This is one of the more common ones. Often people follow up with a bit of humor, like they would love to be in my head, or they ask about dreams, or sometimes mushrooms or alcohol. But not always. Sometimes it’s quite literal and straight forward.

For me, ideas do not come to me in my sleep in the form of a dream. If anything I work out my fears and anxieties in my dreams. So nothing creative is happening there! In a similar way, I tend to feel less creative when alcohol or something else is involved. Maybe it’s just not how I’m wired.

With that settled I feel like I should next say that more than a decade ago I chose to establish a defined body of work - Of Land and Sky, Whimsical and Free - with overarching themes that are meant to reach into every piece. So, I always have a starting point of sorts because there is a common inspiration source for every piece. However, I still do have to come up with individual ideas for every individual piece. And that is what I am talking about here. If you’d like you can read about the larger, overarching narrative on the About Michelle page under My Inspiration.

So as for coming up with individual ideas. Truthfully for me, it’s work. I schedule time to brainstorm ideas. This can sometimes last 8-10 hours a day for several days in a row. I’ve probably spent hundreds of hours just trying to think of ideas. On occasion Toby (or one of my 3 kids when they’re home) will join me and we build off of each other's suggestions. And I follow the traditional brainstorming rules - don’t be too quick to rule anything out, stay open minded, and write things down as you go. Let things flow. Let one idea lead to the next. Avoid stoppages as much as possible.

Totally separate from that, I’m simultaneously trying to pay attention to what’s going on in my life. Or sometimes what’s going on in the lives of those closest to me. What are we celebrating? What are we struggling with?

I try to contextualize these specific emotions/feelings into something more universal. I do believe that we are all going through life in similar fashion. We all have ups and downs, successes and failures. So when I find something I’d like to say about life or more specific experiences, I generally feel that folks will be able to relate.

But that part is different from the brainstorming part. It’s like there are two distinct things happening distinct from each other and they will eventually come together, but it will be at a moment down the road.

Back to brainstorming aspect. Sometimes, if I get stuck. I will change my scenery. I’ll go for a walk, or make a trip to somewhere where I could maybe look for inspiration. This is how I came up with the idea for my piece, “Hopefully Breathless” (2024). I came across a stunning pink sofa at an antique store and thought, I want to paint something like that. So, I took a picture of it with my phone and continued on. I took a lot of pictures of all kinds of things on that outing.

When I got back home and scrolled through them all, the sofa stood out. I knew I had to pursue it, but the rabbit wasn’t there yet, and neither were peaches. But it wouldn’t take long. Curiously, I felt glimmers of romance and love from the beginning. It was somehow radiating out from the sofa. Eventually it would become the theme of the piece.

I think it’s a good place to add that I do look at a lot of art, both old and new - especially my own - and make notes on things I might want to also create. I try to think about ways I could build upon my own work or the work of others, making it my own of course.

With that in mind, and with the pink sofa in mind, I turned to my own work for inspiration. Previously, I’ve done pieces with sofas, a chaise lounge, and also with chairs. I went to my website and just started scrolling through all of my past work and thinking about what direction I could take this pink sofa. Fairly quickly, a rabbit is there. And then in my mind the sofa becomes a chair.

This is the point where I have to turn these thoughts into a sketch. Because they have to be tried out on a small scale. And it’s no guarantee that an idea at a stage like this will actually become my next piece. It is hard to say but just because I like something as an idea, doesn’t necessarily mean I will like it as a sketch. It might have to sit and evolve. And that might be for months or even years.

I’ve kept journals for more than 3 decades. I have ideas and concepts that I wrote more than a decade ago that I still think might happen. Maybe one day I might find the key to unlock it. But mostly I don’t even know what needs to be unlocked. Or else it would have made its way to a canvas already.

With the rabbit and the pink chair, it came together fairly quickly. And that feeling I had about love or romance stayed with me while I put it together. That’s why the peaches appeared. For me they are a romantic fruit. I am not sure if that’s universally true? But for me they are and I guess in this instance that is what matters! 😉

So yes, it is work. I have to tell myself it’s time to think about creating the next piece. And then I have to sit down and do it, sometimes revisiting old ideas and other purposely avoiding them. If nothing comes together then I get up and go try to look around for ideas. I make mental notes. I take pictures with my phone. I text things to Toby, asking him what he thinks. I try to envision the things I’m seeing in the style of art that I create.

I don’t dream these things up and they definitely don’t appear if I get tipsy or worse. I was going to say that there’s nothing magic about it at all. But maybe that’s not quite right. Maybe the work is a kind of magic. Not always easy. Not always fun. But magic nonetheless.