Inspiration and Transforming Symbols

    A woman who worked as the librarian for the artist Michael Mazur once asked me, "Specifically what inspires you?"  

     Caught a bit off guard I stammered,  "I really don't know specifically, lots of things inspire me I guess."

     Apparently, this wasn't the answer she wanted to hear and followed with, "There should be a specific place you get your inspiration from." 

      I shrugged, "If I knew specifically where to go for my inspiration, I guess I would go there more often." 

      What really struck me about this encounter were two things.  One, people are materialistic (not necessarily a bad thing) and they like concrete ideas as opposed to process driven acts.  Secondly, it seemed that I really could not specifically answer the question.  I wondered why, and why it struck me as such an odd question to begin with.  

     Over the years (through process I might add) I have discovered that there is a specific thing that inspires me : the ever changing dynamic of life.  Everything is inspiring if you chose it to be so.  The real work is in being aware of how you personally access inspiration.  In other words it is not what turns your crank but that you choose to have your crank turned in the first place.  

     As my work is always influenced by what ever is currently going on in my life, you will see me use many different sources of inspiration. 

     This week, a good family friend who is a professional in the field of psychology helped us out with some things and as a thank you I thought I would make her a pair of earrings.   I thought about how polymer canes are formed in the same way as that old cliche "ink blot".  Essentially, the original form of the clay gets mirrored again and again to form a pattern. 

     I created two patterns one, using the Greek symbol for Psychology and another creating an ink blot of sorts and mirroring it into a pattern.