What Inspires Me?

I hate the word inspire. I try my best not to use it. It sounds like such a basic word and it's used too frequently. I even looked up other words to use in a thesaurus before I wrote this so I could try and not use "inspire". I couldn't find anything better. That pissed me off, but anyway on with the post! What inspires me? I ask myself this a lot. I think everything is an inspiration. Street signs. Old shopping bags. 1920s movie posters. A crazy lady's painting on the sidewalk in NYC. Everything I walk by, I consider an inspiration towards whatever I do next. What's the difference between an inspiration and an influence? I have no idea. I use those words synonymously. I feel like people influence and objects inspire. Maybe? However, in this post, I am using them synonymously. By the way, I love the word synonymously and fabricated. Just want to shout out those words. I like to take pictures of things that I feel like I could use for my next project. Whether it's a big painting, little painting, tee shirt or school work, I need visuals to get the ball rolling. There's some things engraved in my head from when I was little that I just consider cool. I think they got engraved because my dad thought they were cool and I looked so far up to him. Now, I've formed my own opinions, but they are still similar to my dad's. I like using things from my early childhood as inspiration. My dad used to race his bicycle and my sisters and I would go to the races, so I like to put bikes in projects. One of my favorite teachers from highschool taught me about conscious flow writing, so I include that in projects too. I can't wait to use stuff from the next couple years when I get older. It's selective but it all comes together. I love words and the way people put them together, so I include them in projects all the time. One of my favorite compliments is when somebody notices one of these things. It's a small thing to notice, but it is a huge part of what I make. Influences like people is a different story. Everyone you have good conversations with are an influence. Obviously there are people who influence me that aren't alive anymore or that I haven't even met. Whether they are artists, musicians, teachers, high educators, designers, parents, dogs, your cousin I met one time or even a crowd of people at a concert. It's such a weird fucking thing. So weird. That's the way it is though. I hate the word inspire. I think this post represents the word so well, but it's the truth. Happy Wednesday everyone!