Inspiration Trap

What did you make today?

Did you go out and find something, anything that make you want to grab your brushes and paint up a storm?

What about getting the wheel spinning with clay flying everywhere?

Did you drag out that old dry canvas and take a second look and see something new and exciting and lay down a new coat of oil or acrylic?

Or did you sit like a lox waiting for inspiration?

Inspiration is the artist’s devil. It comes and goes and sometimes leaves a great big mark. Sometimes it is a fickle lover and leaves without a word or a glance. It doesn’t even leave a trace of scent in the air, just a faint breeze to lure the unwary into that land beneath the hill.

I sometimes think those stories of the fairies come out to play and lead mortals down into the earth are really parables, (Yes this is the philosophical part so if you want to leave the room or turn up the TV go ahead.), they tell the tale so that creative folks, that’s us can be made aware that there are traps just waiting out there to suck us in and take away the most precious tool we have, our time.

Do you have the time to give to those folks from Under the Hill? I have some much to make up for the two months I lost while I was wasting time lying on my back in the hospital or sitting in my big chair watching television and gulping down air doing nothing that I don’t have a minute to spare for the fairy folks. They got their share while I was recovering and they just can’t have any more!

That’s inspiration guys. It is the gift of the fairy folk and you know about their gifts dontcha?

Then maybe you’d better not make any deals with them? They come with a high price-tag. Maybe you’d better just work harder at finding your muse the old way, by starting something.

Inspiration is a young lover, born on sunny days and carried on the warm winds of spring. Come autumn or (shudder), winter and she’s off to find some happier, richer guy, someone with a fast car and a pocket full of cash and that’s not you, is it? I didn’t think so.

So look around, if you’ve been sitting idle waiting on inspiration to fire your soul, you haven’t been working. What’s that old story about the grasshopper? Maybe it’s time to start thinking about winter and what you are going to use for your muse every dark and rainy day when there is no summer sprite to whisper in your ear.