one thing that fascinates me is where people get their inspiration from. i have to confess a lot of my inspiration comes from playing and experimenting or pieces i see somewhere and i think “i could do that but what if i tweaked it here or did this to it, i wonder what that would look like?” and then the creative urge takes over and before you know it the everyday world is forgotten and i am lost in the world of my own creating. of course my works rarely end up as i see them in my mind, somewhere along the way something happens that leads me off on a discovery trail and before you know it i am a thousand miles away from where i started in my mind.
i suspect a lot of other artists and writers are like me too. it doesn’t help that my strongest strength according to tom raths “strengthsfinder” is adaptability. maybe because of that i am doomed to forever wander the trails of “what if” and “oh let’s try”. i find that while adaptability is my greatest strength it can also be a great weakness as many half finished projects can attest to; but that is my inspirational trail as i have walked it. luckily the results are usually something pleasing at least to me and most things do get finished. i have got better at that over the years.
this post started when i was browsing www.thisiscolossal.com and came across some exquisite paintings by a taipei-based painter Peihang Huang. Huang uses oils to create dreamy barbie doll inspired paintings. it’s amazing what sparks our creativity – i know for me barbie dolls only inspire the idea of “barbieques” (maybe because of the word play there) not beautiful paintings – i have truly wondred what they would look like half melted and what shapes they would take on! a lamp made of half melted barbies and other toys is still somewhere in my future.
it seems for Huang too that idea of barbie dolls dying isnpired some of the works in the two series i saw – floral funeral and mad world. you’d think that the idea of death would spark something dark and morbid yet her works are full of vibrant life and beauty. you can see more of her work on Flickr.
check out these other sites too that have barbie as their inspiration becauseimaddicted.net/2012/01/barbie-tributes-to-famous-works-of-art.html www.whatthecool.com/post/3485347496/fine-art-barbie/ www.alteredbarbie.com/artwork/exhibition
inspiration strikes us all in different ways and we wander those inspiration trails in our minds usually for a while before our thoughts coalesce and become reality. how different each mind works as it takes the inspiration and begins the creative process. for me that is one of the things i love most about mankind – their creativity that is so varied and vast. i never get tired of marvelling over peoples creativity.
mycreativefire 