Just the other day someone asked me, “where do you get your inspiration?” I started to think about it and all the things I had already written in this blog came to mind. One main thing still stands– I give myself permission to use all the pictures that are in my memory. Lately my thoughts have been on women. With the new “Me Too Movement” and “Times Up Movement” upon us- I have been even more aware of the need to uplift women.
So I look at all kinds of still pictures of women. I watch women doing all kinds of things. I watch women when they are doing nothing at all. I watch women taking care of the kids, riding the bus, driving the car, cooking the food. I watch them wear black hair- red hair- gold hair- gray hair. I watch them work. I watch them take a quick break. I watch them laugh, I watch them cry, I watch them walk, I watch them stand in flat shoes-in high heels- open toed shoes- open heeled shoes- tennis shoes or slippers. I watch them sitting and waiting. I watch women touch their cheek when they are surprised or cover their mouths for a big full laugh. I watch women slip in and out of a coat, a sweater, a shawl or jacket. I watch them rejoice and lament.
Most of all I watch women step in a big mess and then work their way through it all. Sometimes they step out of it so gracefully that you didn’t even realize that there was a mess. I am watching for the Good (God) in them. When I see it, I catalog that in my memory. I go to my little work station and try to emulate what I have seen. I try to show that sparkle in the eyes or that flash of light from the grin or the softness in her curves. I try to show hardness made gentle and vice versa.
“Where do you find your images?” I see images everywhere. I love looking at clouds and trying to figure out if it is the shape of something I recognize. I guess I started with this game of “find an image in the clouds” when I was a very young girl. On any lazy day in the country, my sister and I laid in the grass and watched the clouds change shape. The thrill of it all was to finally see an elephant or a man riding a horse or a baby girl sitting on the edge of the cloud.
Sometimes I see that flash of goodness in an instant and then it fades away. I rewind that image in my mind so I can show that flash of goodness that may have been buried by the years of torment and pain, of hard work and struggle, of giving and then giving some more, of being short changed, of being cheated, of being ripped off, of being abused, of being swindled and of being imposed on.
That flash shows up while standing waist high in a field of cotton and still able to look up and see the glory of the sunset. I know it sounds like a bunch of looking and watching but it’s true. And the good news is that I see the goodness (Godness) everywhere. That is where I get my inspiration and images from.
I, too, see inspiration everywhere! Love your work!