How Ideas Are Born (I think)

Often people ask me if I get writer's block, or art block or anything similar, and they’re always surprised when my answer is “no”. In fact, I feel that I have so many ideas in my brain that a whole lifetime mightn’t even be enough time to execute them all. 

I think this is mostly a result of my outlook on artmaking. I have always (from as far back as I have conscious memories, at least) seen myself as an artist. I think I was born with some strange innate feeling that I was put on earth to make stuff. And so, that’s exactly what I’ve done; make art, make music, make these little weekly ramblings. There are still so many more things I would love to make.

Ideas don’t come solely from the creator, and I think that’s a big misconception about creatives. Elizabeth Gilbert’s Ted Talk ‘Your Elusive Creative Genius’ (which is a favourite of both me and musical goddess Taylor Swift) speaks beautifully on the release of pressure on the individual maker and the great effects this can have on their work. 

My ideas come from everywhere. I talk to new people and look at their outfits and listen to their stories. I visit new places and observe the culture and the landscapes and the light. I consume new media, new books and songs and movies and they shift the lens of my worldview a few degrees. This is where ideas come from. They come from everywhere else. My job is just to catch them and turn them into digestible supercuts of their former selves, ready to be devoured by our busy human minds. A song that sounds like Summer will never be the same as the season itself, but it’s nice to have a little taste of it, anyway.

It’s an important job, in my (very biassed) personal opinion. Our memories are all tied-up in songs and clothes and visuals, and to be on the creative side of that is pretty special.

So no, I might be naïve to say it, but I don’t think I’ll ever run out of ideas, because I’ll never run out of thoughts and feelings and experiences. There will always be things to be learnt and things to be depicted and there will always be art.

xx Rose