“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

Inspiration Rx : This series is a remedy for blank walls, sparse reading lists, & creative ruts.

This week’s prompt: After

These pretty pink balloons are such light-hearted party remnants, they seem to be calling us to observe & appreciate that often overlooked moment just after you’ve kicked off your party shoes & said goodnight to the last of the lingering guests, but before you’ve rolled up your sleeves to tidy up the food table & wedge too many cake plates into the dishwasher. What could we find if we paused to look for something beautiful in that slim space in-between where one activity ends & another begins?

This week, we’d like you to choose an event, task, or obligation that’s already on your calendar & create something inspired by the moment after. It could be as momentous as a wedding, or as mundane as a household chore. Maybe you will find yourself feeling melancholy, wistful, relieved, or even anxious about the next thing on your to do list, remember – those experiences can be just as beautiful as pale pink party balloons.

Last week’s gesture prompt was certainly challenging, but Torrie’s lettering made us all smile, & Karm knocked it out of the park with a her post on body & mind. If you didn’t make the deadline for this week – keep in mind, you are welcome to catch up on previous prompts!

Feeling Inspired?

Get in on the fun & start creating! You have until next Tuesday to share your creations.

Options for Sharing

Instagram / Twitter : use hashtag #INSPIRATIONRX

Your Blog / Flickr / Pinterest :  please share a link in the comment section of this post.

For an invitation to our group Pinterest board, please leave a link to your Pinterest account in the comments, or email for an invite. *We need to be follow friends on Pinterest in order to get you an invite to the board (we have to follow at least 1 of your boards & you need to follow at least 1 of ours). Remember you can still participate by using the hashtag on Instagram & Twitter or posting a link in the comments of this post.

**Please Note: the group Pinterest board is only for things you have created. We want your work to be the star!

photo: © Gia Coppola

quote: often attributed to Dr. Seuss

Piqued your interest?

I don’t know about you, but this image makes me want to celebrate something! There’s a lot of buzz around town about the new Trophy Cupcakes & Parties book, maybe we should throw in something savory for Miss B, & of course, we’ll need pink balloons!

“Not one word, not one gesture of yours shall I, could I, ever forget…”

Inspiration Rx : This series is a remedy for blank walls, sparse reading lists, & creative ruts.

This week’s prompt: Gesture

How do we feel when someone reaches for our hand, sneaks a conspiratorial wink, or extends an unexpected gift? Gestures, those unspoken ways we communicate with each other, can carry just as much emotional weight, if not more than spoken words. Chances are you’ve even developed a short-hand gesture system with close loved ones – approval, disapproval, honey please close the door – all with a raised eyebrow or a flick of the wrist. What can you say with a simple gesture? It doesn’t have to be a physical gesture, a symbolic gesture such as a gesture of kindness or friendship will work as well.  (I’m sure this goes without saying, but we’ll need to keep our gestures clean of course!)

Before you plan your project, it may be helpful to study our featured image for a moment. Themes of love, support, & unity shine through as clear as day using the very simple gesture of hands reaching toward one another. Try to communicate something specific to us through your chosen gesture. A tip for visual artists who are focusing on a physical gesture, is to keep your background simple & clean & let the gesture do the talking. For those who are writing this week, you are welcome to imagine the characters & story of the image above, as long as you address the powerful gesture!

Many of you were moved by color this week! Stephanie’s pretty watercolor brightened our day, Melinda spotted the perfect shade of grey-blue in Peru, & Carmen picked up her brushes & turned her camera into her subject!

Feeling Inspired?

The door is open if you’d like to join in! Catching up on previous prompts is fine by us. Just to keep things fair, please limit time spent on each prompt to 1 week. You have until next Tuesday to share your creations.

Options for Sharing

Instagram / Twitter : use hashtag #INSPIRATIONRX

Your Blog / Flickr / Pinterest :  please share a link in the comment section of this post.

For an invitation to our group Pinterest board, please leave a link to your Pinterest account in the comments, or email for an invite. *We need to be follow friends on Pinterest in order to get you an invite to the board (we have to follow at least 1 of your boards & you need to follow at least 1 of ours). Remember you can still participate by using the hashtag on Instagram & Twitter or posting a link in the comments of this post.

**Please Note: the group Pinterest board is for your creations only.  If your pin does not reference your work, we will have to remove it. We want your work to be the star!

photo: © Deb Schwedhelm

passage: © Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Piqued your interest?

Deb Schwedhelm, our featured artist this week, is has a solo show up in Lexington, Virginia – open until this Saturday 9.28.13. If you go, please tell me all about it! Also, if you are interested in Fine Art Photography, I recommend stopping by Deb’s blog to read her generous & insightful blog post detailing her first portfolio review experience. Want more? Sign up for her online workshop!

Dancers speak volumes with their bodies alone. Could there be a more appropriate artistic tribute to gesture?

