First let me apologise for being absent for so long. My computer died in October and I had to get a new one. There went my personal challenge for the month of October. Ahh well. I love the new computer now that everything is installed and I'm back up and running.
After that, other things kept getting in the way... life x 5 lol ... and I found myself slipping into a creative slump. So when I was browsing around over on Deviant Art, I stumbled on many artists doing Inspiration Maps ( a visual of what influences the artist and where they get their inspiration) with a meme created by fox- orion http://fox-orion.deviantart.com/ . I knew I had to do it.
It wasn't as easy as it looked and took alot longer than I thought it would. I actually was surprised by it. It made me look hard at what really does influence me. Alot of what I put in at first thought, was removed because I found that when I really looked closely and honestly, what was there didn't influence my creativity and art very much at all.
Click to be taken to my gallery and click on the picture there for the full size meme.
Let me explain my map square by square, starting from the top left:
Josephine Wall http://www.josephinewall.co.uk/ What can I say? I fell in love with her work the first time I saw it. Her imagination and creativity and use of color and the stories within stories in her work. Every time I look at her work I see something new that I hadn't seen before.
Ballet. I grew up dancing. I went to my first ballet, Coppelia, at the age of five. I think it's still my favorite, although Giselle runs a close second. The grace and beauty of ballerinas, the music, the stories strongly influence my work.
The Hildebrandt Brothers http://www.brothershildebrandt.com/ Amazing! Everything from pinups to fantasy art, comics to children's illustrations. So much talent. I love their work.
Flowers and Butterflies. Beauty right outside my front door. I don't think any artwork I could produce could be more beautiful.
Tasha Tudor http://www.tashatudorandfamily.com/ I enjoy and admire her artwork but it's the woman herself that inspires me. She had the courage to dare to live the way she wanted to live. She was strong and independant, a rebel of a different sort. Tasha Tudor keeps me grounded and makes me believe that I can do anything I set my mind to. If you aren't familiar with Tasha Tudor's art or her lifestyle, you really should check it out. She was an amazing woman.
Imagine FX !! I wait eagerly for every issue. This is where I get my heavy dose of artists' influence. So many talented artists in each magazine. Each dvd is full of resouces, trial programs and tutorials for me to try. It keeps me working at my art, trying to improve. I learn something new every month.
Pamunky! Our energetic, rambunctious dog. She demands to be walked every day. We live in the country and our walks are along country roads, past fields, horses, goats, chickens and forests. Walking clears my mind. I do my best thinking out with Pamunky, so I must include her here. She's the main reason I walk every day for so long. I get lots of ideas on our walks. Now to put them all into art!
Shoes! I love shoes. It started with the stories of Cinderella's glass slipper, Dorothy's ruby slippers and those Dancing Red Shoes. But the shoes on my map aren't just any shoes, they are Rose Shoes by Mai Lamore. The perfect shoes for rose lovers. Mai Lamore shoes are works of art. I've always wanted to do a series of art built around shoes. One day I will and I will be looking at Mai Lamore for inspiration.
The fabulous stock at http://atistatplay.deviantart.com/ . Taken at Renn Fairs, the stock never fails to inspire me. If I hit a wall when I'm trying to create, I can go to this gallery and come away with so many ideas, I don't know where to start first.
My heart. It leads me in my art and I let it. In the rest of my world, I have a tendency to be more pragmatic, logical and practical.
The sky in Hellfire Penninsula in WoW. ( Blizzard Entertainment ). It truly is beautiful.
Overgrown, over blown gardens. I love to garden, but I don't like neat, orderly rows of flowers all spaced out in straight lines. I love lush, curvy, overgrown, english style gardens. They may look tangled but they are equisitely and carefully planned out. They are my other artistic passion.
Grimm's Fairy Tales .. all fairy tales. Fairy tales, the way they were originally written inspire me. I read them as a child and loved them, and still love them today. Real fairy tales, not the politically correct, sugar coated fairy tales of today. As it says in my Influence Map for those who maybe can't read it or didn't look close enough to read it:
"The classic fairy tales compiled by Jacob and Wilhelm, the Brothers Grimm (1812) are stories of dark wisdom with a bite. Not for the faint-hearted, not for the weak of spirit, not for anyone expecting childish fluff. Contained within these pages are fairy tales that show the dark beauty of truth, and the cold mirror of common sense, clad in the glamour of the imagination."
Winter. Snow. Ice. Magical to look at. Yeah, I know the other side of it. ;p
Mairead Nesbitt of Celtic Woman. If you do not believe in fairies and elves and leprechauns, you will after watching and listening to her. She is a fae come to life. Her music is magical. She dances, she skips, she almost seems to fly at times. I cannot watch her without being inspired. This square also stands for all music including the music of the group, Celtic Woman. Music inspires me.
Having done this, I've decided I want an inspiration wall, beside my desk. I'll let you know when I have it done and post pictures.