The Mama Judy and Jill Podcast

Episode 33: Tips for Finding Creative Inspiration

• Jill Gottenstrater and Judy George • Episode 33

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In this episode, we dive into the concept that our richest sources of inspiration often come from within. We discuss how creating in your personal space and interacting with your materials can spark significant creative breakthroughs. 

We also touch on the importance of recognizing what ignites your creativity and how revisiting work you initially dismissed can later serve as a profound source of inspiration. 

Finally, we talk about the value of documenting moments of insight to pull from later, and moving away from the pressure of what you "should" be doing as a creative. 

We hope our chat in today's episode will spark some ideas to help you enjoy some creative time soon! 

If you'd prefer to watch this podcast, you can find us over on our YouTube page (The Mama Judy & Jill Podcast).

We'd LOVE to hear from you! Click here to send us your thoughts and ideas for a future episode.

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Jill:

Well, hi everyone. We're so glad you are here with us today. Mama Judy and I are going to be talking about something that we spoke about back in episode three of our podcast about inspiration. But at that time we talked about, finding inspiration through external factors or external things in your life today. We're going to focus in on. Inspiration that can be found within and so hi mom and judy.

Mama Judy:

Hi jill. Hi everyone. Good to see

Jill:

everybody Yes. And Mama Judy came up with this idea because we both said to each other, everyone, it seems like, whether it's online or friends we're talking to regarding the creative process, people go through little dips and lulls of not finding inspiration for their creative, adventures. And so it's something that is kind of evergreen that always needs to be discussed, but I love the idea of speaking about more of the internal

Mama Judy:

things today. Yes, and I love the word evergreen. Um, and you're right, Jill. I see this word, this phrase, how do I get inspired? I'm not feeling inspired this week. So as you pointed out, it belongs to everybody. Yes. And I got to thinking, and I, we mentioned this a little bit in episode three, but I got to thinking about how I get inspired. But I focused on. Not going out, say, for example, to Pinterest to get ideas, which is very easy to do. But the other thing that I do when I need to be inspired, I go in and just sit. In amongst my supplies, and it's amazing when you're going through your supplies and you're looking at things all of a sudden, if you just are relaxed in that state with no expectations, how often an idea will come to you and, um, last week when Lynn was over here for a play date, I asked her how she gets inspired if she doesn't go out to look at somebody else's And Lin's work, many of you will know, like Jill's, is in fabric. And it was the same thing that I said that I do. She said she goes in and just handles her fabrics and just sort of sits with them, if you would. And, and so one of the things that I think we can all do when we're feeling uninspired, just go sit. And touch, smell, see your supplies you work

Jill:

with. Yes, I love that. And even if it, and you know, you work with the mixed media type things. So whether it's paints or even just going in and sitting down with your canvases, if you were a painter and your paintbrushes and your paints and seeing the colors and just kind of seeing what comes to you, what's inspired just from that, what's right around you. And, and

Mama Judy:

I think the key on all of this particular way to get self inspired is to be there in a relaxed, open minded, almost Almost a meditative state. Hmm. Um, so that you're just breathing, you're just there. You're not putting pressure on yourself. You're just sitting with this and that kind of incubates, it's kind of an incubation or an incubator for ideas. Mm-Hmm. it's amazing. Things will pop up that in your conscious mind, you might not have ever thought about

Jill:

them. Right. Well, last week I bought a bunch of these plastic bins, Mama Judy, to put different things in. And so I think I got six of them and I just wanted to sort stuff by color or something because it was just becoming. An overwhelming pile of fabric. And then I was just like scared to even go dig in. But anyway, so I got these six bins and I put everything in there organized. And then the final touch, which I did last week was my friend has a label maker. Put labels on it. Now, when I come and sit in my space, I can kind of look over there and I see a bin full of kind of like reds and Browns or whatever, and even just having it. somewhat organized for me anyway, where I can actually see my supplies instead of having a big pile that has inspired me a lot. And it just makes the possibilities kind of open up because it feels more doable and not so overwhelming.

Mama Judy:

That's an excellent point. And everybody has a different approach to that. Um, There's no organization to my well, I guess you'd call it organization, but I have just piles and piles of stuff that I just pick up and go through and there is no sorting. So depending on how you prefer to work. Well, it does the same thing. It opens up possibilities, and that's what inspiration is. It's the possibilities, and I want to segue into another way to keep track of those possibilities. If you If you want to, if that's a preferred way. When we're inspired sometimes, we get so many ideas, we almost over get overwhelmed again. You have all these ideas running around in your head. And so if you're at that point, then maybe keep a list. of those ideas. Again, this is coming from your self inspiration when you're in that inspiration mode. Um, if you're a painter, you can write it down and sketch it out. Just something that records your inspiration, your idea. Maybe three words. A small description, and then you throw it into a file. Yes. Now when you're feeling uninspired, you have a resource that came from internal to go to. And the only reason that you put it down is because as time goes by, we all forget about those great ideas. Yes. But now, let's say I put, let's say I've done that for the last two weeks. And I walk in and I'm uninspired that day. Well, I need something that came from internal to get me going. Because even if you look externally at somebody's work, or work, I mean, your idea comes from the internal. So now, all my internal thoughts Are in an external file. I can go to it. I can read through it. Maybe one of those will spark me where I'll go. Oh, God, that's great. I want to do that idea today. So we're keeping a catalog. Of our internal inspiration.

