Inspiration, Vade Mecum and Intuitive Art

Vade Mecum
encaustic 30x30

Inspiration in our lives.  This is what we are visiting this week in my intuitive painting class.  So what inspires me? 

1. laughter
2. sunrise
3. nature
4. the color orange
5. my Mom
6. older people out enjoying life
7. beauty in words
8. creating something from the heart
9. magic moments
10. so many more...

Number 8 and number 9 need a little more explination.

#8
For me, number 8 is not necessarily creating art.  There is so much more to creating from the heart, at least I believe so.  For me, its things like:
Making my husband's lunch in the morning.  Sending a "thinking of you " text to a friend.  Writing thoughtful words.  Sharing a smile.
 
#9
You've seen it - the way the light shines in just the right way, there is a certain radience to it that lights up an object in a delightful way.  My Dad called these magic moments. He had honed his senses to see these things in life - the magic moments.  He would stop and pause, and watch that split second when the light on an object was perfection.  He would stand and stare, taking it in and remembering the detail of it.  He logged hunderds of magic moments into his mind where they would stay until needed for inspiration.

I also find inspiration in collecting things that catch my eye.  I have little piles that have come from pockets, stashes of colorful things, cards. pages torn from magazines, 1000s of photos in Picasa.  I have the need to touch fabrics and objects.  I take artist dates to Anthropolgie and I think I touch just about everything in that store.  I have to.. its in my wiring, the curiosity and the need to connect with things that inspire me.  I often pick up things, touch things, thumb through books and pause to look at something without thinking - it just happens. When we draw inspiration from our lives.. its not just the tangible things that we can lay hand to. Sometimes its the words of friends, its the steam curling from a bowl of hot soup, a smile, the way the flavor of dark chocolate dances on your tounge. The thing about finding inspriation in our everyday life is to notice it.   It's the ability to feel that little flutter of the heart when something inspiring lights up the moment and we learn to recognize it and take a mental or physical note of it. There is no telling when that glimmer of inspiration might circle back and be the thread that leads to something new. 

The deer painting above is my first intuitive piece.  He just showed up during my last painting session.  I had kept a photo of a deer - one of my things I collected somewhere along the way.  His image kept dancing across my mind.  So, here he is.  Several layers of playful color introduced over the past couple of weeks in Flora Bowley's class resulted in this painting.  He was painted with no thought, no sketch.. freehand with only a notion that he was what needed to be on this panel.  When I started to paint him, I kept telling myself - don't think, just paint.   I did spiral out to clean up a few mistakes - like an oversized ear, but really, he is pretty much how he came to be.  There was a point that I just knew, I was finished - no more.   I have a feeling he is here to guide me on my way to new destinations of colorful art - thus his name Vade Mecum.
It's Party Time - YAY!