The Flash of Inspiration

We gain inspiration from all around us. You can never be sure when something simple will push you towards a new creative idea. 

This morning I saw these two small glass bottles at an estate sale. They were only a dollar each, but the moment I saw them a whole set of ideas followed. 

I envisioned doing a body painting session for the Abstraction of Humanity series based on Alice in Wonderland, called "Alive in Wonderland". Immediately my mind began to calculate how I would pull it off. What did I already have in inventory to create the proper 3D canvas for the piece? What kind of a model should I use? What kind of graffiti should be on the canvas background to match the theme? All this in the blink of an eye when I saw the bottles. I of course purchased them and brought them back to the studio.

Ideas for me come in flashes. In the last session, the model said something in their first interview. They simply said they loved angels. The moment this was said, my mind raced and a whole concept emerged that was centered around angel iconography.

Every artist conceives their ideas in different ways, but its those flashes of inspiration that are so important to what we do. For me, the ideas that come in a flash are always more successful than the ones that come from a lot of deep thinking. I get bogged down when I spend too much time conceiving of an idea, rather than running with the flash. The ideas are always deeper, more interesting and far more bizarre than the ones which I try to lay out methodically.

Don't misunderstand, there is always planning and logistics to any good piece of art. But we can get trapped in too much planning. We must always be diligent for that flash and we need to teach ourselves to grab onto it quickly and ride them out to their end. If we don't, we may be loosing the best ideas. 

Now will "Alive in Wonderland" come together? Its hard to tell yet. But you better believe the idea is now ruminating within my brain and those two tiny bottles will serve to remind me to keep thinking about it.