Jill:

That is a great idea. this just made me think about just keeping that list is, now this is when you're out and about, but a lot of times things come to me, I'm on my walk. So internally, I'm just thinking about things, you know, and things will come to me. So I started carrying, instead of getting on my phone, I may have even mentioned this in the past, but I started carrying a little pad of paper with a pencil. So I can just. Got it down. And it's just a word or two, but inspiration comes a lot for me when I'm walking without any noise or anything, just walking. And so some way to record that a piece of paper on your phone, whatever, Absolutely.

Mama Judy:

That's perfect. It doesn't, we're lucky in this technological age that we have various ways we can record our inspiration, but You're just been doing enough to capture the idea so that you don't lose it because on your walk you might have 10 of them you get home and you go, it's like, it's like your dreams when you wake up, you're sure you will remember your dreams, five minutes after you woke up you forgotten them so let's. Let's have an organized way to capture our inspiration so that then we can call on it whenever we need

Jill:

to. And remember to go back to it. And remember to

Mama Judy:

go back. Maybe what we do, we'll put it in a file, then we'll put a note in front of us. Check inspiration file. Yes. And, and for me, Jill, I tried doing things on my phone, in a file, but I always forget. I guess I'm a little more old school. I always forget to go check that file. So now I start With a physical file down that I can pull up and just spread out with these ideas.

Jill:

Yes, I love that idea. Okay, so what else? What's another one are you thinking?

Mama Judy:

we've talked about just sitting with your supplies. Oh, another one. Okay. One of the things that I do quite often, we all have projects we start, and actually, this is one I see a lot when somebody is painting particularly, but it could be with any medium. So you, you're going along, you think you're inspired, you look at it, you go, Oh God, I hate this. This is horrible. I usually just throw them in a pile in the corner and they just sit there. But what I've also found as a way for internal inspiration is if I go pull out, in fact I did yesterday, pull out just a piece of paper that I had started to work on for journal pages and I didn't like it. It just It was like fingernails on the blackboard. I pulled it out today, and voila. There are the possi Well, if I did this, well, what if I put this mark here? So if you run against those things that you don't like what you've produced, it might have a place to inspire you in the future. So just put those in. I can see now I keep telling people to put little piles and files. Pretty soon somebody's going to have an office full of piles and piles and piles. But again, just don't get rid of it. Just maybe put it in the, what shall we call it? Maybe later file, whatever. I like that. Or idea, maybe later, because again, oh, go ahead. Well, I was

Jill:

going to say, Ann, when you have those little piles, at one point when I was sort of just doing mostly fabric and stitching, now I'm trying a little watercoloring and more collaging and stuff. I had this little pile and I'm like I'm probably not going to use it but I just stuck some stuff over there. I wouldn't have used it if I just kept with my stitching but now that I'm doing other things I am pulling from that all the time and it is so inspiring. I'm like oh my gosh this was a little scrap of paper that had scribbles on it but I thought well if Mama Judy had this she'd probably incorporate it into a journal so I throw it in this little area. Thinking I'm going to be like Mama Judy. And then when I get inspired one day to do collage journal or something, I am using that stuff and it's totally inspiring me. And I would have never

Mama Judy:

guessed it. Another perfect example. Um, I think the reason Jill, I wanted to touch base on inspiration again, is to make sure that everybody under, not understands, but was aware that inspiration really doesn't have to be. from somebody else's work. Yes. That we can be our own source of information. I think I mentioned, yeah, and I think I mentioned on one of the podcasts, the time that I was out on Pinterest, same thing, trying to get external inspiration. And I'm looking at these journal pages going, Oh my God, I love this. And then I realized it was my journal. And, I mean, so right there, two things. Number one, get a clue when you're looking at something. But number two is, I was my own source of inspiration that day. But at that day, it had not occurred to me. To go back again. Part of it is I don't keep my journals, so I don't have them physically to go through for inspiration, but I can go to my postings and look at them and get. Inspiration from my previous inspiration. That's what I'm doing. My previous inspiration will spark my current inspiration.

