Summer is finally here and I always enjoy how everything around me can be an inspiration this time of the year. My garden and flower beds are in full bloom. Lots of different colors and textures just like looking at a Monet painting. I am literally hunting for inspiration wherever I go whether it is a new plant for the yard or the next great art quilt idea . Then it came to me. This is exactly how I am with my art work. Just like shopping for more plants I am looking for a new inspirational picture to use with my art quilts. Even though my mind is crowded with more art projects that I can ever do in a lifetime I keep searching. This is not a bad thing because it motivates me to try new things. But the other side of the coin is quite frankly I am always on the hunt and never actually working on my art work. We just bought a new computer and I had to transfer some of my old pictures to the new one. This is what I found out. I have taken a lot of pictures of things to use in my art quilts but because of this need seek to out something new I sometimes forget to look at what I already have. I store all my pictures on a separate hard drive (The Tower) and then I put it away in my office at home. What I really need to do is take that hard drive to my art studio and access it more often. Getting more organized on the hard drive is also important because it saves time when trying to find pictures about my current subject matter. In the past when I downloaded my inspirations for the day I wouldn’t actually label them or put them in different files. You can imagine what a mess it is when I am looking for something specific. Last Sunday my husband and I went on a drive into a beautiful canyon and of course I took a lot of pictures for future quilts. My husband is the best hunting for inspiration partner anyone could have. When I say “Honey could we go back and get that shot?” Of course it is usually on a little one lane dirt road, he gives me that look and we turn around. One of them was an exceptional shot of a tree stump with unusual bark pattern. Just another great inspirational piece destined for a quilt that is all about wood grains, moss and bark. My goal now is to make sure that when I download these new pictures I put them in the file titled wood grains so when I am ready to use them it is a quick process to get inspiration. Maybe if I am a little more organized in the hunting for inspiration process I will have more time to develop the inspirations in finished art quilt.
