I believe in the Muse the way Peter Pan believed in fairies.

The Muse to me is my guide.  She whispers in my ear the images that I am required to create in the world.  These are my personal pieces that I make, just because.  The ones that challenge me and really push me outside of my skillset and comfort zone.

It is these images that I cut my teeth on to make shooting the rest of my work “a piece of piss” to quote my gorgeous Kiwi friends.  (Such a weird saying.  It means “really easy” I have no clue how it came to exist as a saying but it is in my vernacular now, so be it.)

As an artist, I have found that sometimes my line to the Muse can be a bit like my internet connection (which I swear is run by a 3 legged geriatric hamster powered by his little running wheel) fragile and unreliable.   Although to get a full broadband mainline to the Muse I have found 5 ways that work pretty much all of the time.

#1 Dance.

This is my absolute nod to Woo Woodom.  I have recently became a Chakra dance instructor.  Not because I wanted to teach the classes, hell I didn’t even know what a Chakra was when I started the training.  But what I wanted was an efficient way to combine meditation and exercise and stretching…because I am essentially lazy with all of those things and I wanted to just cluster them.  I took the course to be an instructor because there were no teachers around and it meant I could do it in my studio whenever I wanted to.

WOW, I HAD NO IDEA.   It was like having a direct line to the Muse.  She would send the most amazing visions to me while I was dancing and clearing energy blocks in the process…sweet!  Plus it was good exercise…Bonus!

#2 Write

Each morning 3 pages of mental release.  Seriously. The first page and a half two two pages can be a little like a mental constipation.  All of that dehydrated thoughts that have been backing up in your mind for days…years…get passed and then the good stuff starts to pass through much more easily.  Gross yes.  But stagnant thoughts are worse.  For me the writing then turns into sketching out of ideas for shoots.  It is like uncovering little gems in a river bank of rushing thoughts.  This is also closely followed by reading.  To see my top inspirational books check out the A La Mojo reading list.

#3 Shower

The bath doesn’t work as well for me.  But something about standing in a shower is pure heaven and I seem to get my very best ideas there.   I can’t explain it but it is as if the water washes away the mental clutter and the good bits get to bubble up.

#4 Green Baths

i.e. Walking in the Woods, or Bush walks if you are a Kiwi (seriously though with my potty mind this made me giggle when I first heard this term).   Stanford Scientists have proven that walking increases your ability to brainstorm creatively. 100 percent of those who walked outside were able to generate at least one high-quality, novel analogy compared to 50 percent of those seated inside. “This isn’t to say that every task at work should be done while simultaneously walking, but those that require a fresh perspective or new ideas would benefit from it,” said Oppezzo.

Something about walking in nature and touching the trees as I go grounds me and literally it does.  When you touch a tree you get rid of excess electrons that apparently for me can fog my brain.

#5 Pinterest

Create pinterest boards of subject that inspire you. This helps you more to find your unique style and I love to use it to gather clusters of ideas for each major shoot I am doing.  It also helps me to communicate with anyone that I am collaborating with as well.

For my clients they use it to get ideas for their personal shoots as well as communicate with my incredibly visual brain.