“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” - Pablo Picasso

All big dreams start from a thought. All of your past work and future work has and will begin with inspirational thought. Many of those ideas have been tried and done many times before, but never in your way, through your eye, your lens. That’s what’s so beautiful about honing in on your craft and your story as a creative. Have you been to a photography workshop before or a styled shoot, and some people can capture the same scene, but the photos feel and are wildly different? Everyone sees things differently in their own literal and figurative light.

The more I’m on social media, the more I realize the power of NOT being on the app. The power of NOT scrolling. The importance of living in a creative bubble is to find authentic inspiration that wasn’t derived from what someone else is doing. It brings you back to yourself and what brings you joy. It gives you space to remember what lights your creative fire without literally numbing your brain with a furry of images to process. When you’re constantly bombarded with the next trend, what’s happening on your IG Discover page, as much as we think we are “connecting,” I think we are slowly disconnecting from what we enjoy creating or our craft. Inspiration is so much more than what we put on a Pinterest Board or the saved tabs in our IG account. Life is happening all around us, even down to the tiniest little caterpillar crawling up the flower on my table right now. I do use both platforms, but I don’t derive all my inspiration simply from what I digitally stumble upon. Yet, at the same time, I’ve discovered many wonderful creatives, artists, florists, you name it, that I find so inspiring and simply beautiful to look at. But it’s a fine balance between filling my head with what I see online versus what is actually inspiring to me in my actual reality.

Inspiration is everywhere - we just have to start creating from within to light the spark. It could be in a movie you watched, a book you’re reading, a lyric of a song, an artist, or a specific painting. What inspires you may be completely dull to someone else, but who cares? I was recently inspired by some still-life paintings by Cézanne. I had this jolt in bed to order a still life book of the masters. The bowl of lemons on my table reminded me of his work, or maybe it was the other way around. Maybe I put the lemons into that bowl because, subconsciously, that painting came to mind? The mind is so beautiful, dizzyingly amazing, isn’t it? Inspiration can be found in the little things…how the light hits your desk in the afternoon or how that painting reminds you of your childhood picnics on the beach in Maine. I think it takes quiet and an allowing energy to let the inspiration roll in like waves, washing up an idea ever so slowly until it firmly rests upon the shore for you to do what you creatively will. If not that one, then another will roll right in; maybe it will dramatically crash onto the shore with gusto, or perhaps it will slowly lap away, like a crisp lake, until you hold it in your creative heart and soul.

So when we start feeling uninspired, rather than turning to social media for a hit of inspiration, why don’t we turn back to ourselves?

What do you like?

What makes you, you?

What art inspires you?

What photographer inspires you?

What’s your favorite film and why?

Is there a book you’ve read lately that struck a chord with you?

When we start working from within, organic inspiration will flow naturally…

I know this is a ramble, but I think we so often overlook what actually is right in front of us, in nature, in our home…anywhere but social media.

These are just a few things that have inspired me lately…

I recently finished this enlightening book, Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert, and it completely changed my thoughts on creativity. It was an easy read but thought-provoking and eye-opening. I think you’ll really enjoy it.