Inspiration and Creativity

I want to start off by saying that anyone can be creative! In my experiences the source of creativity is INSPIRATION! The term “There is nothing new under the sun” is a term that many artist want to deny but it is something that cannot be ignored. When it comes to inspiration, it is a living and moving thing. It is fluid, and rapidly changes over time. One second at the park may be the source of inspiration for you, while the next is just a bombardment of useless images that we happen to overlook everyday in this society of advertisement. But if we are not being mindful of it we occasionally miss out on it.

When it comes to creativity there are hundreds of ways to explain it. But nothing has opened up my eyes about my own process until I took the time to dissect my entire creative process. In a nut shell I put together a small saying that helps me understand what creativity and inspiration is.
“Creativity is the ability to capitalize off of inspiration! And Inspiration is the acknowledgment of life and re-purposing it for your own cause.” What it basically means is the more you allow yourself to experience what is around you, and let everything that is on the outside influence you on the inside that is when you become inspired, which in turn benefits you creatively.

Example. Creativity and art is like cooking or a Chemistry project. You have many ingredients, which is your tidbits of inspiration and you have the catalyst. The catalyst if many remember high school chemistry is an substance or object that speeds up a process and uses its relationship with the other ingredients to make a chemical reaction. Inkvasion latest work of art Action Packed is approximately 20 years in the making. It is a collection of inspirational tidbits(ingredients) that I have collected over my short time living, and been blended together to make probably my favorite personal piece to date. When I look at the image, my experiences and memories start to manifest and I see the movie Commando with Arnold Schwarzenegger, I see a shot of Fast and Furious, (which by the way I hated), Jurassic Park, Pearl harbor, E.T. Street Fighter Video Games, Jaws, Matrix, and the catalyst that brought all the ideas together to create this piece “Scott Pilgrim Vs The World” ( http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/universal/scottpilgrimvstheworld/). Upon seeing the current Trailer I was immediately inspired to make this piece and about 8 hours later it was complete. I am sure that though I listed a few things that inspired me to create this piece, I am sure that there are many that I omitted due to them being deeply embedded in my sub-conscious. But nonetheless they were pieces of inspiration that helped me complete the final work of art.

Creativity is also about solving problems. I occasionally find myself up at the late hours of the night sitting at a sketchpad or computer trying to solve the problem. And that problem is how do I make this art not look ugly! There are many things to factor such as space, time, color, type, etc… but the ultimate goal in the end is to not make my brain want to vomit looking at the art that I created. Its all about finding a balance, and striking an emotion that you want to surface when the work of art is seen.

So get to analyzing your surroundings, and start creating that mental reservoir of inspiration. So that when its time to create you have something that you can pull from and start creating awesome art.