experience having no work in progress, when your new direction is not yet clear.

Think of when one year ends and another begins. At midnight on any 31st of December, is there even a split second before the 1st of January ?  Time is seamless, even during the creative process.  Waiting for your birthday can seem endless when you’re 7, but way too quick when you’re 70.

Last New Year’s day, I saw a namked tree in the rain.  Every branch was strung with a row of raindrops, like a string of diamonds or pearls.  I wanted to say: “What a miracle !” , yet it was clearly quite an everyday sight.  The only miracle was my finally noticing it.

How many other countless sights of inspiration do I pass by unperceived every day ?

One year to the next, life to death, one moment to the next, are all actually seamless.  Yet these strings of crystal raindrops, protoplasmic drops of life, looked light seams between beginnings and endings.

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Had I found my new inspiration, or had it found me ?

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Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote:

“Happiness  is like a butterfly, the more you chase it, the more it will elude you; but if you turn your attention to other things, it comes and softly sits on your shoulder.”

Why not borrow from Hawthorne ? Switch the word “inspiration” for “happiness”.

“Inspiration is like a butterfly. . .”

Holding an open heart ready to receive, you can turn your attention to getting your work space ready, clearing up from the last work, or you could go out into the world with your open heart.

The moment that you’re really ready, the butterfly of your next inspiration will come softly and sit on your shoulder.
This is a promise.

^{Celeste Varley
Heartsong Studio
http://www.heartsongstudio.com}