Inspiration Exists | In a stick?
You know that old quote, “Inspiration Exists but it has to find you working” by Pablo Picasso? While that is a wonderful quote, what if you are working but all you are producing is garbage? You have tried all your inspiration generating tricks, but you still aren’t getting anywhere. Tricks such as:
Collaging to kick start a page or move through a stuck place
Turning the substrate upside down
Using a writing journal to inspire creativity
Watching YouTube videos of mentors or fellow artist,
Better yet have you tried prompts? Art prompts can be a great way to move you in a different direction even mid-stream. I must admit I am a bit of an art prompt hoarder. However, all my prompts reside in my computer, which is not helpful while I’m arting.
I recently got myself into quite the pickle with my September art journaling session. I went in with a simple idea. My intuitive process usually takes that small idea and blooms it into the next small idea, so on and so forth. However, when I laid down the cobalt blue acrylic paint my whole body went EWW! What is usually a 30-40 min art journaling session turned into a 2-day session. I repeatedly had to walk away from my art table, come back later with fresh eyes as well as a fresh attitude. Not once did I remember to go to my computer and look for an art prompt. Here is the journaling session video I’m talking about.
Mixed Media Art Journal by Nina Fickett
Since hindsight is 20/20, I realized as I looked back at the problem that I needed to find a better way or at least a secondary method to fall back on. What I needed was a way to have my inspirational art prompts available while I’m at my art table, at arm’s length. This way if I’m in the middle of a piece, get stuck, and need inspiration quickly I can simply grab an art prompt to tease and renew my inspiration to the forefront.
I began coming up with ideas on how to make this feasible. I had to consider each idea from all angles. The first idea I had was to write my prompts on pieces of paper and put them into a jar. As I primarily paint with my fingers I quickly abolished this idea as it would be insanely messy pulling paper out of a jar with paint on my hands. My next idea was to make a list and post them onto the wall. While this idea definitely has merit as we discussed I’m a prompt hoarder. So one piece of paper would be insufficient. On top of that I would waste time trying to pick a prompt for the day. So my first two ideas did not work out so well. I realized I couldn’t be the first one who felt this way. Someone must have already thought of a solution to this problem. So, I went to Google to see if there was anything that would work for me. Wow! There were a lot of ideas. Two of the ideas which popped out to me were to use a random generator to pull up prompts and to create a prompt flip book. The problem with both of these ideas is that my hands would have to be paint free, which is not practical for me.
My next stop was YouTube to see if I could find more useful ideas. I found a handful of people who came up with some interesting ideas using Popsicle sticks, Jump Sticks, or Inspiration Sticks if you will. They keep them near their art desk and each stick has a prompt on it. This provides a simple place to either start or take off with when they find themselves in a bind. I became inspired by this idea. I remembered that during one of our trips to the hardware store I came upon some quart sized paint sticks, essentially oversized Popsicle sticks, that I felt were too awesome to pass up. So of course, I bought a bunch of them. I could use these sticks for my prompts! I could place them in a fun jar or bucket, splash some paint on them and attach my prompts. The best part was I could touch them with paint on my hands, as I could put the prompt at one end and have the paint zone of the stick ready to grab. Many of the prompt sticks I found online had detailed prompts, but I decided to make mine single or two-word prompts. I feel this would better allow my intuitive process to still have some free reign.
So, I went about making my own set of mixed media-based Inspiration Sticks. I thought I’d start with 30-60 of my prompts and take it from there. Of course, I had to videotape the process, so if you are interested in how I made my Inspiration Sticks check out the video on my YouTube channel. Just click on the images below to go to my channel. I made this video a part of my Art Therapy Series because the process was therapeutic as well as fun!
Mixed Media Inspiration Prompts Part 1 by Nina Fickett
It was a long session, so I split the content up between two parts. Here is part 2.
Mixed Media Inspiration Prompts Part 2 by Nina Fickett
I went on to make a downloadable mixed media-based Inspiration Stick Prompt list for you to use on your sticks or whatever substrate works best for you. Just click on the button to go to my FREE download page.
