✳ Inspiration or Plagiarism ✳ {opening the debate}

It's tricky this internet stuff... there is so much creativity out there and if you start to surf then you will be bombarded by images upon images, waves of  quick fixes for  jaded minds and some of what I see is exemplary and some of it is mediocre, at best. But worse than that, so much of it is samey~samey/matchy~matchy and I start to suffocate with blandness. In fact, I've stopped looking. I love the regular blogs that I visit and am totally inspired by. Or the ones where I can see creativity budding and forming from the right places and they gladden my heart (for tis a frosty one). I love the blogs that tell me about the latest amazing things out there in windywonderwebland because half the time I don't get time and it is right and proper that I do not live in a bubble. Increasingly, I worry that MY ideas and unique ways get appropriated and I have hesitations about posting them. In a world where everyone seems to have a blog/opinion/voice I want mine to be as unique as possible, as creative as it can be. Which leaves me in a quandary. 


To post or not to post? 


My creativity is my living, my reason to live, it fills my every moment and I have so much invested in it. It comes and goes and I have days/weeks of frustrating going nowhere moments and I think I should just get a 'normal' job and then huge vats of creative harvest arrive and I can't sleep or eat, I have to get it out. It is honestly like giving birth every time. I suffer, everyone around me suffers and in the end it's done or not and I move onto the next thing. For in me, there is a wealth of ideas. They pop out around my ears like sparkles and if I don't grab them they burst and drift. I don't invest too much in grabbing every one, they can be annoying because I can't give them a name or a voice and sometimes I'm just too arted out.  But also, every now and then I do something or make something and realise it's just like something I have seen. Now have I plagiarised it or been inspired by it? I just don't know. There is so much in my head (like a bustling bazaar) I'm not sure where half of it came from. It must have arrived from somewhere. Either it's all my ancestor's voices jostling for some creative relief or it's all my own work. But everything I see, everything I read must  make it's mark like handwriting on my soul and changes who I am and how I see things for ever.

Take this image...nice eh? I got home from holiday and in the garden all my chillies had come to harvest, my Mr picked them and arranged them all in a bowl and I took them outside today and arranged them into rows because that seems to be my OCD/Virgo way and because it was pleasing and because I loved the shapes of the shadows. I wasn't thinking oooo I'm making art, I was just playing. Took some snaps and this one jumped out. I felt quite pleased with myself. Then I realised it was just like Anna's work from the wonderful blog Colour and Sound. 


Now, I love Anna's  work and I would be totally horrified if anyone thought I had copied her wonderful unique style. But I am totally acknowledging I must have been influenced by her which led me to great and deep thoughts this morning. Notice acknowledge has the words 'know' and 'led' in it. I wrestle with this stuff. I have noticed elements of my uniqueness creeping in out there in other blogs and I get upset but then I think I have got so many more ideas inside me ~ I come from a huge line of unique people and I'm sure they are all in my head urging me on. I would hate to not blog about my work, in my style, because I teach and I love that I have inspired people and this is the best platform for that, it would be a shame if I stopped. If I inspire you, then acknowledge it, it's only polite and if you can't be unique then do something else. I've got a living to earn.


What do you all think?


It's all too philosophical on a Sunday morning that's for sure. I hate to sound like a lecture with a waggy finger but I'm interested in how you all deal with this too? 


With deep apologies to lovely Anna and I hope she doesn't mind that I used her as an example. But she is just so damn inspiring. And here's one of  my own images, I just love piles of stuff! Now what can I do with all these chillies? Make chilli jam? Shame to waste them and they are very hot. Maybe a garland of them for the kitchen to brighten those dark nights that are on their way, galloping like a train towards us. I wonder how long they will last if I glued them to the wall! Maybe I'll cast them in plaster. I'll keep you posted  ;-)


Have a good week...

Into Production

I have had a creative fountain in me this last week or so, it is situated around my heart area. It looks like a cross between a chandelier and Southend seafront. It's like being at a party and believing you are the life and soul of the event. In actual fact, you've probably just had a tequila too many. I'll probably wake up next week and think what a fool I have been.

But for now, the folding, cutting and glueing is spurring me on.

Note to self:

Don't think too much, just make.

Don't talk too much, just create.

Don't varnish your fingernails a particularly fetching and inappropriate shade of midnight blue because every time you fold a piece of paper it leaves it's indelible mark.