One night a few weeks ago I had some kind of stomach bug. It kept me up until nearly midnight, and I was so exhausted. When I finally laid my head on my pillow and closed my eyes, immediately compositions for my new series of paintings started forming on the backs of my eyelids.
I have learned that if I don’t capture these ideas when they are playing on the screen of my imagination, they may disappear and never come back. I fought with myself for a few minutes… I was finally warm, I was exhausted, I needed sleep.
But in the end I didn’t want to lose the ideas, so I dragged myself out from under the covers and found a blank page of paper. I went into the bathroom (so as not to wake up Luke) and turned on the light.
And there I sketched out several quick concepts, just to capture them from the screen playing in my mind, before they disappeared forever.
Satisfied, I climbed back into bed and fell asleep.
When the muse strikes, I have to capture the inspiration, or I risk it disappearing from my memory. This is part of the creative process, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Comments