What inspires me...

As a kid, I could not answer this question. I was inspired all the time and I did not need to know why. In my teens and early twenties I would give you a confusing answer, because the inspiration channel in me was damaged. Too much fear and ego was in play. Today, I might have a clearer idea about the source of my inspiration. And even though inspiration and creativity is the essential requirement for my job (I am visual artist- painter), deep inside I know that any rational analysis is completely redundant as far as inspiration, creativity and other things you cannot buy with money is concerned.

The source of my inspiration can be described in one word. Booze. No, that was a joke! The right word is Connection. Connection with the source. Connection with the higher self. Connection with Universe, Omniverse, the Divine, connection with whatever you choose to call it, a connection which does not need a name at all. Who cares for names anyway? Not me. All I need to know, and actually not even that, is how it occurs. It can hit me at any time of the day, in any situation, but it has one common denominator. The silence of mind. The less thoughts cloud the mind, the more inspiration and creativity shines through. Have you heard of a term “overworked painting”? Maybe you did. It’s a painting which had a promising potential as a piece of art, but was overworked in the final phase by the artist, who started to analyze too much the brush strokes with his brain, making it look unnatural and forced. And that is exactly what happens when the mind kicks in where it has no place to be. Because painting, same as any truly creative activity is a flow, a river of light, not a mind game. In the moments of the greatest inspiration, I am just an instrument of something which is way bigger than me.

Regardless if it happens when I see the horizon from a mountain top with snowy peaks as far as eye can see, when I walk in pristine nature, when I catch my breath after making love, when I open my eyes after silent meditation, when I wake up after a night of a good sleep or when I have a large sip on the first chilled beer after couple of hours spent by cutting wood for frames- connection always occurs in the absence of chatter of mind. For me, being an artist is being open, being like a blank page, being a channel.