I do have advice for my friends who are feeling disconnected from their inspiration, advice which comes from my own experiences:
Stop looking at art on the internet and go to an art museum. There is a lot of amateur art on the internet and that’s OK, but we don’t have to fill our minds with it. We artists who make a living by selling our art online find ourselves observing art that is displayed online, and it’s not always good. Give yourself a break from it. It only affects us if we give our attention to it. Stop filling your mind with internet chatter.
Step away from the screen and go to one of the great halls and spend a day among the masters who have gone before us. These are our ancestors, our elders. If we spend time in their presence, in the presence of their art, they will fill our spirit with the greatness of creation, and they will then join us when we make our art. All we have to do is ask.
People may think it’s crazy, but when inspiration is flowing so beautifully, if we are sensitive to it, we can feel our elders who are joining us in the experience of creation. When a painting seems to paint itself, that is because we have help from those who have gone before. This is the deeply emotional experience we all long for, the most wonderful way to be in the flow of creation, to connect with our own unique and singular, unto all of creation, ability to make things of beauty that no one else can make.
That to me is the purest and most delightful inspiration, to be “In Spirit” and connected to the source of all beauty…..the author of all things.
