What is a muse, really?

A Starbucks Dragonfruit Refresher; it's a pretty color somewhere on the border between pink and purple

 

There’s a lot of things I find inspirational, even if I don’t end up doing something with the inspiration. Like this drink. I really really want to make a yarn with that color. I don’t think I’d wear something that color, and I know it would be really really hard to achieve with the dye set I have (what up, McCormick?) so there’s not a lot of point in trying, at least at this stage of my career, but I keep finding myself drawn to this image. I like to look at it and just absorb all of what the picture says to me. First of all, I bought this drink on a really hot and sunny day in Florida (think about 105F with 100% humidity and very little to no cloud cover – it’s like being in a brightly lit, feverish mouth, it’s the absolute worst) and I finished that drink in about 3 sips. So there’s this contrast of hot and cold and discomfort and relief and I can’t look at this image without thinking about all of those feelings, too. The color is one of my favorites too, but for a kind of odd reason. It’s pink, but it’s also purple, and I love colors that are right on the border of being other colors; that complexity is just so compelling. I strive for that level of color complexity in my dyes, but I just don’t have the level of control yet. That, and part of the allure of this color is its luminance; the light shining through the color gives it a whole new dimension that wouldn’t translate well to fiber. I’ve thought about maybe coming close to it by dyeing silk or a silk blend, but I have a feeling it just wouldn’t come across the same way. Ultimately, I think part of the allure of this is how ephemeral it is, or I guess I should say was. My work is always striving to create something durable, something timeless and ageless. So the frivolity of this image, this color, this drink – it’s a refreshing contrast to what I do all the time and it just gives me energy in a way that’s hard to describe.

What gives you inspiration and why? I love hearing other perspectives on this, especially from art forms I don't participate in. There's just something about creative energy in all forms that's exciting and makes me want to start in on a new project (especially if I have some kind of deadline looming!)