the eye has to travel.

on seeking inspiration everywhere.

I am a constant collector of images. Some photographed myself, some curated online. Little snippets of beauty that capture my attention as I travel throughout my day. Patterns, color combinations, interesting shapes or textures - anything that catches my imagination, I squirrel away for later use.

In that way, my eye is always traveling. Always noticing. Always curating. In the moment, I’m often not sure what these images will be used for. Later, in my studio I’ll remember the just right color combination, textured backdrop or odd juxtaposition of an image and find the spark of inspiration to start my next painting.

In my mind, creative inspiration doesn’t just happen. Inspiration is all around us, yes, but we have to stay curious, open, and inviting of it into our daily routine. Go looking for it, let your eyes wander, really see the world through a creative lens. My camera roll and Pinterest boards have become visual diaries of sorts. Not just of places I’ve been, but of little moments when the light casts a magical shadow across the wall, or a color combination so unexpected in use that it calls out to be captured. Diana Vreeland, legendary editor and fashion maven, once said, “The eye has to travel,” and as an artist, I couldn’t agree more.

Our eyes, our brains, our souls are craving beauty. Seeking the unexpected. It’s the act of noticing, the attention to detail, the stopping of time just for a moment to appreciate the beauty all around us that inspires us to create new works, new words, new connections, new ideas.

These small images I collect often end up collaged in a new collection. A color story, a mood or a theme I want to study more deeply. Maybe for writing, or color studies, or an actual painting. The point isn’t that I’ve collected them, it’s in their randomness and the connections I might see later as I arrange them. Creativity needs to be fed, often, and these little moments are like snacks for my creative heart. Reminders of the beauty that exists in the natural and man-made world. Those geometric tiles, the furniture in that cluttered antique shop, the flower arrangement - they’re all breadcrumbs, really. Little markers of moments and feelings I want to tap into later, revisiting them with fresh eyes to build something new.

Here’s what surprises me most about collecting images this way, I often don’t know why something grabs me until much later. Take that filing cabinet with the pink drawers. When I photographed it, I just knew I loved it - as is often the case with anything softly pink. Couldn’t tell you why. But months later, I’ll be mixing paint or arranging a composition, and suddenly that image pops back into my head. The color, the worn quality that somehow makes it more beautiful, the sense of curated order. These stored-away observations become like little teachers, showing me possibilities I never would have thought to look for.

The longer I do this, the more I realize inspiration really is everywhere. It’s just that most of us are moving too fast to notice. It’s in the ordinary stuff : propane tanks that someone painted mint green, a brick wall in just the right shade of dusty pink, the way something hard and industrial can become beautiful through color alone. Developing a creative eye isn’t about waiting for the perfect setting or conditions. It’s about training yourself to see the beauty in small things, and trusting that somehow, eventually, all these fragments will come together into something that feels completely, authentically yours.

Stop and notice the everyday beauty around you today. Take a photo. I’d love to see what you capture!

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Further inspiration:

*A documentary I’ve watched and loved, inspired the name for this post. “The Eye Has to Travel” is a film about legendary fashion editor, Diana Vreeland, and the impact her style and approach had on the fashion and magazine industry during her life. If you are a lover of fashion / culture / inspiration - it’s a must see.

*Paul Smith and his voracious appetite for collecting curiosities and inspiration everywhere. I love his approach and you can read more about it online here or in his book here.

*Georgia O’Keefe’s approach to looking and seeing, summed up so beautifully in her quote “Nobody sees a flower - really - it is so small it takes time - we haven’t time - and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.” has long been a source of inspiration for artists and creatives. Go deeper into her words and her work with this documentary, this biography or this beautiful read.