Inspiration. Using Others’ Work to be Yourself?
December 17, 2007 — lori g.Bright color inspires me. One color gradating into another. Fantasy-like stuff. Complimentary secondary color combinations.
All of these are very interesting to me because I feel most comfortable working with earth tone and earthy forms. You would think that I’m inspired by nature. But I’m not.
Any idea what that’s about? Sometimes I wonder if my brain is backwards. No comments from the peanut gallery. If you know me you know that I have a backwards sense of direction. Exact backwards. If I walk out of someplace to go to my parked car I turn the opposite way. The exact opposite. So, reasoning would tell you that I know exactly where to go…the way opposite of where I want to go. Hm.
Anyway, here is a picture of some magazine clippings that are taped above my workspace:
While it doesn’t look anything like my work, or the colors I use, it surely represents my personality.
I have tried and tried to do work that generates the same feel of these images (and those of brightly colored silk paintings) and am always disappointed. Sometimes I wonder if I should just enjoy what I see here and keep going on with what I do (earth tones, pods, structured organics) or if this is something that I need to push through and conquer.
I think we all know the answer to that, right? Be myself. ::sigh::
Lori Greenberg blogs about beads and the business of beads from her studio in Cave Creek, Arizona. You can see more of her beads at her web site: www.lorigreenberg.com.
December 18, 2007 at 5:50 am
Hey, Lori - I’ve got that same directional problem. I’m classifying it as a learning disabililty: it’s called Directional Deficit Disorder. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I must say that having a little GPS with me on freelance jobs has helped a great deal.
My son and husband used to make fun of me when we were in the mall. Not in the parking lot, though, I couldn’t even get out of a store and turn correctly WITHIN the mall. They’d stand behind me and watch to see which way I’d turn. Poopheads!
I’ve also got a stack of little pics torn from catalogs for color inspiration - rarely inspired by nature. hmmmm. Maybe we were twins seperated at birth. hehe
December 18, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Lori, I gotta tell ya that I don’t think of organics when I picture your beads in my mind– I do think brights, and your magazine clippings seem to go with your style to me
When I think of your beads, I think of the face with all the bright colors that’s in your avatar now, and I think of pretty bubbles of pink in that other fav bead!
December 20, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Hey Ellen.
I have the same thing everywhere I go. Not just parking lots. It can be funny to watch me in a department store trying to decide which way to go to get into the mall.
Funny thing is, I start out in my direction with authority and people follow me…even if they know I’m wrong…until I say, “I don’t know where I’m going but you’re following me.”
Perhaps we are separated at birth.
December 20, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Hi Angie.
You must have come into my bead-making ‘career’ right when I was forcing myself to work with bright colors. I can’t tell you how many blog posts I’ve written about that struggle. And the struggle with florals. And the struggle with faces, etc.
That’s part of how this blog started…to encourage others to push themselves into something different that they think they can’t do.
January 21, 2008 at 10:20 am
[...] anyway…I wrote about how I’m inspired by bright colors but don’t like to work in bright colors. That is still confusing to me. These days [...]