Artists are designers. An artistic designer will conceive and create plans to be used in manifesting something of artistic value. Often times during this process, artistic designers will consciously or unconsciously seek, embrace and employ a source of inspiration in order to bring their imagination to life. Michelangelo is said to have remarked that he released David from the marble block he found him in. “The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through,” said Jackson Pollock. Writers often exclaim that their novels already exist in their entirety and that the writer’s job is to listen for it, watch the events in their mind’s eye and write them down.

The same may be said of all art. If paintings, sculptures and novels wait for artists, then sonatas, plays, poems, jewelry and fashion wait for artists too. The artist’s job is to simply get them down. To do that, artists must draw from a creative source. Some people find it easier to picture the stream of inspiration as radio waves of all sorts being broadcasts. With practice, we learn how to hear the desired frequency on request. We tune in to the frequency we want.

What is inspiration?

It is a spontaneous process resulting from the subconscious mind's reaction to man's experiences and as such it gives a revealing snapshot of all the thoughts, values, and emotions an individual has accumulated in the course of his life. Any experience that appeals to the contents of man's mind and soul elicits a response of inspiration. Every expression that appeals to man's highest ideals is a source of inspiration. It is the quick route that bridges an artist’s emotions to his thoughts and reveals his innermost soul through his responses or creations. The importance of inspiration for human life is based on the nature, role, and needs of human consciousness. It is fuel for his soul.

Artists often find their richest sources of inspiration through their experiences with nature, religion, art, literature, music and dreams. Sometimes the artistic self wants to express itself creatively, but doesn't know where to begin. There are two distinct parts to the process of inspiration. First, the artist must accept and acknowledge the possibility of inspiration and secondly, the artists must surrender in faith to the source of inspiration.

Sources of Inspiration

Nature – Artists are often inspired by nature. This is because to him it represents an untapped human potential. Nature is the domain where man's creative ability is applied and his heroic potential realized. In nature man is inspired by the potential. Empty spaces can be filled with orchards, factories, shopping malls, art museums, laboratories, and other monuments of human civilization. Natural Elements such as gold, sterling silver, pearls, diamonds and gemstones have inspired jewelry designers for ages. Click here to see more nature leaf jewelry
Architecture- This is the most obvious instance of man conquering nature, which is why scientific achievements provide great nourishment for the artistic mind. The skyline of New York and other big cities is a concrete manifestation of human creativity. All the technological achievements of our time from medicine to computers and from the exploration of space to nuclear science provide evidence of grandeur that elevates the spirit of the artist or designer. Click here to see more cable jewelry
Religion and Philosophy – Religion and Philosophy also uphold the power of reason and glorifies man - like the ideas of Aristotle, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and Ayn Rand. In jewelry for example, crosses and other religious symbols have been a major inspiration to religious jewelry designers since the medieval period. Click here to see more religious jewelry
Emotion Love - Made popular in the Victorian Age, the heart became the international symbol of Emotional and romantic love. Artists and designers have used the heart as a way to express love. Tiffany & Co. have designed a beautiful Heart Shaped Jewelry collection inspired by the heart. Click here to see more heart shaped jewelry
Animals - Since the days of the horse and carriage and the royal hunt, the equestrian sports have influenced style, fashion and jewelry. For example, the one hot jewelry designer has contributed a great deal to Equestrian jewelry. Click here to see more animal shaped jewelry
Sports - Athletic achievement is another important source of inspiration, which is why athletes of the stature of Babe Ruth rank among humanity's greatest heroes. Every expression that appeals to man's highest ideals is a source of inspiration. Click here to see more sport theme jewelry

Art

It is no coincidence that the foremost source of inspiration is art. The very role of art is to materialize man's metaphysical values. By virtue of his ideas, an artist admires majesty and grandeur, the glory of man emerging triumphant over nature, the radiant image of man the creator, man the conqueror, man the hero. This is precisely the image conveyed by the works of the greatest artists in the history of humanity, which provide the artists with priceless emotional fuel and the fervent desire to measure up to the example of their artistic archetypes. Music as inspiration occupies a special place in this context.

Contrary to the visual arts, music has an immediate impact on the soul by directly touching man's emotions without any intervention by the conscious mind. Music reached its peak in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century with giants like Mozart, Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti, masters who created with the sound of their music the harmony and grandeur achieved on canvas and in marble by Da Vinci and Michelangelo.

Synchronicity

Synchronicity is the acceptance that the universe is helping with the artist’s creative process. Artists will hear the dialogue they need, find the right song for the sequence, see the exact paint color he almost had in mind, and so forth. Artists have the experience of finding things – books, seminars, tossed-out stuff- that happen to fit with the project at hand.

Just as various artists and designers apply their abilities and energies to different areas of endeavor, they also respond to different sources of inspiration. Others have a greater response to art, others to science, others to sports, and still others to the potential offered by nature. An artist finds his greatest inspiration in the majesty of an exquisitely sculpted human body, an architect in grand buildings or open spaces where he could build and a jewelry designer may find inspiration through sculpture, painting or nature.