I’m not entirely sure if it’s possible to answer these elusive concepts… I might even be tempting fate by trying to analysing them… nevertheless, the questions have been asked, so I’ll give it a go but please, understand that I speak only for myself, others may (& will) come from completely different directions.
As I’ve said in an earlier post, I’ve been prompted to write a short series about ideas & inspirations… what they are & where they come from?… and attempt to answer these so often asked questions … what inspired you to do this or that? Where do your ideas come from? Why & how do you choose certain colours ~ textures~ shapes over others?
The dictionary defines idea as ‘just whatever is before the mind when one thinks – notion conceived by the mind’ Ok, so that’s not very helpful… and defines inspiration as ‘sudden creativity in artistic production – a sudden happy idea’… A sudden happy idea, Oh, but I do like that!
And, I guess that about sums it up… A sudden idea that stirs the blood, ignites the creative fire & burns until something is done about it. I know it’s been said
thousands of 
times by many artists everywhere & sounds so very cliché & glib but I really am influenced by nature’s offerings & my surroundings – a landscape (be it urban or rural), sunset, cloud formation, someone’s garden – a leaf, flower, rock, sea shell, coral, feather – a yarn, colour, texture or shape – I may come across an outrageous colour combo in someone’s garden, rush home, rummage through my stash & see if I have something that might help to interrupt what I’ve just found – if not, I’ll search the shops until I find it… this can take a day or two, more often it takes weeks… but, if I’m truly excited, I’ll search until I find it.
But having that said, these are just words &, as they say… ‘a picture’s worth a thousand words’ so I’ll be posting images of my work & what I believe influenced or inspired it, or what may have sparked the initial idea – I will be revisiting some items & many of you may be familiar with these pieces already but perhaps not so familiar with what inspired the original idea…
…and please, I value your comments so feel free to chime in at any time… stay tuned & enjoy!
Wonderful, Ren! I think my inspiration comes more from ideas and then when I start playing with the materials, they kind of take on a life of their own. I start out with a general idea and when I finish, I say, “Hello, stranger!” And, usually, I really like this new thing that was born. But, I am sure that all that is around me and that I have seen also pushes its way into that new creation.