WHAT INSPIRES ART?

Winter is here, and for those of us who don’t like cold weather, it’s a time to hibernate. Because I live in Texas, the number of really cold days I must endure is minimal. Still, it doesn’t take much to make me want to cozy up next to the woodstove with a good book. Or with an atlas, planning future camping trips.

But winter is the perfect time for me to create art. Most of the art shows I participate in are either in the fall or spring, and winter is the time to stockpile inventory for upcoming shows. Some of my favorite art shows require artists to submit applications months ahead, with photographs representing the work they would like to exhibit. I’m currently working on new designs and products and am having a blast!

One of the things I like most about my job is the design process. I guess it’s one of the reasons my earring designs have tended to be one-of-a-kind. I recently put together a reel for social media to try to explain, visually, how the nature I see on camping trips with my husband influences my work. But as much as I love to travel, I am also very much a homebody. I’m lucky to live on an acreage with an abundance of inspiration waiting right outside my door.

I’ve not always been able to immerse myself so much in the outdoors, though. When that was the case, I’d find myself noticing the dandelion poking through a crack in the sidewalk on my way to work, where I’d spend the next eight hours with no view of the outdoors. Or the gorgeous sunrise on my commute to work and the sunset on my way home. The vines that climbed up the sides of houses and crumbled stone walls. Nature has always influenced my art. But human coexistence with nature is also tantalizing. The color and texture variations in a piece of weathered, painted siding on a rundown house? There’s so much to pique the imagination. Yes, not just in the creation of visual arts, but in poetry, story, and song.

Then there are the raw materials that dictate, to some degree, what the artist can create. In my case, I like to use things people routinely discard. It gives me joy to give those materials new life, although it also pains me to know that those materials, especially the ones that can cause so much harm to our environment, seem to be so ubiquitous. I know that the small bits of post-consumer discards I use in my art do not reduce the volume of waste created by humans in any way that can be measured. But I do think that the art I create from these discards can help people become more mindful of the environment.

What influences your design process? Is it the raw materials? Nature? The clean, sleek lines of a multi-storied office building? The color and texture of a faded, rundown building? Life is an inspiration, and every artist sees life differently. It’s what puts the heart in art. Most of my life, I’ve created art, often just for myself or a few close friends or family members. In those cases, I create because of a specific need. It could be a pair of lightweight earrings or a small bag to hold those earrings. It could also be an emotion I need to process, usually with poetry, song, or story. But whenever I create, I am so focused on what I am making, the external world almost ceases to exist.

So, take some time to see what’s around you. Not only to smell the roses, but to notice the manure the roses may be growing in. And take all your experiences, good and bad, and create something just for you. Something to make sense of it all. Because art isn’t just about beauty, it’s about seeing what’s around you and processing it in a way that can help you, and maybe others, cope when the world has gone wild.