I'm submitting this piece to the ArtOrder Inspiration challenge. When I began the piece, I cleared my mind, and began to sketch the things that I like, that make me happy, that fulfill me. These things, I knew, must spring from whatever source inspires me. Even though, at the time, I couldn't have named the source.
I saw the image, a sunset on the Great Blasket Islands of Ireland populated by a pensive faun, unfolding and I was hard pressed to put that inspiration behind the piece into words. I think I have it now.
As I explore this world of ours, across the globe or down the block, I am always thinking about the past beneath my feet and in front of my eyes. What was here before? Who or what, walked here, hunted here, loved and struggled here? I'm talking about both the natural world and the human world, and the myriad places where they meet everyday.
Those questions are fascinating to me. And knowing that our human stories, myths, struggles, and glories aren't where this world will end makes those questions even more important. Who will look on our relics and wonder about our time? That's the whole of what inspires me: noticing a piece of the old world, thinking of its past, how it's changed, what life has passed through, and how it may change again.
