Every artist has a muse. Whether this muse is a scandalous lover or someone you just met on the street, every muse has a story. My muse happens to be a long deceased woman whom I have no relation with, and whose life story is virtually opposite of mine. Yet, nevertheless, her art is one that has made me want to create, to nearly have me at wits ends ninety-nine percent of the school year, and has me gasping for bigger and better ideas at the end of the day.
My muse is Frida Kahlo. A woman whose life story has no correlation with mine, which may be why I love her so much. Her bold and unapologetic nature of using colorful or seemingly brash palettes, her mysterious and otherworldly creations reaching into the innermost center of her soul, and not to mention her incredible knack for amazing fashion, Frida is the reason why I got into art.
I’ve always been creative. As a kid, I would have a sketchbook in hand wherever I went. I can’t say that most people might have known what they wanted to be as a child, but I knew that there had to be an artistic flair to what I would study.
Going into university, I seemingly pushed my artistic nature to the back burner and went for something totally different—marine biology. I would change to journalism, communication, and social media studies, until I landed on my current passion of graphic design—still always looking back for inspiration in Frida.
Whenever I felt unsure or stressed about life, art was the medium that could relieve at least some of my woes. Art museums, documentaries, or creating a chaotic scene in my room filled with tattered magazines or my photographs would calm my senses. I knew, even if it didn’t occur to me, that the art world would always be my home.
Now, I know that not everyone loves art. However, finding one’s muse isn’t just limited to finding a person create a portrait for. Finding a muse is like finding a puzzle piece—it’s not the finished product or even the field you wish to go into, but it does lead you to finding where you are supposed to be. Finding Frida and her world of paintings, photographs documenting her journey, and textiles coloring her life all inspire me to do more. Be bold, be creative, be sassy.
Finding a muse for your life isn’t very hard, there’s a whole website built for flowing your creative juices, Pinterest. If you don’t want to be pinning all day, go to museums, to concerts, documentaries, indie films, try new foods, explore your city in a new way. Inspiration can appear in all walks of culture, entertainment, business, medical, really whichever field you might be interested in. All you have to do is be open to new things and you will find your muse.
Who’s your muse? Tell us what inspires you below in the comments!
