3 Short Stories to Inspire Your Inner Artist

If you’re a creative, you’ve been stuck. We all have. Whether you write, doodle, photograph, sculpt, chisel, dance, weave or fold, you’ve been stuck. It happens to the best artists, even the most prolific. You stare at that blank canvas, page, stump or blob of clay and you think, “Now what?”

Here are three short stories to inspire your inner artist. Your story, in whatever form you wish to express it, is just dying to get out!

Talk to the Animals – a True Story

I was stuck trying to come up with a blog for a client and… nothing. Blank boringness. Boring blankness. So I did what any sane writer would do. I turned off the computer and went outside. In my case, I went to hang out with my animals.

I sat in the sun thinking to how cool it would be to have more time with them… animals are so fascinating! They’re so full of personality and grace and they’re fun. As a friend once said, “I don’t know how you get anything done. All I want to do is watch them!”

So I sat with the animals a while and then I started thinking about all their shenanigans.

And the lightbulb went off.

I would write a story about my animals! I haven’t finished yet but I’m more than halfway through chronicling and illustrating their adventures, misadventures, mischief, love and hilarity.

Find inspiration in something already in your life.

The 15 Minute Miracle

An artist complained that he could not accomplish anything. He wanted to make art his living, but felt trapped in his day job. He often thought, “I only have 15 minutes to work on my painting today. It takes forever to set up and to clean my brushes afterward. There’s no point in even starting!”

One day, his son pulled out his own paint set in the morning before school. The boy quickly chose two colors and without any further ado, created a painting of the family dog. Then, when his mother told him the school bus would be there in three minutes, he quickly put his paint away, put his brushes into a glass of water, grabbed his backpack, gave his parents a kiss and ran to the school bus.

The artist went into his studio and thought about his own art. It was so much more complicated than his son’s… so much more masterful, so much more detailed… he could not possibly whip out a painting in 15 minutes!

Or…?

Tentatively, he set his watch to beep in 15 minutes. Working quickly, he put a small fresh canvas on his easel and chose only two colors and one brush to work with. He had in mind a seaside landscape. For fifteen minutes, he painted nothing but the background and the beginning of some rocky cliffs. Then when his watch beeped, he put his brush into a glass of solvent, wiped the remaining paint off his palette and stepped back to admire his unfinished “masterpiece.”

The next day, the artist took up where he left off, adding another layer of color. The next day, he spent another 15 minutes. Slowly – agonizingly slowly – the painting began to come to life. The next day, the artist had more time, so he worked on his painting for over two hours.

At the end of a month, the painting was finished, and the artist was satisfied.

Set aside 15 minutes every single day for your art. Don’t feel like writing? Write. Don’t feel like getting your paint out? Stick that brush in a color and dab it on the canvas.

Here’s the miracle. Even on the crappy days, you’ll make progress. Even if you have to redo it later, you’ll have kept the flow going (and often something wonderful happens from “mistakes”). On the magical days, you’ll lose all track of time (and find yourself happily engaged hours later, only when you realize you’re dehydrated and starving). And every day, you’ll move closer to finishing your masterpiece.

Tip: it’s helpful to do this at the same time every day, but I get it… most artists aren’t that structured (me either). Just do it. Even when it’s way past your bedtime and you think you can’t possibly squeeze a single eloquent thought or masterful carve out of your exhausted mind/body. You can. It’s in there, remember?

PS I’m using the 15-Minute Miracle on my book about the animals! Chugging along…

 

Find a Theme

A photographer was once inspired by a leaf.

She had been photographing the autumn colors, and after a whole morning of shooting (and being totally uninspired) she took a sip from her water bottle. While putting it back down, she accidentally dribbled a bit of water onto a waxy yellow leaf, and the water beaded up and reflected the sun. She leaned closer and saw that it wasn’t just a reflection of the sun that she saw in the bead of water… the leaf also reflected the sky, the grass the leaf was lying on… and herself!

Suddenly inspired, she started photographing the drop of water on the leaf. She added more water… shook the leaf to disperse the droplets… moved the leaf so that the water would slowly roll along its surface… for hours, she spent on her belly in the grass, photographing a leaf with a droplet of water.

From that first accidental project came more. Leaves with frost. Leaves in puddles. Leaves in the air. Leaves in the snow. Dry, curled leaves and fresh budding spring leaves. Leaves with bugs. Single leaves and leaf piles.

Find a theme. Start with a simple object: a fork… a pen… a feather… and put it in unexpected places, in novel ways you’ve never seen it. Play with shadows, color, texture and context. Let your creativity go wild, in whatever expression you use your muse.

Source: http://www.silvamethodlife.com/3-short-stories-to-inspire-your-inner-artist/