A New Way To Find Inspiration

There are some days and weeks when I feel as if my level of inspiration is running on a residual fuel of empty. Not because I am not finding it and seeing it, but more-so because I am completely spent on another project of some sort. So much of any creative work requires the mind to be at ease and removed from common stressors. And even though I do well under pressure, it’s hard to actually move forward with something fresh, new, and collaborative when all that I truly need to do is front and center on the ever-expanding plate.

I’ve been creating these boards on my saved folder on Instagram, since the addition was introduced. The folder is an artful combination of things I love and that draw me in. It’s like Pinterest, but less crap. You’re allowed to be selective and private, and there is something a bit sacred about it, if you ask me. It takes me back to collaging days, the glue under your nails, leaflets flying about, digging through dyed pages, searching the local art store for an obnoxious neon stock as background, the stench on your finger-tips, the creating and manifesting rubbing together as you stick on one last cut-out. All that. It isn’t nearly as dirty. And I still prefer my collaging nights – with wine – whenever I can take them. In a more immediate sense, instead of scrolling mindlessly into the feeds of others and falsity of squares, I am choosing to see color, and the fruition of beautiful creations from my peers. And momentarily, placing a halt on the feeling of fumes swirl about me and inspiration. I’m not only drunk off my own ideas, I find the time to actually pursue them.

Do you have any inspiration tricks of your own?