For me it can be the smallest things. Sometimes I see the news or read an article and a visual appears in my head that I need to translate into a piece. Other times it is upon going to sleep or waking. Yet sometimes it is just observing what can be found right in front of me.

There was a time just a few months ago, when I worked on a series of mini collages, while preparing for a show for the National Collage Society, NCS. The theme of the exhibition was “Wish You Were Here”.  While working on these mini postcard collages, I used old stamps as inspiration. During the process I found a postage stamp from Greece which had a doll with a trunk on it.  I duplicated the stamp slightly larger in different materials into a postcard size collage utilizing the stamp in the mini collage.

Recently I came across the mini collage that I created but didn’t use for the NCS show. (I submitted another piece.)  I used this mini collage in turn as inspiration while incorporating it into a much larger collage. You just never know what will trigger your creative spirit.

Cutting, pasting, layering, then covering the areas that don’t work with more paper or changing the look of an area so that it works better continues the momentum, energizing me and inevitably the project. This is when being an artist is the most fun for me. When I run with an idea and continue to develop it one layer at a time whether it be a mixed media piece like this collage, a painting, sculpture or any other medium I choose. 

Each and every day is a day is a day of discovery, and as an artist I enjoy placing those discoveries into my work. It is especially rewarding when it is completed, framed and hanging in a gallery, a collectors business or home.

One of the hardest things as an artist that I do is letting go of my newly birthed creation.  There is such a labor of love that goes into each piece, whether it is developed fairly easy or was hard to create. I just can’t help but get emotionally involved with my work furthermore I don’t in truth want to liberate my work from my collection until I begin a new project, however what remains a immense feeling of accomplishment for me is when a piece is purchased by someone who finds my work irresistible.

The period of not wanting to give up a piece is short lived and  it becomes effortless when I do begin my next piece or when it is purchased by someone who loves the creation as much if not more than me  thus validating my commitment to be an artist, which in turn helps motivate me to continue to create.