Muse 1: any of the nine sister goddesses in Greek mythology presiding over song, poetry, and the arts and sciences. 2: a source of inspiration: a guiding genius. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/muse

What can I say? The artist and muse are attached at the hip, or the brain, perhaps the heart. But she, the muse, is always there. Poking, shoving, whispering great ideas into our creative cubicle, and she expects us to know that it is up to us to make it, the idea, bloom.
Our Muse... Imaginative or Real?
Who knows...I remember, as a tween, reading the lives of famous European and American artists. Honestly, it scared me to think that if I went down the artistic path, my fate would be sealed with the stereotypical ... maniacal laugh and unkempt demeanour, almost evil or violent insanity, destitute, marginalized, unloved and alone and never, ever receiving the true profit value of my work, not even posthumously.
It also didn't help that I was riding in the back seat at five years old, and we were stopped at a red light. I saw a man on the corner. To one side, he had huge easels depicting beautiful colourful landscapes with happy brush strokes and next to him was a box full of cute puppies. For the length of the light, he ran frantically back and forth, picking up one puppy after another to one car and the one behind it and so on. By the time the light turned green, the puppy box was empty, yet the mesmerizing canvases were still blistering from humidity and scorching tropical sun. I remember thinking, "Oh no! I can never be an artist; people only want to buy puppies!" My five-year-old mind was very disappointed.
I never understood why art couldn't it travel simultaneously like music. Through the radio waves? Even through the television? Had to wait 42 years for that answer. And here we are with amazing, instantaneous technology at our fingertips: a digitized paintbrush, canvas, billboard and mode of transport rolled into one: the internet and its extended family of laptops, smartphones and countless creative apps.
Well, let's go back again, to those formative years void of amazing technology, on my 9th birthday, I got a cassette decker radio, with a round little speaker and nice movable handle. It had AM, FM and Shortwave. My abuelito Teo (grandfather) taught me how to use the Short Wave bandwidth, he would connect to the BBC News to perfect his English, and I discovered music from all over the word. It was at this time that my Muse introduced herself as Music. Not any genre; for my anxious-filled brain, it is a very specific wavelength, like the ones produced by Contemporary Music musicians, for example, Mimi Page, Kitaro, Mei-lan Maurits, Audio Sanctum or Naochika Sogabe. Without musicians' talented gifts and skills, I would have an artist's block for days, maybe years.
Music plays in the background from thought, thumbnail and final draft in every piece I complete. It keeps the focus, the flow, and oftentimes keeps the purpose of the art in the right frame of mind to inspire, the fun of colouring, the importance of connecting to others and sharing, through it all, compassion.
So there you have it...Share in the comment box below who or what your muse is.
And remember to always...
Sketch On!
If my art inspires you, check out my art as cover art on some nice little spiral sketchbooks. Good for doodling, note-taking, introspection, you name it.
Or CREATE your own! And share it on our online community on Facebook.
As always, Color, Connect and Share...Compassion.

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