QUESTION: What Inspires Me?

I have been asked:

Your eCard Club is different…
What inspires your art, where does it all come from?

As crazy at this sounds, I am inspired by everything and anything; by everyone and anyone. It could be something that I see, hear, read or feel — or felt. I have even gotten ideas from watching commercials that were completely unrelated to the outcome of my designs. Something I saw or heard struck a chord within and out came the paper and pencil. Something just happens and the ideas start to flow.

NOTE: One of my dreams is to hire an artist who can draw what I envision. Right now my designs are dictated by my own creative skills.

I also find that working through my own fears or situations (happy or sad) are inspirational in creating a collection that will help others in similar situations. I don’t feel that I am unique. If it happens to me it could happen to you or someone you know. For example: This past summer I had a scare with Yag Laser Eye Surgery. The doctor who did the surgery did not do it correctly and I began to see distortions of 1 1/2 people when I was walking in the street! As you can imagine, I was terrified I had either a detached retina or a retinal tear. The doctor refused to see me and kept saying it was nothing each time I called him on the phone — which scared me even more as I was alone with this horror.

The morning I was scheduled to see the retina doctor, I was beside myself with fear. In order to get through the day I was trying to distract myself and asked: “What is good about this?” Of course, my response was “NOTHING!” I turned the question around and asked: “What could be good about this?” I gave this some thought and came up with: “If I am experiencing this type of fear, what would it take to make me feel a better?”

Since I was alone it would have been helpful to either have someone with me or to know that someone cared. (Intellectually, I knew there were a lot of people who cared, but in the state I was in, I needed instant gratification to the fact!) Being an artist and owning an eCard site my mind automatically went to the cards. This led me to thinking about eCards and how they could help in a case like this. So, in order to support others in their time of need I decided to jot down some notes for inspirational cards. The nice thing about eCards is that THEY ARE instruments for producing instant gratification. If you can’t be there, then your eCard can! Sometimes that is all it takes to know that someone is thinking of you in your time of need! Or, that they remember a special day or special event!

As an aside: The doctor gave me the good news that my eye surgery could be corrected and it was like getting my life back. On the way home from the retina doctor’s office I kept stopping to jot down ideas dictated by my immediate emotions of elation, euphoria and relief to the fact I was not going blind!

The point here is that while I was concentrating on designing I forgot about my own situation and was able to produce something of value to someone else.

This was not always the case…
My very first Mother’s Day designs created a trauma for me as I did not have a warm and fuzzy relationship with my own mother. It was hard for me to design one for someone else. The truth was I felt terrible/cheated that I did not have that type of relationship and it was too painful to go back there and the Mother’s Day cards made me face my own dysfunctional childhood. Magically, by the time I worked through this I had a wonderful Mother’s Day collection and had experienced a period of true healing. I have never experienced a similar block!

So I suppose we can say, I am inspired by life — mine and everyone elses! My strong emotions and compassions are the driving force behind my creativity in most cases!