What inspires me?

What inspires me?

To be quite honest, that is not a simple straight forward question.  It would be easier to answer the question, what doesn’t inspire me, but even that question is still a tricky one.  However, I will do my best to explain where my creative ideas come from. 

I am a hoarder of the worst kind when it comes to information.  I find all manner of sounds, colors, textures, smells, images; snippets of conversation and daily motions keep those wheels in my head turning, some time so much so I find it difficult to sleep at night.  If I have had a particularly wonderful day I find my brain on over drive with all sorts of creative ideas.  The happier I am, the more I am inspired by just about anything and the more creative I seem to be.  I hoard information like a lot of women do shoes they may never wear.  They see the potential in those killer three inch black and gold heels like I see the potential in all of that information for creative thought, for simple inspiration.

I let my inspiration build into an idea and fully form being birthed to the forefront of my mind as a clear concept before I bother to run it around and mess with it.  I do not force my ideas to completion, since really none of them are ever complete and often are evolving into other ideas transformed by whatever may have inspired me at that given moment.

Inspiration can and should come from everywhere.  I keep myself open to as much as possible.  I have tried to keep a journal of ideas but found that actually limited me.  I would jot down whatever inspired idea or thought I had and found that later I would go back to where I had written it to discover that for me writing it down was paramount to killing it.  It never evolved or went beyond that written page and I would struggle to capture the essence of that original idea again.  I think the trick is to find what works and doesn’t work for us each when searching for inspiration and developing ideas to create something from.  I think for some, being open to ideas, is the hardest part. 

Sometimes doodling is a great form of concrete brainstorming when trying to find that one idea, image, concept, or phrase that inspires us to create and others it is the process of creating something that inspires that next great idea.   Sometimes it is both the brainstorming process and the creative constructive one that helps. 

Brainstorming or as I like to think of it, storming my brain is my favorite approach.  I let my thoughts wander from one solid concept to where ever they will and have found that the best time for this is while I am riding in the car with my family.  Some of my best ideas have come from this approach. 

I’ve been collecting all of this information my entire life, so, why not put it to good use.  My inspiration comes from all that wonderful miscellaneous information when storming my brain, the actual process of creating something, and simply letting myself be.  I can’t rightly say what inspires me but how I leave myself open to be inspired as we all should.  I’ve learned a lot about myself and things around me by just being open; allowing myself to learn, create and be inspired is inspiration all its own.