Welcome to week 3 of Creative Summer 2020. It’s an exciting time for creativity.
If you haven’t yet decided on projects and practice, that’s fine. We still have many weeks left to decide what we want to do and get organized. I’m still trying to form up habits and practices.
These are difficult times for many of us. The pandemic, the protests, and the uncertainty about the future. They trouble us all deeply. It’s also an opportunity to express yourself and to find creative solutions to old problems.
So this week, our focus is on finding inspiration.
What does inspiration mean for you?
I like to think of it as the energy that makes me overcome an inclination not to do anything, to just let things be, or to continue on auto-pilot doing the same over and over.
Without it, little happens. Life just moves in its comfortable groove and the problems stay where they are.
Little movement or progress happens here.
We need something to drive us out of our grooves and habits.
We need a spark, a flash, a bit of new energy to change something.
It often comes in the form of an idea. From someone else, from nature, from our surroundings. It can be heard, seen, or felt. An old memory can trigger the inspiration, a review of old projects, and looking at the works of others.
Whatever it is to you, you know you need it to get yourself going again.
Creative Summer is the perfect time to find your inspiration sources and amplify them.
The change in weather and our activity patterns is the perfect opportunity to trigger new thinking. It’s wonderful to shed the old coats and boots, open the windows, and stay out late enjoying sunsets. Or you can walk in summer meadows, watch the birds build their nests, or hear the waves lapping at the shore.
These can all be paths to new thinking and sources of inspiration.
For me, the summer light always makes me want to grab a camera and capture the new buds, the evening light on fresh green leaves, and to make new stories. It’s a delightful time of year.
How can summer give you fresh inspiration?
One of the secrets is in observing. As the weather shifts, so does life on earth. It’s the perfect time to make new observations.
These observations can be the raw material for new creations. With them, you can tell the story of what you see and experience. They are an expression of you.
Where to start?
Right where you are.
Don’t wait for inspiration to drop down on you. That is too slow. Go out and grab it. Look and notice, feel and experience something new this summer.
Let it be the raw material of your art and your self-expression.
Make this summer your most creative yet with Creative Summer 2020. Join in the creativity mastermind newsletter and keep up with the fun!