Ailey Ascending: A Portrait in Motion

Modern Gestures: Abraham Walkowitz Draws Isadora Duncan Dancing

Breaking Bounds: The Dance Photography of Lois Greenfield

 

“Her grandmother used to tell her that a pink sky meant someone in the distance had just fallen in love…”

Inspiration Rx : This series is a remedy for blank walls, sparse reading lists, & creative ruts.

This week’s prompt: Color

Is there a color that has popped up in your wardrobe, decor, or even your Pinterest boards recently? The colors we surround ourselves with can speak volumes about our personalities. Pale peachy-pink gets me every time. It feels simultaneously happy and polished, and best of all optimistic. I even campaigned to paint our living room walls a soft pink with grey undertones – but was met with a “please don’t,” can you imagine?

Consider how a specific color, or color combination affects or reflects your mood and the mood of those around you. Try not to get too caught up in color theory, what we really want to know is which color speaks to you and why. Do you have an affinity for neutrals like our beloved Miss B?  Neutrals count too, as long as you take a moment to think about how they make you feel and what makes you love them so.

A special thank you to those of you who generously shared your peaceful moments! We are beginning to think that tranquility is contagious. Take a peek at Catherine’s quiet evening, Karm’s morning ritual (don’t miss her beautiful poem!), Lisa’s cozy moment with her family and the indomitable Uncle Beefy created images so serene and quiet it makes you want to weep. See? Don’t you feel more relaxed already?

Feeling Inspired?

Per usual you have until next Tuesday to share your creations.  If you have not yet joined in the fun, it’s not too late. You are welcome to start here, or catch up on previous prompts. Just to keep things fair, please limit time spent on each prompt to 1 week.

Options for Sharing

Instagram / Twitter : use hashtag #INSPIRATIONRX

Your Blog / Flickr / Pinterest :  please share a link in the comment section of this post.

For an invitation to our group Pinterest board, please leave a link to your Pinterest account in the comments, or email for an invite. *We need to be follow friends on Pinterest in order to get you an invite to the board (we have to follow at least 1 of your boards & you need to follow at least 1 of ours). Remember you can still participate by using the hashtag on Instagram & Twitter or posting a link in the comments of this post.

**Please Note: the group Pinterest board is for your creations only.  If your pin does not reference your work, we will have to remove it. We want your work to be the star!

photo: © Due Alberi

passage: Sarah Addison Allen, The Peach Keeper

Piqued your interest?

Would you like to try your hand at an abstract painting, but don’t know where to start? Take a cue from Picasso’s thoughts on the subject: “There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.” Try studying a real-life scene like a landscape, or flowers in a vase on the mantle, and boil it down to only colors and forms. If you have access to a camera with manual focus, it could be helpful to blur the focus so you only see colors and vague outlines. Then it’s up to you to edit by deciding on the essential hues, shapes, & lines. This is not cheating! Artists frequently use these sort of references as a starting point. So pick up a canvas and acrylics, or some watercolors and paper if you prefer, and dive in.

If you’d rather have something by our featured artists Due Alberi on your wall, there are tons of reasonably priced originals in their Etsy shop to choose from. The painting above is only $69, an absolute steal for an original piece of artwork. I think that shade of pink is calling my name…

“The very secret of life for me, I believed, was to maintain in the midst of rushing events an inner tranquility.”

Inspiration Rx : This series is a remedy for blank walls, sparse reading lists, & creative ruts.

This week’s prompt: TRANQUILITY

 The hectic pace of September can be jarring after the ease of summer, so for this week, we’d like you to take us to your quiet place. Create something that represents or pays homage to a peaceful, calm, & serene moment. How do you recharge, rejuvenate & take respite from the busyness of everyday life?  Make it personal (yes, we are shameless snoops!), it could be as simple as your morning cup of tea, a favorite hiking spot, or maybe you are like my husband & prefer to decompress by whipping up something delicious in the kitchen. Whatever it is, take a second to savor it a bit more than usual & consider the smallest details before you dive into your project for this week.

 By all means, your creation doesn’t have to be literal, you are welcome to dream up a restful place – as long as it makes you feel tranquil, it’s fine with us. Take the image above for instance; she seems so serene, & looking at the image makes me feel serene… but would the artist really don a white frock & stand in a lake to find serenity? Maybe in real life, the artist finds her quiet place near water, or in soft filtered sunlight, or in the muted sounds you can only experience when you duck your head under the water (I’m willing to bet it’s all three).

 Many of you found your muses last week! Torrie is moved by small wonders, Jaime by the power of books, Carmen is charmed by flowers, Geannine by her charismatic kiddo, & Kirsty was moved to create a Pinterest board for Lulu!

Feeling Inspired?

 The door is open if you’d like to participate. Everyone is perfectly lovely & welcoming so you should fit right in! You have until next Tuesday to share your creations.

