Where do you get your inspiration from?

[Witch Hollow Primitives]

I thought it would be neat if we could share where our passion and inspiration comes from, for our art or our deep love for the holiday season.

Since I started I will answer first. I have always loved Halloween and the season surrounding it. I love fall and my favorite smell (as weird as it sounds) is the smell of burning leaves. Autumn is my absolute favorite time of year, I love how the leaves are all changing colors, the air is crisper and of course Halloween!

I get inspired by the season's surroundings, as well as the amazing Halloween artists that surround me. They give me much inspiration just by doing what they do best. A lot of my favorite art is Halloween art and vintage or primitive folkart pieces. Once fall hits its usually time for me take an anal trip to Salem, MA can't think of a more inspirational place to go in the fall. Old vintage halloween postcards also inspire some of my creations.

[Lucille Rox]

I'm inspired by what other artists do. I tend to look at something in porcelain, or clay and think "I wonder what would happen if I tried to do something like that with cloth". I get amazing results that are very different from my inspiration but unexpected for cloth.

I see faces in trees and flowers and read old children's fairy tales and fantasy stories as well as watching old (pre 1950) horror movies and cartoons from the 30's and 40's. I find these movies on the $1 rack at Walmart as well as in dollar stores. They're fun, funny and downright creepy. Have you seen the silent movie version of The Wizard of Oz?

[Witch Hollow Primitives]

I haven't seen that version sounds neat though. I love old black and white monster movies, I hate modern day horror. Its all hack and chop and nothing scary like the old universal monster movies used to be. I remember watching all those as a kid, Dracula, the mummy, the werewolf. I loved them! I think besides Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price in the Raven is one of my favorites.

I also love the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I would really like to go to the real Sleepy Hollow this year in October.
Heather

[Carolee of Art Pod Studios]

Hi Lucille, I am a newbie. I was almost laughing out loud with joy when I read that you see faces in trees and flowers. I too see faces and characters in the things around me, even in lace curtains, designs in floors with textures, etc. It feels so good to know that it is just an artistic thing....when I told my husband (Mr. Spock, it must compute for a reason, a real life elec. engineer) he gave me a funny look, LOL! It will be nice to have other artists to share inspirations and ideas with. I think I mostly get design ideas from emotions that I feel about something I have heard or seen.
~Carolee~

[By Way of Salem]

Hi everyone - I get my inspiration from many places. I love looking through old magazines - craft, house and gardening, catalogs, scrapbooking papers, furniture stores, craft galleries, and of course just the time of year, whether it be Christmas or Halloween. Halloween is of course my favorite. Tim Burton is also a big inspiration, as well as so many other talented artists.

I can look at something and envision something different, though it might be a spin off of something similiar. You have to develop your own style and technique and remain true to yourself. And just because someone makes something close to what someone else does - like for instance a very colorful background with black sillouettes, doesn't mean they're copying. They may just be using a similar technique and then adding their own twist onto it. You have to judge each piece individually for it's own merit. Let's face it - we all run out of ideas from time to time, and so we morph and mold to our own liking.

[Lucille Rox]

I agree with what you said about you may be using a similar technique with your own twist. I love the Halloween dolls I've seen that are white with gray to black eyes lips and nose like decaying corpses and I want to make a pumpkin head doll like that..BUT...I worry that others will say I've copied them. Then again, Tim Burton did that coloring on Nightmare Before Christmas before I ever saw it done any where so am I copying him? I know I'm not, but just saying that makes me realize he was partially my inspiration...but he never did what I plan to try. I'll post a photo when my creation is done. Lucy

[Witch Hollow Primitives]

I do a lot of silhouette paintings and have done so for many years. I am also good friends with 3 other artists that also do silhouette paintings. Only the use of silhouettes being black mainly on colored backgrounds is a similar theme, all 4 of us have very different ideas and styles unique to each of our own work.

This came up this past month so its funny being mentioned and now I have an example to offer for it. Ron and Sherry Byrum did a painting last year of a witch on a bike. I also wanted to do a witch and her cat on a bike but felt funny even though the theme was very different in each of our paintings so I asked if they would mind.

If I am inspired to try something that an artist has done in a similar way, I usually just ask them ahead of time. On the other hand our art group has witnessed much this year with copy cats on ebay redoing poor copys of other artists work and selling them. This is sad.
I think its great to get inspirations from others its just what you do with it that matters and if its your own style there should be nothing to worry about.

Funny everyone is mentioning Tim Burton :) I am doing a painting of Jack Skellington this week I hope to have it done. Lucy, I can't wait to see your doll! I hope it turns out great.

Heather

[Lucille Rox]

Okay--this will give you a hint...have you seen this guy?

I thought I'd use this as a starting point (it's totally mine) and do his "head" and arms white with a black nose shading to gray near the outer edges. Of course I have to change the shapes of his eyes and mouth too -- less Jack o'Lantern, more ghost crossed with a skeleton! And of course his clothing has to be more formal. Lucy

[Witch Hollow Primitives]

Lucy, I think he will look great.
It will be all yours when your done, I wouldn't worry about the tecnique for the
coloring this one is already your original. don't forget to show us!
hugs,
Heather

[By Way of Salem]

Hi Lucy - yes I agree with you. That's exactly what I mean! Let's take pumpkin heads for example. My sis, Ellen - the other half of the Bag Sisters from BWOS, sculpted a pumpkin head. Probably the size of an orange. I told her to make it into a wand and add cool ribbons and things hanging off it. Ok - now - how many pumpkin wands are out there? Probably a lot! But that doesn't mean you "copied" them unless maybe you went out and made the EXACT same thing. There are only so many things to do with pumpkin heads.
For years I had a paint your own t-shirt kit out called T-shirt by Design. Ok, there's others who have something similar, but my packaging was totally different, my designs were different, the inks I used were different, but it was the same thing primarily. You can't patent something like that. The native americans and primitive man painted on cloth long before we ever started marketing it. See what I mean? I think that most artists, though they may not admit it, use parts of pieces or ideas from others. There's nothing wrong with that.
And your doll idea? Yes exactly! I've seen all sorts of those. So make one! So what if it looks similar - it's YOUR'S! I'd love to do one too! I want to do some skellies. How many of those are out there? And how many different ways can you paint one? White and black and shades of gray pretty much. I'm sure you get the picture. So you go girl! Make sure you post that doll of yours - I want to see it!!!

[By Way of Salem]

I agree with you too Heather. But you are going to get those type of copy cats as well - it just can't be helped. You can take it 2 ways; either as a form of flattery that they want to try something like that as well, or be upset that they're trying to duplicate something that's already done so well. Again, I'll use my t-shirts as an example. I was at a trade show in San Francisco and a guy walked up to me and said, Hi I'm your competitor - I also have a painted t-shirt kit. Well at first I was a little perturbed, till I saw it. It was like you mentioned about the artists on eBay duplicating and doing a poor job of it. Same thing here! His kit came in a plastic clamshell packaging - the annoying type that you can't take off! He was retailing them at $5. Mine retails for $20 - so there was just no comparison. Same with what you're saying. I'd just take the high road, cause in the long run, you'll win out. Good customers want quality. The people that buy the cheaply priced crappy stuff on Ebay are probably the same ones who buy the wood painted ornaments from China at drug stores for $2, when artists like us would charge $10 at a craft show. I want the quality customer.

[Halloween Spirit]

Well, I agree with you Heather. Fall is a beautiful time of the year. I think my deep love of Halloween comes from missing so many Trick or Treat's when I was young. For about the last three years that I was young enough to trick or treat, I ended up sick with the flu on Halloween. I did get to answer the door, that was OK. So, I took my Niece when she came along, and then when I was 17 years old, I was at school with my best friend on Halloween, and we decided to dress up and trick or treat. She was Dracula and I was Frankenstein. We had soo much fun, and scared all the little spooks and witches that night. Well, I'm still trying to catch up on those three years. I don't think I'll ever get it done. When my kids were little, if I had to miss a Halloween (we had a business, and my workers would call in sick) I would just cry. I finally vowed that I would NOT miss a Halloween, and haven't since. I took my Grand Daughter last year (three years old) and It was the best time I've had yet. I just can't get enough of Halloween, and when I discovered that world of Halloween art, I finally felt like I came "home" I also believe that I was a lover of Halloween in a past life or two. At the turn of the 20th century. I feel so comfortable with vintage Halloween images, and ideas. And, one more thing, Next year I am going to Salem with Heather (I hope).

[Witch Hollow Primitives]

Cindy, your story is great. I can understand being upset about missing out on a halloween. I think its so deeply ingrained in us artistic types. I can't think of another holiday where I feel as home too. I know to people who love christmas they think its a little weird, but halloween has always been my favoirte, and now I can live vicariously through my kids with it as well.
I don't think we ever really need to as adults "grow up" on halloween because its the kind of holiday where you can be anything you want to be.

I agree about the vintage halloween things too, I can identify with them and they are a huge inspiration in my art. I love vintage postcards, the images you can live in and I think most of us like to rekindle the past because some thing we never got to experience, well not in this time anyway. Salem... I am already saving up for next year. I can't think of a better traveling companion either!