Often, far too often in fact, people ask me how and where I find my inspiration. Here, I always feel that the wrong question is being asked. More appropriate would be the question of what it is an individual can do, what mental adjustments one can make, to increase the possibility of an inspirational moment.
Not unlike magnets repelling opposite polarities, the more I search, the harder it is to find the idea that serves as basis for a good painting. Ideas appear when I am in a state of mental tranquility. To achieve this while living in the heart of New York City, I need to find deliverance from the stresses of everyday life. At home, my bike commute to my studio and back serves this function, (the 9th Avenue “bike lane”, excepted) as I ride along the water, far from the overheated core. Nothing, tho’, delivers me from stress more effectively than leaving the city behind entirely. While I often joke that holidays are a break from inspiration, they more likely have the opposite effect.
More and more, it seems that my work is set in other parts of the world - less because there is nothing observable at home than that I am more mentally prepared for new ideas when far from quotidian dramas.