Options for Sharing

Instagram / Twitter : use hashtag #INSPIRATIONRX

Your Blog / Flickr / Pinterest :  please share a link in the comment section of this post.

 For an invitation to our group Pinterest board, please leave a link to your Pinterest account in the comments, or email for an invite. *Mystery solved (thank you Moira), we need to follow each other on Pinterest in order to get you an invite to the board (we have to follow at least 1 of your boards & you need to follow at least 1 of ours). It isn’t our intention to pad Pinterest followers, remember you can still participate by using the hashtag on Instagram & Twitter or posting a link in the comments of this post. **Remember, the group Pinterest board is for your creations only.  We want your work to be the star!

photo: © Maja Topcagic

passage: Margaret Bourke-White, Portrait of Myself

Piqued your interest?

 Margaret Bourke-White, the author of the passage this week was a famous documentary photographer (a male-dominated field even today). She was front & center during WWII, shot the very first cover of Life Magazine, was the first foreign photographer allowed into the Soviet Union, & certainly knew a thing or two about trying to find inner calm in the middle of tense situations. It sure puts my daily stresses in perspective, can you imagine having “take Stalin’s portrait,” on your to do list?

 Maja Topcagic, our featured photographer this week has a chance to win a grant for a show in NYC! If you’d like to give a talented young photographer a boost, just visit her page, & share the link to her portfolio on Twitter or Facebook. There’s also a spot to donate funds if you are so inclined.

 Books can transport you to a tranquil place without having to leave your sofa, & since few things are more soothing than nature, why not take a virtual trip? I was surprised to learn that there are a couple of nature-related classics available to download to your Kindle for free! For reflections on life from a cabin in the woods, Walden by Henry David Thoreau is worth visiting (or revisiting),  or you could opt for a trek through the mountains with My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir.

“She wrote to him fairly regularly, from a paradise of triple exclamation points and inaccurate observations.”

Inspiration Rx : This series is a remedy for blank walls, sparse reading lists, & creative ruts.

This week’s prompt: MUSE

For Wes Anderson it’s Bill Murray, for Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe it was each other, for Theron Humphrey it’s Maddie the coonhound, & now it’s your turn. This week we’d like you to create something with your muse in mind. Think of a person, pet, place, type of food, even a specific time period, anything that draws you in like nothing/no one else. For me (& many other photographers), it’s light. Something as simple as shadows cast on a curtain, or morning light bouncing off the water in my shower can motivate me to pick up the camera. Muses are the ultimate collaborators, they are there to help spark your imagination & take it to places you may not have explored on your own.

If your muse is illusive, just look to Lulu in Elle Moss’ photo above, I’m sure she will be happy to help! Let’s say the Salinger passage is referring to her as well. Try to envision what her life is like, look for details both large & small. What was her most recent meal? Where does she live? What is her relationship with the photographer? Does she always wear black? You could even create a Pinterest board for her if you’d like to get better acquainted. Oh, I’d love to see those, please let us know if you put one together!

A few brave souls helped us break the ice last week! Lisa woke up early & found some treasures waiting for her in the fog. Melanie is trying her hand at a new medium & has some excellent reminders for those of us who have ever said “I can’t”. Ursula captured her daughter in a beautiful moment, & Moira’s heartfelt piece was both sweet & insightful.

Feeling Inspired?

It’s not too late to join in, start any time. Just be sure to share your creation before next Tuesday!

Options for Sharing:

Instagram /Twitter : use hashtag #INSPIRATIONRX

Your Blog/Flickr /Pinterest : please share a link in the comment section of this post.

For an invitation to our group Pinterest board, please leave a link to your Pinterest account in the comments, or email for an invite. *If you requested an invite to the group Pinterest board last week but have not seen an invitation, it’s because we mysteriously can’t add you.  Please send your email address to  Miss B & we’ll try it that way!

photo: Lulu ©  Elle Moss

passage: For Esme-with Love and Squalor by J.D. Salinger

Piqued your interest?

The relationship between artists & their muses provides rich material for novels, biographies, & movies. Did you know that Claude Monet’s wife continually inspired his work? Since reading about their life together & the effect it had on his work in Claude & Camille, I have to admit, I look at his work differently. Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald is a fictional portrait of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s extraordinary wife & muse. It highlights their boisterous social life which directly influenced The Great Gatsby. If you are interested in Andy Warhol or just the 60’s art scene in general, you can take a peek into the life of muse Edie Sedgwick in Factory Girl.

Let’s not forget the fuzzy muses! For photographers, of course there’s William Wegman & his Weimaraners. Shaggy Muses explores the faithful companions of famous female writers including Virginia Woolf & Emily Dickinson.  I can never get enough of Maddie the coonhound, if you agree, follow @thiswildidea on Instagram & get ready to hit the like button repeatedly!