When inspiration is hitting you over the head with a mallet, it is hard to believe you were ever sitting at your desk staring at a blank piece of paper like it was the world's shittiest Sudoku puzzle. It seems obvious to me right now to just write every single number on the paper in whatever fashion I like, but I know it is not always that way.
In the spirit of inspiration, and also in the spirit of wanting to get back to getting actual work done, I thought I would start a series of blog posts for things that inspire me. Expect these to pop up from time to time.
Pictured is the interior of a small mill in my aunt's backyard, I spent many summers as an adolescent laying across that catwalk with my arms dangling to the lower area writing in my notebooks. The very first novel I ever started had chunks of it written there as did many of my short stories and poems all the way through high school.
Sometimes it feels like all you need to be inspired is to let the words come to you. To sit there and listen for them with nothing better to do. Little ambient noises in the background and familiar little smells. When I look at this picture I can still smell the giant container of goldfish food kept up there.
How are you going to think of anything neat if you never see anything? The brain doesn't magically materialize ideas, it chops apart the ideas you feed it and then reassembles them. I love museums for gathering new information. The words along with the things just delights me.
This picture is from the Museum of Osteology in Oklahoma City. I was absolutely struck by this skeleton that it was one hundred percent belonging to a mermaid. For a second I was going to say I wished we could move to Oklahoma just so I could sit in this museum and draw every skeleton in it with the flesh my imagination thinks it should have.
Seeing new things grow among the old, little trees sprouting up and establishing themselves in a several hundred year old lava flow, in the case of this image, or ivy claiming unloved buildings. Any case of plants creeping in inspires me. The juxtaposition of destruction and regrowth.
I am an avid recycler of ideas that do not quite work so I think of a lot of my writing and artwork like this. Old abandoned canvases or stories I ripped to shreds supplemented by new ideas. It is a sort of depth that makes things stronger and more interesting to me.
Really any sign I see can get me wondering "why did they decide they needed to put that up" or "what's the story behind that?"
This one in particular got me because who on earth decided that "do not touch plants" was a confusing enough a concept that they needed to illustrate it? Not to mention the double negative going on here with the red slashed circle underneath the DO NOT. If you see this sign, remember to Do Not Not Poke the Flowers. They're being coy, perhaps, flirting, "oh no don't poke meeee".
Shit this post is getting weird.
In all forms. I like hearing words. I like saying words. Sometimes I write random words down to keep or decide to use them in conversation just for fun. Sometimes I sit at my desk mumbling "schublade" under my breath.
I specifically like disjointed words. No context just the word.
I like seeing people who have single lone words tattooed on them. I like seeing signs that contain just one word. "Dip." "Bump." I like stickers that have seemingly inexplicable words on them. I'm a sucker for the mistranslated sayings that seem to come standard with kawaii stationery.
Don't even need to do anything with all the words. Sometimes just knowing they exist is enough.
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