Jill:

Yes. Okay. Did everybody just heard that bird squawking in the background? Is Mama Judy is recording the podcast outside on her patio where she does a lot of her art and have coffee and all that, and that bird is just squawking

Mama Judy:

away? That's one of those big black ravens that we have around here. You might also hear a golfer go by.

Yeah.

Jill:

I heard some kids a minute ago. the other thing, speaking of even that bird squawking, as you're sitting with your things and you were saying earlier to like, look with your sight and feel your fabrics but you do spend time outside where you are creating your art. And that could be a type of inspiration while it is external, but while you're trying to collect inspiration, you might be like, Ooh, I'm going to paint a raven if you're in that mode of thinking about being creative.

Mama Judy:

Absolutely. That's a good point. I have one more point that's a little more psychological, Jill, before we, um, leave our audience. And we've talked about this too in various ways, but it's about don't should yourself. For example, let's say that you're, you've got time and especially people that don't have as much time, for example, as I do. Now that I'm retired and you go to your art room and you think I should get something done, but you, you don't feel inspired. You just can't quite, but you keep saying, but I should by doing that to ourselves that first of all kills our inspiration. I think inspiration comes through the most. When we have a quiet voice in our head and telling yourself, I should is not the voice that's quiet, but the most important thing I believe when we use the word should we take something that is fun. And we move it into the obligation column. So when you do that, when you go from, I'm creating for fun because I love it, to I should, I have to do something. You've just really kind of stifled yourself. Now, there are times when an artist really truly does need to get a certain amount done. Um, for if they have a deadline or something. But unless that comes up, you don't have to do anything at any one time, most of the time. So don't put yourself into that. Allow yourself that internal environment. Will free up that creative muse. Use that is sitting in there, just waiting for you to be quiet enough that they can be

Jill:

heard. Yes. And, and when you said the term obligation, it's like you're making it into a chore for yourself. Yep. And that's not what it is. And then it made me think to internally to think about, turn that around when you're saying I should, I should, you could ask your inner child. We've talked about that inner child that wants to come out and play, ask them. What would you like to do? And let your insides, come up with that, like, let's just turn this around. What would you love to do for fun or to express yourself today?

Mama Judy:

Yes. And that internal voice is self inspiration. Because if we're good with our internal voice, we will create the environment. That allows the inspiration to come out and talking to that inner child or just sitting there and just, like you said, use the word I get to create for the next hour. Yes, change that. Even if you already know. Yeah. Yeah. And if you know what you want to do by saying it in that way, we've created that internal environment that now we look forward to it instead of dreading it. Yes.

Jill:

And we use this word possibilities, exploring the possibilities before instead it's this thing where you just want to shut it down. Instead. It's like, Oh, I get to do this. What? There's so many opportunities for things for me to explore. one last thing I think I'll say, and we've talked about this some even in our using art as healing and that kind of thing, but another internal thing is if you're journaling, you know, you're feeling sometimes when I'm journaling all of a sudden, I'll just feel like, Ooh, I want to paint a flower now or paint something or, or draw something of what you've just taken from your inside as you're journaling it out. And then using that as inspiration and just seeing what comes and you might be stitching or drawing or collaging or whatever might come to you. Yeah. Yes,

Mama Judy:

absolutely. I love that.

Jill:

well, good. Well, and we hope for our listeners that you will take something that was mentioned today. If you're feeling that little dip in inspiration, don't let that hold you back. Definitely don't think you should be creating though, but just understanding, remember how lucky we are to get to do this. And we hope one of these ideas has sparked something for you. And when we post this, especially in YouTube, you know, you can leave a comment I would love for people, if you have other ideas, internal, inspirational ideas that could be helpful to drop it into the comments because then other people might be able to see if it's something different that you've done and incorporate that into their own life as well.

Mama Judy:

Absolutely. I love those because that's where I learned a lot is from people's comments to something. So. Good idea. We also want to remind them that periodically we're going to do little videos on YouTube on tips from you and I, uh, to keep their eyes, ears open for that

Jill:

also. Yes. And Mama Judy, we have one up now and by the time this, this episode airs, there'll probably be another one. And it was. A lot of people loved this video that you did. It's a how to, but you have to go look on her YouTube channel to see what it is. But she did a great how to, and I'm going to be doing a video soon coming up that has to do with something around traveling. Well, Mama Judy, this was so fun. And this is our, first time where we're now doing our monthly podcast. so Mama Judy and I, before we got on, we're saying how much we miss each other just on a weekly basis. We still are in constant communication with each other, but this is fun to see your face and we're so grateful for all of you tuning in with us. And we hope you found something helpful today.

Mama Judy:

Absolutely. We love our audience.

Jill:

All right. Love you, Mama Judy.

Mama Judy:

Love you too, my dear. Talk to you later. Bye.