UPPERCASE #61

To make art, you need two driving forces: inspiration and impulse.

Inspiration is typically sparked by outside sources—something we’ve seen, experienced or read—but it can also come from revisiting our own past work with a fresh perspective. Our archives of imaginative experiments offer a renewable resource of creative ideas.

Inspiration is fleeting, though, if we don’t do something with it. Follow that inner impulse and make something!

When it comes to “outside” sources of inspiration, the landscape has always been a classic muse in the world of art. It’s a good subject matter: the landscape provides constancy across years and yet has an alluring changing temperament brought on by weather, seasons and endless moods of light, shadow and atmosphere.

We grow emotionally attached to “our” landscapes—these lands and bodies of water become part of our identity. Looking out over a beautiful vista puts us in our place, illustrating just how small we really are.

Landscapes remind us to look outside of our selves.