Inspired Archives - Carrie Baughcum

Everyday my daughters create something. They draw, they paint, they glue, they color. Their imaginations over flow with inspiration. They write lists, they author stories, they draw pictures of their day, they illustrate princesses and superheros. As they have grown I have worked hard to encourage their infinite inspiration and boundless imagination. It is a piece of them I want to exist and flow through them for the rest of their lives. In the last two months Olivia’s drawings have consistently become fantastic and left me more and more in awww of her ability to go to some other place and share it through her drawings (yes, total and complete mommy bias).

Suddenly I found myself looking at the world in a very different way. Maybe instead of writing about a memory I could draw too? Maybe instead of taking a picture or sharing words I could share an emotion or thought through drawings. Could I? Could I turn a vision, a thought, an idea into a drawing? So I found a great app on my iPad, bought a stylist and I began to draw….and draw and I drew some more. I began to study my daughters drawings. I watched the details they added. I took notes on their feelings. I remembered how they were inspired. And then I drew some more. Soon I started to find my own style.

After months of studying them and drawing my own pictures I realized it was time. It was time to share my drawings with other. Actually let other human beings (not just my daughters…who are totally bias. I could draw a wiggly lopsided stick figure and they’d say that’s beautiful mommy!!) I channeled a pinch of whimsy and a cup of sweetness and drew for someone I knew would love my art even if it sucked. With a million nervous knots in my stomach I hit the share button…

and when no one told me my drawing was awful I drew some more. Today I find myself with a brand new creative outlet.

I LOVE TO DRAW.

While I am still terrified to share my drawings with others I love it too much to let my new found love be effected by what others think. So today I start what I hope will be the first of many, many, many more inspired illustrations.

I owe this new found passion all to my daughters!

A year and a half ago writing to me meant I was writing a report. Sentences were a string of words put together with a subject and a predicate. Writing was done simply to communicate. My box of crayons was nothing but a box of 8. Black, gray and white got the most use.

Then I started blogging (thank you Shirley). Through link ups, twitter, getting to know other bloggers, writing for and with other blogger my writing started to change. Writing was no longer to just communicate information. It became about painting a picture. I started to pick up a color or two here and there to add to my box.

I read, I watched, I learned and I started to push myself out of my comfort zone. I started to write from places in my heart that had not been tuned into in too long. I began to write about parts of my life and memories that hurt. I began to heal. Suddenly by box of colors began to overflow. Each color gathered from giving a piece of myself to my writing, healing parts of my heart that had been in pain or from crafting my voice.

New friends came into my life and suddenly my collection changed. Each amazing person I meet and friend I made brought with them a color to share with me. These are the most unique, dazzling and radiant colors of all.

Today I am a box of 8 overflowing with colors laying all over the desk. Some of the crayons I have earned. Some of them I have collected. Some have been left as gifts.

As I sprinkle, color, and paint my words with these colors each time I write, I have a desk of crayons that I could not even have begun to imagine I’d ever possess. Radiant colors, the ones that dazzle, primary colors are solid and reliable, earth tones that depth and layers and my black, white and gray create foundation and strength. And what a collection it is!

What kind of box of crayons are you?

This piece was inspired by Kirsten from The Kir Corner: Her space is one of my most favorite spaces to visit. I visit frequently. Her ability to weave and knit words together not only leave me amazed at her infinite talent but on more then one occasion have left me absolutely

Last week Kirsten at The Kir Corner wrote a post titled: I’m Every Color. She shared a piece of an email a friend had written to her.inspired! And if you are lucky enough to have her visit your space you are sue to be the recipient of the most amazingly sweet and touching comments.

“I think of people as boxes of crayons. Most men/women are a box of 8, 16 if they are lucky. They couldn’t possibly conceive of ideas drawn by someone with a box with more crayons – they don’t have the palette. I’m lucky – I may be a box of 64 with the built-in sharpener, but I married a designer. He’s at least a box of 32!

You, my beautiful girl, are a limited edition box of 128 with the built in drawing table and collectors case. You can’t conceive of others not being able to understand what you see.“

It was Kirsten’s awww and disbelief of her own box of crayons and the realization she came to at the end of her post that inspired this. I hope that it might inspire you to share what box of crayons you are too!

Tag: Inspired

Inspired Illustration Week#1

My Box of 8