I find inspiration in interesting things

I’m not an artist, but I love art…I imagine creating masterpieces, but not through my eyes; through the original artist’s. I hear music and dream of composing (or spinning if it’s electronic) and producing. I try to envision what might have inspired the music’s creator and try to feed off of that energy. I let my imagination run wild on a routine basis and it runs back-to-back marathons on a routine basis.

Times of reflection are different for everyone. Some reflect in many ways, others reflect in only a few ways. Personally…I’m a “many ways” person. Reflection with me usually involves something in the form of music, writing and/or reading. I use that time to find new inspiration for my next idea, or to get my through the next day.

When I first started in college I had this fascination with office supplies. I know, it’s weird, but it is confession Wednesday damn it! Since I was studying engineering, the protractors, compasses, triangles and French curves (not French supermodels) made me want to create something. I have the same fascination with graph paper, graph paper composition books (remember those hard bound books?) and nice pens. Now I keep a pad of graph paper next to my bed…all of my notebooks are graph paper…my mouse pad is a stack of graph paper (gift fro ma friend!) and my favorite note taking software (Microsoft OneNote) is set up so all of my pages look like graph paper! It’s crazy I know…but there is something about graph paper and a good pen that make me want to write, draw…no, they make me want to think.

I have two pens that I love. One is a Cross pen and the other is a Mont Blanc pen. When I have trouble thinking I just grab either pen and “write the problem out” in my mind. I cannot tell you how effective this is for me. When I an trying to develop a new idea, or when I have a creative thought on the tip of my tongue, I grab a pen. The concept here is that I created a pattern and I created a setting where I am creative when I use a certain pen and a certain notebook (I have different notebooks for different ideas)…that way I put my mind in that “mode” before I tackle a problem.

What else do I tend to draw inspiration from? Watches, clocks, slide rules. Why? I have no idea! It comes from some fascination with time, time management and mechanical items that we use to measure things. As I have stated many times over, I am always late; but no clock I own or I have control over can be more then 60 seconds off of the correct time without it driving me nuts. Why? I have no idea! I’m crazy and it’s confession Wednesday for crying out loud…

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
– Jack London