What Inspires You?

I collect things. Lots of things. Big things, little things, silly things, serious things. I have surrounded myself with clutter which I am sure is meaningful to no one but me. And as I look around my home, studying all of my many collections, I wonder why I so love to collect things. And after much consideration I realize I find not only comfort in my collections but inspiration.

One of my favorite things to collect are hand images. I have sculptures, paintings, jewelry, I even have hands tattooed on my back. What is it about hands that inspire me so? I really have no idea. Maybe it is the delicate, rough, graceful, thin, pudgy possibilities that are created with 5 digits. Is it all the pulling, pinching, and punching they can do? Or the elegant way they can tell a story? Perhaps the idea that our very destiny is written in our palms. I look at the lines on my hands and see a road map of possibilities. And I know that these hands can create wonderful things, they can speak of possibilities my words cannot articulate.

I know when I am in the midst of an artistic block, and a loudly stark piece of white paper is staring back at me, I will often start with the image of a hand. Talk to the hand, let that hand talk to you, it directs me and gets me back on my path of creating.

So tell me, what inspires you?