Inspired by... Greetings from...

It's again the 10th of the month and time for the "Inspired by" creation! But what is Inspired by? Every month awesome Marsha and I choose a subject to be inspired by. It can be for example an idea (link), a product (link), a poem (link), a movie (link) or a book (link). Or anything! Then we make something inspired by that theme or a piece of art and share it with you and each other on the 10th of the month. You can browse the past "Inspired By" posts from here (link).

 

This post is a bit different. This time we chose the theme as "greetings from" like a postcard or a vacation post. I chose to make a post about "greetings from my craft table". Before my vacation I hadn't had much time to spend around it and that made me realize something. Realize that I NEED to create. If I'm not getting a regular dose of gesso or paints or similar, I get cranky and stressed.

It's been really hectic in my full-time job lately and I have missed creating and making projects. I've felt bad not being as on time with DT assignments as I would like to and you can imagine that it adds to the stress I already experience because of the work. But what struck me the most was the feeling I got when I could do something creative when my vacation started! I finished four or five projects in the course of an afternoon and the feeling I got from it was astounding. It made me realize even more how important creative things are to me and how much joy they give. It was like all the stress was just moved away and endorphins were flowing!  

  

That revelation shouldn't have come as a surprise. I was an A student back in school and graduated with flying colors. With that kind of grades it was thought that I would go into an university to study chemistry, biology or something of that sort. My plans were open as I had many points of interest and I actually went to an introduction day to an university. And it was great that I did as I noticed quite quickly that university studies weren't for me. I needed to create, to make stuff with my hands and not just type and read. Yes, I know I'm now exaggerating but that's how I felt. So especially to my grandfather's surprise I applied and got in to a polytechnic instead.

As there's the learning curve part always involved in Inspired By what this "IB" taught me, was to create and keep creating and thus take care of myself. I'm guessing I'm also a lot easier to be around when I've had my daily or even weekly dose of paints and mediums than when I'm just trying to cope without. I guess I need to admit that I'm a creative junkie and instead of trying to go to rehab just go with the flow and let myself play when I feel like it. Naturally big projects like assemblages give me a lot of pleasure, but even a simple play in an art journal, just splashing with paint, might extinguish the crave for a while. Maybe try the finger painting that Birgit has been experimenting with (link) or 15 minute face like Julie did (link) or allow myself to take time to do the online course I just bought from Everything Art (link). I mean it's only a question about decisions. 15 minutes might be enough and it's not that long in the course of the whole day.

 

Marsha dared me to do this post as light as I can project wise. No big assemblages or anything. So instead of creating something new for the post I thought to share this revelation with you. It's sometimes amazing how the simplest things can come as a surprise. If you want to see what Marsha created for this Inspired By, please follow this link (link)!

All the photos in this post are taken from my Instagram account (link) and are "wip", work in progress style shots. I try to share some shots from my craft table there every now and then when I have something I can share a sneak of.

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a great day!