About your inspiration to paint?

Well most of the time it comes if I'm very down or angry as a way of getting rid of energy, or if I can't sleep - which is very often.

Sometimes specific songs inspire me for a painting, like I see a picture of what the song means if that makes sense.

There are also specific people that inspire me to paint, e.g. my little sister because she's absolutely gorgeous and also my cousin, because he is passionate about art so we lock ourselves up and just draw all day long when we're together, its like some kind of frenzy! When we're together we can each complete up to 12 drawings per day, its insane.

I've also painted many of my dreams and I often paint things I wish for in hope that they happen some day.

Sometimes I paint for the sake of the medium, oil paints for example, sometimes it doesn't matter to me what the hell I'm painting, its just the smell of the linseed oil, the different brush strokes, the roughness of canvas, the texture of the paint, the patterns on the palette and the vastness of the spectrum.

If I'm painting publicly then I do need the music to shut the others out, the only time its fine with me to have someone around is if its my cousin or another particularly talented artist (although I generally keep this to myself as it gives away to people how highly or lowly I value their work).

Well, enough said: art is my life, I couldn't get through anything without it.

Inspiration To Paint

There was an interview with Philip Guston in which he was asked about inspiration and painting -- what inspires him to work. And he answered that inspiration is fleeting, and not truly a valuable resource to be able to tap into... sure, there are moments where you feel excited and energized to paint something -- but rather, more valuable in the act of painting was frustration or dissatisfaction with the world, frankly, negative emotions had more of an impact on his desire to paint.

I tend to agree, personally. What gets me into the studio to paint is less the joy of painting and more of a feeling of anxiety about not being in the studio, that I have something to give to this world and I won't be able to give it any other way. Once I am in, and mixing paint, making marks, the inspiration may come, but it soon leaves and is almost on auto pilot.

Maybe this is another way of describing inspiration -- but it's a need to express some kind of a truth about the world that I feel is my duty. I don't know if its something that can be done, but it's what keeps me coming back.

I paint what I do need painting