MEMORIES AND HOW TO GET IDEAS FOR PAINTINGS

(c) MAKING A MEMORY   OIL ON CANVAS  24x30 2009

I've been struggling a lot writing this post about memories, creativity and how they work together. This is such an important subject to me, since I've always had an interest in the brain and science as a whole and I am fascinated by the way our brains work. To a large degree,  I am interested in how we generate ideas for our artistic endeavors.

First let me say that memories are so important in our lives and loosing them would seriously disrupt our functioning and mostly our sense of self. We need memories to know where we've been, where we are and where we are going.  Essentially, our memories and storage and recall of them, are what we call our identity. Although I have some ideas about how our memories and creativity, work together to create art ,  I am however in no way and expert on this matter. I'm just an artist on the journey to discover and enrich my creative spirit.  I would however, like to share what I believe is the way that our memories are so intertwined in our brains and when we create art.

If you are an artist or a creator of things, you may have had the experience of creating something and when finished, you do not know where you have gotten the idea or subject matter from.  This has happened to me when I am painting. My theory is that I think that we store all of our memories from our entire life in different areas in our brain, and we then access them at different times for a variety of purposes in our life.  When creating art, however, I think that we search our minds unconsciously when we begin our creation, and we make connections between a lot of different memories that come in the form of images. These rapid fire images link together so fast and it causes the "light bulb"or "Ah, ha" experience in our mind.  I believe that it happens at such a deep level that it escapes our conscious awareness.  This may explain my way of coming up with ideas by using words to trigger images in my mind.

I will share how I work to come up with my ideas.  This is in no way the only way.  It's just a way that has worked for me.  If you are struggling or looking for ideas, one way to generate them is to think in terms of pictures in your mind. Imagine them, bring them close to the fore front in your mind. Then think of words and play around with them, repeat them and try putting one word with another. Keep saying the words over and over. When you do this, it is important to close your eyes, relax and go inward as far as you can go.  Don't force it.  Let it flow into your awareness. Let yourself daydream...This is a way helps block out external noise such as sound and sight.  Although there are many ways to come up with ideas, these suggestions can be one way of controlling the ideas you generate in your consciousness.

I hope this helps you to become more aware of how to generate ideas.  Leave a comment if you find this to be helpful in your art?