My weekend was fun (for the most part), but it definately got me to the point where I am ready for this exercise. If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know that I am a big fan of Alisa Burke. I have only taken one of her online classes, and I had a ton of fun doing it. I noticed in her list of classes, there is one free one called Finding Your Muse. To me, this sounded like a great blogging opportunity.
Normally for a Firestarter Friday, I talk at length about one topic or another. This time, I want to try something different. This class centers on finding what inspires you and how to make those sparks work to their best potential. Since this class has already been written, and I don’t want to rip her off, you can read about it here and start playing along here (if you want).
For my part, I will be spending the next few weeks working through all the steps and sharing my progress with you. So you know what is going on, I will link back to her site. For this week, I covered the welcome and introduction. There were no exercises yet, but I did make a few notes about what I have noticed as far as my own creative process goes.
Alisa talks about how she finds inspiration in that natural world, and that is something I can identify with. I love drawing, photographing and painting grasses, trees, water and flowers. I also find I really like looking at animals and textiles for ideas pertaining to patterns and color combinations.
I had to think a bit harder, but I realized there are other places I love to look for ideas as well. Architecture and jewelry are both a wonderful place to look for unique shapes and textures. The way light plays off all the different materials is endlessly interesting. Literature and music, despite lacking a natural visual element, always seem to help as well. When I hear some sounds, I picture so many different things. Colors, images, entire paintings. More often than not, I fail to get these ideas on to paper. Then they are promptly lost. Maybe tapping part of tapping into these ideas and containing them will be part of getting over the block I have been feeling.
So as I move into this week, I will start on the next exercise. Then Friday, the sharing! As I move through the week, I will try to remember one excerpt from the introduction: “Mining our emotions, our experiences and our daily lives for inspiration is what gives our creativity its flavor”.
daydreamhouse 