As textile artists we are always looking for, and sometimes struggling for, inspiration for the next piece of work. The truth is that inspiration can come from absolutely everywhere. Some of us holiday in far flung places and see sights and experiences which inspire and influence us, others of us do not travel so far from home but take pleasure and ideas from our back gardens, the seaside down the road, the local park, the natural colours of landscape and dyes.
I have come to understand that even the most ordinary everyday things can bring us pleasure and ideas; the view from my window, seen day after day, is filled with shape, colour and texture. In summer and autumn the leaves and berries on the tree, in winter the stark shapes of the branches and the green ivy. Across the road are the orange angular lines of the house opposite and the contrast with the white and cream paintwork against a clear blue or a stormy wintry sky.
I walk the dog everyday. Oh Rufus must we go out today? Woof yes. But what do I find – more inspiration, shapes colours, even sounds.
Listening to music I love, sitting in my chair in the evening, creates pictures in my mind ”…well I dreamed I saw the silver spaceships flying in the yellow haze of the sun…”, reading a good book or a poem “…full of berries and of reddest stolen cherries…”, even watching the television – David Attenborough’s Paradise Birds – are rich sources of ideas and imaginings.
So if you are looking for ideas think far and wide but also spare a thought for the everyday and ordinary, there’s something inspiring lurking there.
sue