In this feature, each month artists share one thing that excites them creatively.
One key piece to support healthy, productive creativity is stimulating inputs. What kinds of things stimulate the creative centers of the brain? What kind of inputs stimulate us visually? Emotionally? Spiritually? Mentally? Physically?
I’d really like to know, what’s one thing that fills your creative cup? Share with us in the comment section below.
What Inspires You?
Laureen Marchand
What inspires me?
Throughout my career as a painter, I have explored the relationship of the self to the spirit. Recently I’ve used images of dried roses to reflect on ideas related to beauty, loss, and the passage of time. There are some lines in a 1980s song by Leonard Cohen and Jennifer Warnes, Song of Bernadette, that I think capture the part of the human spirit that inspires me most:
We’ve been around, we fall, we fly
We mostly fall, we mostly run
And every now and then we try
To mend the damage that we’ve done
Loss, beauty, time, and in a very small way, transcendence. So human.
Laureen Marchand
Website:www.grasslandsgallery.com
What Inspires You?
Vas Littlecrow Wojtanowicz
Whenever I enter my studio, I am immediately drawn to the window. I never know what awaits there. Will it be a family of deer strolling through the pines as fresh winter snow blankets the landscape? Perhaps, a raccoon will stare at me with curiosity from behind the glass, wondering about my activities, as flowers bloom all around. The other day, I saw a tiny toad trying to take shelter from the rain.
My backyard is such a muse. I can’t get enough of its gifts. Thanks to the studio window, I am able to watch the most delightful and inspirational nature show to never be broadcast on television.My art is all the better for this amazing opportunity.
Vas Littlecrow
Website: http://vaslittlecrow.com/
Laureen’s words describing her work as connected to spirit touched my soul. Thank you for presenting her work and mindful journey with her painting for us to share on this day.
Kristin
You are so welcome. Your words make this endeavor seem worthwhile. Connecting other artist and sparking inspiration and renewal for each other feels right.
When I read the story of how Vas begins his day with the view through the window, ahh…it is precisely what I do when I begin to write each morning; open all curtains, all year long look out at the vegetation in my little yard and at the sky, the clouds the sunrise…and in the winter when the trees are but bare bones I watch the sunrise over the mountains to the east through those glorious black bones. Yes, for me too Vas, the outside always presents a topic and a picture for the art that comes to life each day for me.
Kristin
Kristin – Thanks for taking the time to share your experience and how it resonates with Vas’. Lovely to read!
Laureen, you very effectively capture the life cycle in your paintings! We all see beauty;we all suffer loss. Your paintings reflect the spirit of life = a gift!
Thank you to all of you, and Michele so much for putting my work here. I am grateful.
Laureen