Have you ever done much work or given much thought to how you find inspiration for creating art? Be it photography, painting, music, dance…whatever creative endeavor you pursue, how is it you get inspired to create?
If you are in the creative game long enough, you have probably been through the peaks and valleys of creativity; times when you were very inspired and other times when you didn’t feel any drive towards creation. Oftentimes folks use the word “block”, as in “writers block” to represent those times when we are lacking vision, drive, inspiration or focus and feel that our work is no good. Other times, it feels like we have so many amazing creative ideas and all of our work feels like it represents who we are as artists, work that we’re proud of.
For “part time” creatives, those with other jobs or who don’t rely on creativity as their sole reason for being, these times of low inspiration can give them time to recharge their creative batteries and search for that “just right” vein of inspiration for their next creative foray. For those who are “full time” creatives, this dip in inspiration or focus can be a bit more troubling, as they feel the need to produce content, continually improve and seek that next great thing, stand out from the crowd….or even just be fulfilled by their art on a regular basis. Full time artists typically live their art 24/7 and it is an essential part of who they are, so when they are in a slump, it can affect all aspects of their lives.
To be honest, I think that right now I’m in one of these dips and I’ve been spending a lot of time examining why I’m here and strategizing ways that I can get myself out of it and find inspiration for creating art that is meaningful to me.
So, no matter if you are a part-time or full-time creative, how do you find inspiration to create art that is meaningful to you? Here are a few suggestions that I consider when I’m in the dip
Visit a beautiful location
Sometimes we can visit a beautiful location and we can find inspiration from the landscape, or weather, or the experience of being in the moment. We may arrive with no idea what we want to photograph, or just not “feeling” creative, but if we’re open to our surroundings, we can draw energy and inspiration from being in the moment and create some meaningful, connected work.
Learn Something New
Sometimes the act of learning something new unlocks different doors in my head and it begins the process of inspiration. A new piece of knowledge or a new skill may inspire me to run with that thread of knowledge and work to incorporate it somehow in my creative work. The “something” that you learn doesn’t have to be directly about your preferred medium…as a photographer I don’t have to learn some new processing technique (though it often helps my inspiration) or camera technique. What you learn could be completely unrelated, or merely tangental, to your medium. Dive in to learning about weather, the solar system, how the brain processes visual information, how successful people think, color science, geology of a particular region..and the list goes on and on. As you collect more information, you may find inspiration in a nugget of what you learn and that may inspire you to go create some art.
Watch Something Interesting
This is where I’ve found some inspiration and focus lately. It’s somewhat related to “learn something” but in my case, it’s about just absorbing what someone else is talking about and letting those thoughts and ideas percolate in my head until they solidify in to a creative direction. Watching something that you’re interested in stimulates your brain, activates the synapses, which is turn can energize some creative thinking leading to inspiration.
There are thousands of outlets for watching something interesting. From cable TV to YouTube, there is a lifetime of content to watch. All you have to do is find something that interests you and follow the thread. A small example, an artist friend sent me a video from Paul Klein who talks about how to succeed as an artist. From that video I found a link to a video from photographer named Dawood Bey who talks about art begins with an idea. He was speaking at a Tedx conference, so in YouTube, the software presented numerous other Ted talks. I ended up watching various Ted talks, ranging from brain scans to identify shifts during impactful events, to the wonders of the nervous system, to astrophysics…..basically all over the board and nothing directly related to my photography. It was a wonderful intellectual journey.
What did I learn from watching these different videos that had nothing to do with photography? Did I find inspiration for my own art? Well, yes and no. The reason I say “no” is that there was nothing I watched that was directly translatable to my photography. No “one to one” correlation with my art. I didn’t learn a new compositional technique, or have an inspiration for a new project, or learn a new processing technique. Many of the videos were so far removed from “art creation” that I couldn’t possibly find a way to directly translate the video info to my photography. That wasn’t the point and not why I went on this video journey.
As for the “yes”, what I did come away with was deeper and more meaningful in order to help me break through the malaise and find inspiration for my art. My key take aways were…
- I watched some highly inspired people speak passionately about a subject. Their inspiration and passion was palpable through the video and I found myself feeling their energy and commitment. I took in as much of their energy as I could as a way to recharge my own battery for creating meaningful art.
- I learned new facts and saw new ways to think about the world around me. Even though this isn’t directly relatable to my photography, I believe that somehow it will find its way in to shaping my vision of how I see the world which will translate in to my art. How we “see” the world is filtered by our life experience, our beliefs and our knowledge……whether we realize it or not. So my theory is that by expanding my own mental universe, I will approach the world around me with a larger perspective with which to create photographs.
Oftentimes inspiration comes to us in different ways. Many times its obvious how it comes, especially when we are at a beautiful location and feel that inspiration as a response to our environment. Sometimes its more subtle, like when we stumble on a theme or something intriguing to us and decide to pursue that as a creative track. And then there are deeper, more subtle, ways that inspiration finds its way in to our art. All of these examples (and more) are wonderful…whatever leads us to feel moved to create art is a good thing! I hope that as you mature in your art, you spend some time to think about and recognize the different ways that you get inspired to create so that if you are looking for inspiration, you can pull out your “inspiration toolbox” and work a technique that helps you find inspiration to create art.
Be well and thanks for reading! I’d be curious how you find inspiration, so please leave comments if you feel so inspired. 🙂
John — Very insightful and thoughtful. I agree with your comments about trying something new. Especially because I have so much to learn! Maybe one thought is just being kind to ourselves! I certainly remember the first image on this post. You did a wonderful job leading our tour during challenging weather conditions. Take care!
Thank you Jeff! I appreciate the kind words. Yea, we had some challenges, but we all put on our games faces and did a great job. You bring up a great point….being kind to ourselves. I couldn’t agree more. Besides not beating ourselves up, remember this, also gives us the freedom to “explore” without constraints of “I should be doing….” self talk of “its ok if I don’t create a meaningful image here, just relax and enjoy the surroundings”. Or, seeing bad results, not feeling negative but instead looking for some positive outcome from it…like what did you learn from the experience. Thank you for sharing that!