Sourcing Inspiration Worksheet

The words I chose are: memory, feelings, opinions, instincts, impulses, aspiration, serenity, boredom, dream, perception, observation, comfort, and beauty.

Memory: I think one's experience and memory about these (maybe distorted) experiences is a source of inspiration. For example, what is my memory of Beijing and my early childhood life in Shijiazhuang? Are these memories distorted after a long time? What are some memories that are still kept in my brain? How are these memories shape my identity and a sense of home?

Feelings: I think feelings are the color of my work. What kind of feelings would invoke what colors? Do sad/happy feelings have a specific color? Are the choices of color socially constructed (like blue for boys and pink for girls)? 

Opinions: I think one of the most important things to create my artwork is to have opinions. There should be always a reason for creating a work. Opinions are like the skeleton that shapes the work.

Instincts: I think art should be instinctive. Too much thinking may interfere with what comes naturally. Working on things and following my instinct would allow my ideas and art to come spontaneously.

Impulses: Sometimes I feel like the process of creating art is like generating an electric impulse among nerves. Each neuron excites and transmits the electronic signals to one another and sends/receives information on a web/network. What appears on such a network will be the result of an art piece.

Aspiration: According to the definition,  aspiration is a strong desire to do something. I think aspiration is similar to instincts. What makes my desire would be the subject of my artwork. 

Serenity: When I make art, I feel peace. I don't feel excited and I don't feel angry or sad. I am just making my art. The process of completing something makes me feel peaceful. 

Boredom: When I feel bored, I feel a desire to create. I think this is also a very human thing: when humans are bored and they have time, they create things. 

Dream: I think dreams are very interesting sources of my imagination. For instance, I have dreamed about swimming in the air, not in the water. I dreamed of myself being a movie director and directing a story of a ballet dancer. I dream of things that I usually don't think about or don't do in real life. 

Perception: This applies to my photography. Learning how to take pictures last semester really shift my perception of reality. Using the angle of the camera, I have been able to see things that I have not paid attention to or I don't have the ability to see. Such as the use of the drone so I can see things from above, or cutting a frame and only focusing on the very details and blurring out the other. 

Observation: I like to observe people and their behavior. This is my interest in social psychology that I am always interested in human behaviors and what factors shape them.

Comfort: My artwork should bring me comfort. The process of creating it can be frustrating but the result should comfort my heart.

Beauty: I think one aspect of art is that it has to be beautiful.  I am not saying beauty is a mainstream standard.  Beauty can be under many different standards by different people and I am saying artwork should be beautiful to appreciate and pleasing to people (it's fine to only please certain people).  

• Nostalgia:  the definition of nostalgia is a sad feeling mixed with pleasure when you think of happy times in the past. For me, nostalgia is more about delving into my memory and reviewing events from the past to reflect  This word compost the main theme of my work since I keep inspecting the past from the present (Inspirations from contemporary art: njideka akunyili crosby, Heidi Lau)

• Fluidity: fluidity is the quality of being smooth and beautiful. I want my work to be fluid and changing and keep evolving. I like organic shapes.  (Inspirations from contemporary art: Jes Fan)

• Experience: Experience shape me. It is the process of gaining knowledge and skill and it is the things that have happened to me that influence the way I think and behave. It allows me to think about important questions of what led me to where I am, who I have become, and what I want to be in the future. (Inspirations from contemporary art: Justine Hill)

• Memory:  memory is the source of my inspiration. It could be a subject, a period of time,  a thought of something that I remember from the past, or what is remembered about somebody. My source of memory often comes from my photography from the past. I take pictures of the environment and people around me because I feel those compost pieces of my life and I want to record them and transform these memories into my work. I want to reinterpret them from a more present perspective and explore how memories shape my identity and a sense of home (Inspirations from contemporary art: Hiroshi Sugimoto, Susan Rothenberg, njideka akunyili crosby).

• People:  I enjoy observing people and their behaviors. This is part of the reason I study psychology because I am interested in how people's mind changes and how it influences their behaviour. I also like to record and take pictures of people, not only my family members but strangers on the street, because I feel connected with them or I found their behaviors interesting. It connects with my keywords memory and experience because I want to go back in time and reexamine my relationship with people to see how my values shift in time (Inspirations from contemporary art: Liu Xiaodong).