I recently spent a week making books with a wonderful group of students from varied backgrounds, different age groups, and creative experiences. Some were professional artists or teachers themselves, and others just came for a week of creative play while on vacation. And play we did! Using a wide variety of tools and materials from paints and feathers to old prints, maps, and repurposed boxes and books — we created an absolute feast of one-of-a-kind books! We stitched, glued, and cut windows, made our own printing stamps and collagraphs, made gift books and collages, and created 3-D pop-ups by folding the tiniest pieces of watercolor paper. Above all, we got a wealth of new ideas, techniques, and materials sources from each other.
It never ceases to amaze me how much creativity there is in all of us. After spending years as a teaching artist, I rarely expect to know more than most of the students that I work with. One of the most humbling aspects of teaching is realizing this. I may know more in one way —more techniques, materials, or sources, but everyone brings their own creativity into the collective, and if the atmosphere fosters appreciation and encouragement, everyone relaxes, and the creative flame gets fired up! Once that happens, inspiration flashes through the room like electricity. So, when someone asks me where my inspiration comes from, I say it comes from the people I work with. And the greater the variety of experience and openness in the group, the more powerful the flashes of inspiration are.
Of course, I get inspiration from a wide range of sources, and I’ll write about those in a future post, but it’s such fun to come out of week-long creative adventure remembering that we are all artists, and sources of inspiration are all around us every day. There’s nothing like the imaginative energy of a group to bring forth a lifetime of new ideas and inspiration.
