Finding The Spark

What inspires you?

What makes you run to the studio, pick up a brush, get out the scissors or work up the clay?

I come from a place where if you get a plant to grow there's a very good chance it won't survive the summer. Eighty-one consecutive days of one hundred degree heat and it wasn't even a record. So I'm fascinated by this land where if you stick it in the ground it will probably grow. (The very best reason I've ever heard for not littering. Who wants a roadside filled with a cigarette-butt tree?)

Now plants may not be everyone's cuppa. I know the watercolor guys love them and I can see why. They are beautiful, they are free and they don't take breaks or fidget. That's a lot to get from one subject.

And on the South Coast they are everywhere. Just open your door and there they are. Go to town, there they are. Go to the beach, and there they are. You don't even want to know what happens if you get off the beaten path or head into the hills for a hike.

How about something else we have a bunch of, boats. Okay, they could be ships or skiffs or yawls or three masted schooners, they are still boats and they are everywhere. And there is the annual maritime show to think about. Even if you don't do boats, you might consider a temporary change of subject so that you can get your licks in for that little unimportant show?

Sea and sky, yes, I know you know, but it is worth repeating every now and then, the South Coast has the very best of both. And the colors, well even if you aren't S. L. Donaldson and have to struggle to get your pallet right, the skies around here could make any impressionist weep.

Turn around and there's that big wet thing just over there, it's an ocean and it not only looks like it goes on forever it does. There are sea birds and kelp, shells on the beach and all the wonderful storm-tossed debris and if none of that moves ya, there are seals. No, it's a fact, everyone loves seals.

And if that isn't enough to get your motor running, there are cars and bikes and buildings. There are more classic cars per square mile on the south coast than anywhere, except maybe L. A and well, it is L. A. and you don't really want to go there. And when the weather turns nice, the bikes come out to play. Maybe you don't see motorcycles as art. Just you wait for Thunder at CAM. That'll change your mind and sure chrome and steel sculpture may not be your thing, but take a second look. There's some magic in those movable sculptures, maybe you should try to find it.

What about people? They are everywhere. You could even do yourself. No that isn't some sort of kinky suggestion more suitable for one of those sites with a lot of X's, it called self-portraiture and they, artists have been doing it for a long time. Sure people are more difficult than things, you have to consider the legal problems as well as the artistic challenges, but the results are well worth it. People are the most fascinating things on this rock and they come in every shape and size. What could be more fun? They come in all ages and colors, talk about your sharpening your skills.

Gee, that's a lot of things you can use. So what is that sends you dashing away from the dinning room table? If you know then you are a truly fortunate person. The search for meaning takes up almost as much library space as the failures of Human Nature.. So what's the deal? Do you know your passion or are you still on the path to enlightenment?