Inspiration

Open Your Eyes to the World

I spent a few hours today roaming around the

galleries of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

In my work, I'm known for my use of

color.  People tell me they can walk through

a quilt show and pick out my pieces without

having to read the name.  

People ask me all the time about how to use color.

I must reveal I have spent years studying color

and I have spent almost my entire life wandering

through museums and libraries or in a studio.

But that's not necessary because inspiration is

EVERYWHERE!

If you see a painting you like, use those colors

 in your artwork.  Take a photo or buy a

postcard and file it away.

I have kept a clip file since I was a little girl.

It is photos and things torn from magazines

or snippets of fabric or lace.

People will say but it doesn't match...

Match Schmatch!  it doesn't need to match.

I have seen some of the most dismal,

boring interiors where everything matched.

What if we lived in a world where everything

was the same?  What fun would that be?

Take a look at everything.  I'm the girl

who will be touring a grand palace but taking

photos of the doorknob or heating grate.

Take a look at the things around you.

Why did you buy the plates in your cupboard?

Was it the color?  Use that in your work.

Look at this painting from 1483, look at the floor,

they are quilt blocks!

And here.

And here.

Here is a relief of Robert Louis Stevenson,

whose writing inspired a sense of wonder

and adventure in me at a very young age.

So get out there and open your eyes to the world,

you never know what may spark your imagination.