Inspirations.

I suppose it all started with piano lessons. After a stint in childhood, I started them up again when my son, at eight, started his - as a way of supporting and encouraging his efforts, but mostly just because I wanted to. What I found, to my surprise, was that the hours practicing scales and tunes actually enhanced my writing efforts - rather than one taking time and creative energy away from the other, I found the opposite to be true: one enhanced the other.

Or maybe it started with my sister's ceramic sculptures, and seeing how each abstract object she created had its source, its inspiration, in something from the natural world. Once I went to visit her in West Virginia, and she showed me a small piece of driftwood on her shelf. "You gave me this," she said, "and I've used it many times as a template for my sculptures." It was a revelation to me. But of course art is inspired by the natural world. It is all around us. It is us.

So this blog explores that, and goes another step beyond, into what this connection and inspiration moves us to do beyond the art. For this I'll turn to such organizations as Artists for Nature and the Cape Farewell Project, which incidently inspired Ian McEwan's novel Solar. I'll also interview artists, such as Rika Mouw, whose art is inspired by nature and dedicated to protecting it.

 

Inspiration is all around us.