The Mysterious Ways of Inspiration
This is the artwork-in-progress I left on my design wall almost three weeks ago. The white dots are pin heads, not design features.
I left it at this stage because I was stuck. It was so different from the other Boundary Waters series pieces; where did it intend to go? I was thinking rock and rock textures, but really didn’t have a specific scene in mind.
Then we camped next to this cliff
and I took MANY photos. I am very interested in this texture, this line, this colorway.
Did the cliff interest me because of what was already percolating or did the artwork I had started cause me to notice this particular cliff at this particular time? The ways of artistic inspiration continue to amaze me.
ADDITION: This is Susan Kennedy’s Sabinal Sunrise from the comment below. Thanks to her sister, Karen Krull Robart, for sending the photo.
Tomme – I’m not sure how big it will end up. It’s probably around 36 x 24 in its work-in-progress state, but is sure to end up not quite that big. I’ll keep you posted! V.
How big is this piece? When will it be finished? I want it! (The experimentation piece is way cool, too.)
Susan – Amazing! I am a firm believer in serendipity (and sometimes synchronicity). In any case, inspiration definitely finds us if we are open to it.
Thanks for sharing, V.
I had a similar experience, Virginia. I bought some fabric 6 or 7 years ago,and after washing it I dropped it all on the floor. What I saw was a scene like a swamp with the sun shining through the trees. I left the fabric pinned together and after another year in Texas, we moved to Alaska for 3 years. When we moved back to Texas, I unpacked my fabric and found those pieces still pinned together. One day I saw a photo in the newspaper of a river here in Texas that looked exactly like the scene I had layed out! I pinned it on my design board, played around with it, and decided it looked best as originally layed out. The only thing that changed was the name- I named it Sabinal Sunrise, after the river west of San Antonio.