How to Find Inspiration for Your Creative Life
Hey Creative Heart!
If you’ve ever sat down and wondered, “What the heck am I going to paint?”
Or, “I’d love to make something and be creative but I don’t know what to do,” watch this week’s video (or read the transcript below!) because I’ve got some really juicy tips for you on how to find inspiration in your creative life.
Video Transcript: How to Find Inspiration for Your Creative Life
I’ve been a practicing artist and consistently producing work for the last 16 years and in that time, I’ve picked up quite a few tips and tricks about how to stay inspired and how to keep that inspiration flowing in my creative life.
Today, I want to share five of those with you.
#1. Focus on What Has Heart and Meaning for You
The first tip may seem kind of obvious but in fact, it’s a really, really easy one to be caught up with. Make sure you focus on making work or making something, whatever it is, whether it’s a sculpture or a painting, that’s about something you’re interested in.
You’re not trying to impress your mother, or your partner, or your teacher, you’re actually just making it for you.
This is a really important point.
When I got into university, I noticed this interesting thing happened. I’d been painting for a while at tafe and then I came into uni, and because I was surrounded by artists I admired and people I felt were above me, I started to slip into wanting to please them.
There was a part of me that started to think, “I wonder what I need to do to impress them.” I’m pretty sure this is a fairly common human trait most of us share, but it was only going to lead to becoming disillusioned with my own art practice.
Thankfully, I pulled myself out of that fairly quickly…
And instead remembered to focus on those things I’m interested in and forgot about trying to impress other people.
That’s tip number one: make sure that you focus on things that are important to you and that you’re passionate about. In fact, you don’t even have to be passionate about them, but simply interested in that idea or subject.
#2. Investigate What YOU Really Love, are Interested in & Moved By
Once you’ve made that mental shift to make sure that you’re focusing on what has heart and meaning for you, then investigate and get to know what those things are.
It’s a lifelong process really. And it’s something that changes. It can evolve over time, but some great questions to start with are to look back on your childhood and think about things that you loved to do.
What sort of activities lit you up as a child?
Because it’s quite possible and likely that there’ll be elements or themes from those activities that still light you up now as an adult.
You can ask yourself, “What did I do on the weekends? What did I wait to get home from school to get involved with?”
For me, it was playing in the river that we lived on. It was being outdoors and playing with the sand crabs. Making sure I was outside most of the time. Nature was a big part of my creative life as a kid.
Next, you might like to move forward into your adult years and look back and think, “What books have I loved? What movies have I loved? Where do I love to go? Who inspires me and what is it about them that I admire?”
Make a list of those things. You might start to see themes emerging from those lists of people, places, and things.
You might notice you love comics, you love people who make you laugh, or you love Calvin and Hobbs, (I personally love Calvin and Hobbs).
These are interesting little pieces of information that can feed into your own creative life and making sure to fill up your own well of inspiration.
#3. Fill Your Own Well of Inspiration
Tip number three, actually comes from Julia Cameron’s book ‘The Artist’s Way’ where she talks about filling your own well.
As creatives, we’re fishing into our well of inspiration and trying to catch images, or colors, or some form of inspiration to be able to move on with in a project.
The thing is, is you can’t be fishing into a pond that’s got no fish in it. You can’t be in a pond that’s empty.
She talks about this need to fill your own well.
So once you know the things you love, make sure you give them to yourself.
Be generous with yourself.
If you love being outside, make sure you get outside and you go for a hike or a walk regularly.
If you love comics, make sure you get down to your comedy club and listen to some comedians, or watch them on Netflix if you can. (You don’t even have to leave the house if you’re an introvert).
Then really tune into being generous with yourself with those things you find interesting and light you up.
#4. Have creative containers.
Creative containers are ways to collate all of that information and inspiration you’re getting while you’re filling your own well. They can usually take the form of physical containers.
It might be a sketchbook where you keep clippings, notes and a little journal of color swatches. Things that really light you up.
It might actually be as Twyla Tharp, a choreographer from New York, talks about.
She uses boxes, so when she’s trying to come up with a new theme for a dance, she’ll keep a box with documentaries and books that are inspiring her in the direction of the choreographed dance she’s producing.
I’ve got a box with dried gumnuts from Andrew’s and my wedding. Objects I’m not going to fit into a folder, I put in an inspiration box.
You could use a basket and make it fun and beautiful as well.
Another way to form a creative container is to set up a Pinterest account.
You might love pinning beautiful images off the web and have different boards for different themes you can refer back to.
There’s also a free software I like to use sometimes to make collages, it’s called Picasa. It’s made by Google and you can make some really great collages very easily and for free.
#5. Follow your curiosities
Finally, tip number five is follow your curiosities.
What was interesting to you one day, may evolve into something else completely. Or it may be layered on top of the other information you already have.
We need to stay fresh and vibrant in our creative lives by…giving ourselves permission to follow our curiosities!
For me at the moment, I have this interest in pilgrims and pilgrimages. I’ve allowed myself to investigate further by buying books about different pilgrims on that subject so I can learn a little bit more about it from history and how people are using pilgrimage in their modern day lives.
I don’t know how it’s going to show up in my life. It might be for the business, or it could be for my painting practice, or it could be a combination of both, but certainly allowing myself to follow my curiosities has allowed me to stay inspired.
If you do the same and follow your curiosities, you’ll find it sparks ideas and you’ll never run out of ideas you can draw from to find inspiration in your creative life.
So those are my five tips!
I hope you’ve found them useful. If you’ve enjoyed this article and video, please feel free to share it with your friends.
Get Started with Painting & Creativity
And if you’d love some tips on how to get started with painting & creativity, I’ve made a free ecourse for you to do just that.
Get it here: www.nicolanewman.com/flourishwithpainting
I encourage you to nurture your creativity & be gentle with yourself.
Wishing you a fantastic, creative week,
With love,
Nicola xx
Did you miss last week’s post? Check it out here: Spontaneous Road Trip Adventures 2016 – Part 2
PS. Would you love to join me for a day of painting?
We have just a couple of spots left in the Intuitive Painting Workshop next month.
Click here for all the Intuitive Painting Workshop details.
I’d love to paint with you! xx