Another week. More wrestling.

Some recent instagram fun... A) some vintage letters written in Italian; b) an abandoned shoe shine station; c) the sky as our weather changed earlier in the week; d) yours truly in a Halloween costume my mom made me, circa 1976.

So the last couple of weeks I have been busy with some creative things, but not doing much in the way of my creative business. I am looking for change. I'm "nesting" creative ideas and energy and I am feeling good. But I am faced with wondering how much longer this "nesting" phase can go on?

You know the phase.. I'm cleaning my workspace. I'm buying a little of this, pinning a little of that and doing a lot of reading and searching for inspiration...and I am asking myself a ton of questions internally...they're about to go external. Want to think with me?

I read somewhere that using pinterest and blogging your ideas can be detrimental to your creative process. When is too much inspiration a bad thing? Do the ideas get cluttered? Do they lose your "fingerprint" because they start to look like someone else's idea? How about this one:

Sit on it. Do you sit on your big ideas or shout them from the rooftops right away? I'm sitting. Trouble is that I don't know what I am sitting on yet..I almost do..but it's (the idea) is not ready yet.. the bottom line is that I'm making art and taking pictures to make money. It's my job..my only job...so it's important to me that the ideas stay with me until I can execute..I don't want to risk sharing the ideas at the moment so that someone else nurtures the idea and boom...now there goes the idea. It's the not so much fun portion of the creative process... it is what it is.

So what do you think? How much inspiration can one person take...and are you a sitter?

Have a great weekend..it's Super Bowl weekend here in the US...I can't wait to see halftime!

Comments

[linda]

I certainly understand the nesting and sitting stage of things... all too often it gets a big stagnant and I definitely feel unproductive. it's hard to know how much of that you need... before taking action. Or if it's better to always just go for it...because you can always go and revise and change things after the fact? I'm not sure yet. But I usually regret not doing things, than doing them... lots going through my mind these days... your post was definitely in the same vein of my thoughts!

[Seth]

First of all...loving that picture of you from 1976. Scarecrow, right??? And I say stay the course and wait it out. Of course that is hard when income is involved but me thinks that ideas often need to be incubated before they are ready to be hatched.

[Bea]

I have a dear friend, a very creative friend that is a "sitter" and while she sat, making sure that the "idea" was perfect other people came up with the same idea and forged ahead. If you look at a lot of the brilliant ideas that people had you can see that many received the "seed thought" at about the same time. In science you see this, some work it right away, some research it to death and some just go out an publish. I know I'm making it sound simple and it's not but many people get a similar thought, idea, whatever you want to call it and they beat it to death. They are afraid of jumping in to soon, afraid of failure, having to readjust, rearrange, rewrite, redo..........
You picked two areas that are difficult to make money especially in this particular economic economy. I wish you the best of luck. If you have an idea then plunge in, get going and be open to the IDEA changing. We often do things because we think it's what we want to do and forget that the UNIVERSE has other plans and likes the idea but if going to fine tune it for us. Good luck!

[Lisa Klow]

I sit on ideas. I scribble about ideas. I sketch ideas. Sometimes I think I spend too much time in idea-mode.

I think the doing-mode works a different part of my brain, so when I've been in idea-mode too long (as in, inside my head too much) I need to do some artwork to get it out into the real world.

I've gone down so many dead ends and taken so many wrong turns, that I don't like to discuss ideas or experiments as they are happening, on my blog or in social media. Maybe posting a picture only, but I hate to post descriptions and then have to explain: Boy, was that an awful idea!

I've found that I don't like writing about my self-examination exercises either, as I'm going through the process. For me, the results become clear much later or I realize the significance of something much later. It's almost like I'm writing about the wrong thing when I put it out there too early.

I'm only watching the Superbowl for Madonna.

[Judy Shea]

Ah Julie.. the too much inspiration question. YES.. I think you can go into Pinterest, Youtube, Blog overload.. for me anyway. I need to pull away from classes and stay to myself to make my own creations. Cut down on some of my "favorites" I have marked. Love your halloween pic.. and the clouds.. I think I see Jesus' face. Kidding.

[Marlynn]

I'm a sitter and sometimes I sit way too long and lose interest in what I thought was such a compelling idea. Goes along with starting projects and not finishing them - rushing to the next creative rush. I have tried to get better at this. Am I? Maybe. We will see. Will be interesting where this leads for you. I so am amazed with your journey and watch with such joy. You are an incredible soul, artist, mother, and inspiration to many. You open up and let the world read your joys and heartaches. I am amazed by you and what you have done at your "young" age. Keep up the questioning it can only make you a stronger soul. Hugs, Julie-Girl. : )

[David]

Sitting on an idea? Too afraid someone will steal it away? Come on now! Yeah...the "idea" may get "stolen"...but how that idea is used will always be unique to the artist. I am always inspired by work(s) I see on a daily basis...and look to these as seeds for my own ideas. It is always my hope when I publish a picture of my work that it in turn will inspire someone else. So I say, don't sit...share without fear! Your "art" will overshine anyone's copy!