The Art of Inquiry: How Questions Spark Art
Asking the right questions is like striking a match…
What if great art doesn’t begin with talent or muse, but instead with a question?
Art is not some elusive unicorn mindset—it’s simply the result of life plus emotion. In fact, I made up a little easy-to-remember equation:
L + E = ART
When we embrace this, creativity stops being intimidating and becomes deeply personal.
The Power of Questions in Creativity
Asking the right questions is like striking a match, kindling your inner world. A simple acronym I’ve developed, F.I.R.E. (Fleeting Immediate Raw Emotion), can guide your art.
When you tune into your raw emotions—what moves you in the moment—you uncover the seeds of creativity. But how do you tune in? By asking potent questions!
For example, imagine sitting with a long-since dead, gnarled tree, noticing how its spiraling branches hint at its former glory. What questions might arise?
“What does it mean to hold beauty even in decay?”
“How does design endure, even through endings?”
Moments like these are where my art begins.
Creative Rituals and Repositories
Questions are just the start. To keep your creative fire alive, build two essential tools into your practice:
• Creative Rituals: These are consistent, joy-giving habits like Bible reading, journaling, walking, or prayerful meditation. Also, for me, regularly gathering with my church family is a powerhouse creative ritual.
• Creative Repositories: These are systems to store your ideas—journals, chalkboards, apps, even post-it notes.
(Here is where I do need to let you know that I now have a Vibe board, and it is a “repository” for artful ideas unlike anything I have ever experienced before…my creativity is currently in a painful, delightful growth spurt! However, this is after over a decade of faithfully using analog repositories, and being very successful with them. And no, this is not an ad.)
These tools (I have a basket of sketches, for example) help you catch inspiration when it strikes and hold onto it until you’re ready to create.
Try this. Try something I call “Moment Studies”.
You don’t need fancy tools to start creating. I call my simplest practice “Moment Studies”, and have taught this in online classes, and even all over the world.
• Snap a photo of something that stirs your soul—a sunflower standing tall in a field or something in a quiet corner of your home.
• Write down a few sensory details: What do you see? Smell? Hear? Feel?
• Reflect on a question you have been carrying in your heart. There will always be one! Often, this becomes the question that the moment, your F.I.R.E. and consequently your art, is asking you.
Hint: Most of the time, it takes a bit of courage to ask it.
I also believe the Holy Spirit inside of the believer has an answer, and He loves (l o v e s) to lead us to new thoughts about ancient truths, and He leads us to the kind of creativity that becomes “the answer” - just in a form we don’t expect.
Even without a sketchbook or paints, these various, really small acts of observation and inquiry build a foundation for deeper creativity in my life. I share them with you, with great joy.
It’s a Labor Day PRINT SALE
Y’all know me, by now. I never do sales.
As a matter of conscience, I do not discount my art, especially original art. This is out of respect for my many collectors who invested in their home atmosphere, and in me, out of love. They paid full price, the vast majority of them. (I have been known to give the very occasional “friends and family” discount, but I basically have to be considered Godmother of your children, for you to get that.)
But through Tuesday only, every print in my shop will be 50% off.
And guys, I have upped my print game.
I have a big, honking new bad-donkey legit printer. That big square hulk of a machine is staring at me across the room, even as I type this post.
This will be her maiden voyage, in serving you.
My last printer was a little Epson, and I used the “dawg” out of it for almost twelve years. (I am nothing, if not frugal).
Every 8x10” print now comes beautifully matted to fit an 11x14” frame.
On the rare times I have discounted my prints, most people load UP, and think ahead to all the birthdays and holidays through the end of the year. I do encourage you to do that, because this sale will not be repeated until sometime 2025.
Here are a few examples of what is in my shop:
