I have a feeling I may be answering this for a very long time, as there are many ways I find inspiration. For this first pass at a response, I’m going for this angle: inspiration and my brain. (Apologies to anyone who’s ever traveled with me.)
I love The Met (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC). An exhibit I’ve now visited six times is the Afro-Futurist Room. Every time I visit, I notice something new. I take notes; Google topics; revisit with new information. Rinse. Repeat. I never tire of this process. On my last visit, I focused on the painting of a female deep-sea diver. I read that the artist, Henry Taylor, had based this composition on (a) a real photo of (b) a real person. So, I did what I do: I started Googling for info on the real person.
The subject of the portrait is Andrea Y. Motley Crabtree—the first female U. S. Army deep-sea diver. The original picture, taken in 1982, is at a U. S. Navy facility in Panama City, Florida, BUT there is a smaller picture at the U. S. Army Women’s Museum at Fort Lee, VA…where she was speaking in January, 2023!! Cool…wait, there’s a U. S. Army Women’s Museum? In Virginia? Yes. Yes, there is. Road trip!!
My whole goal was to see Crabtree’s photo (and anything related to the Six-Triple-Eight), but I learned sssoooooo much more. I ended up spending an entire afternoon here, filling my notebook with even more things to Google. Ideas for future posts.
That’s how inspiration works for me. I see one thing, that leads to another thing, that turns abruptly into something else. I know I drive my travel mates bonkers with my weird geeky mental gymnastics, but this is how I think. This is how I come up with ideas. It’s not linear for me. It’s not even circuitous. It’s more like a spirograph. (If you’re my age, you get this reference. If not…Google it.) The inspiration I gain can come in the form of new ideas or discovering new people. It can inform a character I’m developing or lead to the creation of whole new one. It can boost my determination when I’m down on myself. It can fuel my creative drive when I’m floundering. As long as I stay curious and ask questions, I’ll stay inspired, whatever form it takes.
P.S. To see how museums inspire my creativity, check out my Instagram page. My visit to the U.S. Army Women’s Museum (featured on March 8, 2023) led to the idea of creating a month-long celebration of women through places I’d visited that celebrate women’s history. See? Spirograph.