My line of art is photography. I am in no way a professional but I really enjoy it. Overall though I appreciate all arts. I appreciate artists that make custom jewelry that sells on the street to the greats like Leonardo da Vinci.
I think that everyone one has the potential for being creative and being artistic. Even if it’s only a stick figure or sticking your right foot in and shaking it all about. You have to use your wonderful human brain (Right/Left brain and synapses) to do those things.
I have been going to Color Me Mine a lot lately. Even painting a cup the same colour 1 is relaxing. Overall they make it so easy to be creative. They can print stickers, help with techniques and have so many ceramics to choose from. Now I am not going about advertising for Color Me Mine. I am just using it as an example of where you can start and it’s where I go. There are many great other type studios to go to.
My latest project from Color Me Mine was a piggy bank. I was inspired by a poster of a plate that had a neat design on it. Now this comes to my next item of discussion. Art and innovation is influenced by something. Okay that may fluff some feathers with some but let me explain. We all have to get inspiration from somewhere. Whether it is the sunrise, a bird, fluff from those fluff producing trees, or a person. Some may call it copying, others musing, and others inspiration. Whatever the case, it’s good. It is a good thing to get inspiration, even copy an idea.
Now my next story. I saw a mug2 at a commercial store that I really liked. But since I am an impulse buyer, at the time I was trying to fight that impulse and I didn’t buy it. Now this mug was very unique. The handle was horizontal instead of vertical. Having the handle horizontal allows you to hold the cup more like a bowl in your hands. It’s very comfortable. So this mug was on my mind for a few weeks. I went back to the store and they had sold out. I looked at other places and couldn’t find it. Well I let looking for it go, but that mug was stuck on my mind. Over 2 years I looked for it online and kept an eye out in stores. Finally I gave up looking. I decided to go to a pottery place and get one custom made. It was the best idea I had in a while. I found one that was a small town local place. I really liked doing this because I helped support the local economy and non-big box commercial stores. 3
Now someone may think, well you stole someone else’s ideas. It could be looked like that. And as an artist I wouldn’t want someone to shoot a photo that was exactly like mine to make a big buck. I am against plagiarism. But what if the intentions are different. Let’s put some feelings and emotion into this. What if it is something that inspires them to make themselves better? What if the person credits where they got their influence? Does that change your outlook?
Now before continuing on, I am not trying to cause an argument on creativity and stealing ideas. I want people from this posting to be inspired and try something new. And sometimes to try something new you need to copy. It’s like when you are in art class they ask you to paint fruit that is in front of you. It’s a starting point. Plus some of those things you “copy” makes you think outside the box. Like my amazing mug.
Now to continue on my amazing mug. Because it was sort of different idea, the pottery place that made my mug wanted to make sure it was what I wanted. So the artist decided to try a copy of different models. She did a horizontal handle, but also a handle at 90 degrees. I absolutely loved it. So I bought it. Now wasn’t that creative? See how influence and our amazing brains work?
Side Bar: Now to give credit where credit is due: These 2 mugs are my favourite mugs I own. My mugs are from Of Kings and Cabbages in Canmore, Alberta. Click Here to check out their website.
We live in a very busy world. But does that give us an excuse not to let the creative juices flow? Can we give some time to let our imaginations work. People buy games on their phone, computer, game system to help work the brain. How about going back to the basics? Someone once told me:
Everything you need to learn, you learned in Kindergarten.
You can take that saying in a lot of ways, but in this case how about your imagination on creating.
So – What are you influences? Why do you getting the writing bug? Colouring caterpillar? Designing dragonfly?
Whatever the case, keep on trucking. Go have fun. Act like that 5 year old with paint on their hands.
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1 You may notice that I used 2 different ways to say “Colour”. I use Canadian spelling, so you will see that throughout my blogs sometimes. The company I go for painting though is an American company hence the different spelling of colour.
2 I found the mug at Starbucks.
3 I am in no way judging on using big box stores. I use them too. I have to, with my financial circumstances. But if I can, I try and do local to the best of my ability.