Taking Creative Inspiration From Nature

Nature inspires me! The dirt under my feet and wide open spaces. Even walking through a dense forest gives me a sense of calm and fills up my creative spirit.
But, on the day that I hiked in the Sedona desert, I was struck by a sense of peace and contentment. After two and a half years of feeling frazzled, this walk in nature was soul filling, and much needed.
It also helped jumpstart a new level of creative inspiration.





Through an exercise in partnering with another artist, to make a creative piece that embraced nature, my walk in Sedona was forefront in my mind. We had to focus on materials that were natural, renewable, compostable, biodegradable, and found.
After my walk in Sedona a few months before, where I was so drawn to the sculptural beauty of dead trees and branches, I knew that I wanted to make something out of dead tree branches.
My thought was to carve detailed designs, but the other artist suggested that we look at the branch and see what we saw in it.
That's when we saw her. The light features of a woman, we had to carve her out of the wood. Then we made some of it look like it had bark again, by rubbing charcoal on some carved spots. Her facial features have been highlighted as well.


I've noticed that people like objects and pictures
that have nature as a focal point.
So, nature is the obvious inspiration in those pieces.
This roadrunner glass mosaic was actually inspired by our neighborhood roadrunner, that likes playing in my yard.
I did takes some artistic liberties and make him look a little more cartoonish.

Then there is the sun itself. Our source of life, light and it can also be the source of destruction. The sun drives away frost, cold, mold and invites sunflowers to worship its movement through the sky.
We measure time, seasons and years with it. Yet, with all of its might, clouds can hide it from us. It darkens our skin, moves shadows, powers buildings, cooks, grows and illuminates darkness.
The sun lets us see what we will, so that we may have inspiration of what we see.

So, how does all of this play into brain balance? In a world where we are asked to be largely analytical, and are exposed to so much technological stimulation, we all need time in nature to connect back to our own natural self. Turn off the electronic device that you are reading this on, and go outside to be inspired. Find a place where you can take off your shoes, then stand on the soil, or sand, or grass covered patch and feel your worries drain away. Look around where you're standing and discover the nature in your surroundings. Unplug yourself from the electronic world and let the natural world take root in your soul once again. In that quiet, reach down and pull up that creativity that has been buried by the over stimulation of the electronic world. Oh yes see, it's been there all along.