A common question
that a lot of us get in the creative industry is, "How do you stay
inspired?" It is so easy for us to get stuck in ruts where our work
becomes dull and honestly loses our interest. To have creative businesses, it
must be fueled by a creative life. So, while we do not claim to have all the
answers to this question and we do still find ourselves in this dry place every
now + then, we have found a few things that keep us inspired that we wanted to
share!
A misconception that
we hear of often is to be inspired for floral design, we should study flowers
or visit a flower farm to 'fall in love again' with their beauty again. Maybe
for you as an abstract painter, someone told you that you should study other
abstract paintings. Maybe you are a musician and you were told sitting in
symphonies because that would be your best teaching. This simply is not true.
As creatives we find, see, hear, smell and feel art all around us. One of our favorite things to study at
Bloomin' is line composition. The lines and angles of a floral design are so
incredibly important. For this we study art, we see the way things grow
naturally in the wild, we see lines and shapes all around us. For a musician,
you might study music by stepping outside and hearing the wind blow around you.
For an abstract painter, you might study feelings and the way emotions can be
evoked in humans.
A woman that we
highly regard in the creative industry, Joy Thigpen, once said that staying
inspired can look like eating pre-packaged food versus whole foods. The
pre-packaged foods being magazines, Pinterest, the Internet and whole foods
being people, traveling, and nature. Both are necessary and offer great
benefits, but just as our bodies gain much more benefit from eating whole
foods, so our brains gain the same in creativity.
Another simple
technique we (try) to practice is planning creative days. This is fun to do
with friends, but it is also fun to do on your own. If you have time to do this
once a week, you are doing something right, but for most of us this usually
happens once a month or once a quarter. This is something that restores your
soul. It can be a trip somewhere, a hike, a cocktail class, or an art museum
visit. The options are endless on this earth for having a creative day. We
would love to hear your feedback of what you have done th left you inspired. I
think we can all share in this together and it might kickstart some ideas for
others!
Our last tip is to
keep things simple. A lot of times we find when we become overwhelmed which
leads to burn out which leads to lack of inspiration and wanting to quit
(haha), it is because we have overcommitted ourselves. By keeping things simple
we are able have to create space around us to think and have time to plan those
creative days. Sometimes staying inspired as a creative is not just so our
business can benefit from it, it is so our well being as a creative can
flourish. Our creative businesses would not exist if us a creative did not
exist.
