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Museums- Source of Inspiration (3 of 3)

Of course, exploring the galleries was great. There were a couple of exhibits that I wanted to store in memory. 

A textile display of Renaissance lace making and pattern books. One pattern book refers to this as "painting with a needle", and promised "if you work well with the needle... you will be admired wherever you go". Not an overstatement, that! The delicacy, symmetry, and skill of this work is so impressive. 




A collection of the work of William Morris and his colleagues, artists of the British Arts and Crafts movement.  Lots of pattern there.

In 1880, Morris wrote: "If you want a golden rule that will fit everybody, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

Gives one pause doesn't it?



And who isn't inspired by the incomparable Georgia O'Keefe? What a gal! I was familiar with the work of the "Mother of American Modernism", but gained an appreciation for her impact on our culture.


She famously said: "To create one's world in any of the arts takes courage." 

Couple that quote with the one I shared from my walk last week, ("The past we inherit, the future we create."- see this link: https://creativelifesampler.blogspot.com/2018/12/art-work-on-streets-of-cleveland-3-of-3.html) Food for thought... it's always easiest to stay in our comfort zone. Sometimes it requires great effort to "create one's world"; there is no certainty that it will all go as planned. Courage is needed to move forward in spite of not knowing the outcome. 

As one takes in the work of artists and craftspeople, a sense of their world emerges. But you also get the sense that the companion to "courage" is "trust"- trust in the creative process and the impulse to express oneself. In showing us the artists' world, museums present us with the possibility that the fruits of our efforts could be even better, or more influential, than we envision as we create them.  

Thank goodness society has inherited the work and words of creatives who have come before us, and thank goodness we have museums to share that inheritance with us!

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