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Artists are supposed to be able to talk about their art, about how it was made and what inspired it, and lately I’ve been thinking about inspiration.  Inspiration sounds like a “big” word to me - as if the inspiration for something were a major brainstorm.  Plein Air artists are inspired by an outdoor scene, portraitists by a person or animal.  Someone who loves painting still lifes will arrange a display to inspire a desire to recreate it on canvas.  A dramatic interior design will inspire the visual biographer.  And pets?  Well, pets probably are the inspiration for more video art than anything else on the planet!

    But what inspires the artist of abstract work?  Good question, and one I endeavor to answer to myself about myself frequently.  Pepe Karmel, author of “Abstract Art, A Global History” claims “Abstract art is always rooted in experience of the real world.”  I expect he’s correct, yet I wonder how my real world experience is my inspiration, how it’s translated into my work.

    My real world experience with an art group many miles from my studio offers inspiration via Facebook, by suggesting “challenges” - challenging members to post a new work daily for a period of time - inspired by a theme or genre.  Collage is what we’re making now, and it is inspiring me to see my work in new ways; it’s been a very long time since I’ve done collage, so it’s also fun.  Fun itself can be inspiration to create abstract art, now the I think of it - just having the fun of putting paint on canvas, seeing whether anything worthwhile develops.  That’s akin to the theory that a block of marble already contains a statue - the artist just needs inspiration to chip away the bits that aren’t part of the subject!    

 
    A dream once showed myself carefully drawing a picture, which inspired my work the next day.  In the dream the drawing was philosophically significant to me; as art in the real world it was quite bad and boring, however . . .  Dreaming completed artworks I see in my sleep is very unusual for me, although I understand major artists have found their dreams to be their inspiration.  A few nights ago I dreamt of a couple collages, and since I still remember them, I’m headed into the studio now, to see if that turns out to be valid inspiration for me this time.  Wish me luck!!