Spurring my creativity

A roundup of 5 inspirations

One of the many jobs of an artist is to keep themselves inspired. It is hard to do creative work when your well has run dry. Here is a list of things that have inspired me lately.

1. Yesterday, before an appointment, I stopped in a park. My intention was to brainstorm some ideas for my next illustration, but the weather was a lovely 80 something degrees, the wind was blowing softly through my hair, and the smell of the cottonwoods was so lovely that I ended up just sitting perfectly still, drinking in the sight of the clovers and grass swaying in the wind. Suddenly, I felt a weight on my foot and looked down. Two baby robins had apparently fallen out of the tree that grew next to my bench and were hopping around by my feet. One of them sheltered itself under the arch of my crossed legs and the other had plopped itself down on the toe of my sneaker. They stayed for quite some time, screaming. I’m not sure if they were venting their aggravation about being thrown from the nest, or if they were just testing their singing voices, but I really enjoyed their company. I didn’t take a picture because I didn’t want to disturb them and sometimes I think it is nice to have an experience that is just for you, without photo evidence. This is a picture of what they looked like that I got from the internet. Those of you who know birds can tell me at what stage in development these little guys were in:

   

2. What really inspires me the most is the creativity of other people. I found this video on youtube that really was fascinating and entertaining to me:

3. I am especially inspired when the creativity in question has very little to do with illustration. I love seeing people geek out over their special interests. It really widens my world up to see things through the eyes of another person. Take this video, for instance, that is in a different country from mine, focused on a musical instrument that I haven’t ever really considered before:

4. I LOVE when people make things that have no real purpose other than to just see if they can. So this video (with a mention of one of my favorite childhood influences) really got me going:

5. I really found this video about zines to be inspirational. I want to make some zines!!

That is my list of inspirations for this week! I hope you find something in here that gives you a little tickle of interest!

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Some (very belated) news!

This winter I was completely swamped by the projects I had taken on and I was trying to just get through each day (but boy did I learn a lot about myself!) During this time, I was given the great news that the book I illustrated, Georgia Jipp: Blizzard Pilot written by the marvelous and lovely Laura Beth Dean had won the 2025 Spur Award for the Best Western Children’s Book Category!

I want to say a (belated) Thank you to the Western Writers of America for choosing our book for the 2025 children’s book award and a thank you to South Dakota Historical Society Press for submitting our book and publishing it and pairing Laura and I together! Thank you Laura for writing such a great book about an amazing woman! Thank you to everyone who has bought the book and checked it out from your libraries!

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So tell me, dear reader, what is inspiring you today? As you can see, I LOVE youtube videos so if you have anything interesting that you have watched lately, please link it in the comments! I want more avenues to explore!

Thanks for reading!