where does inspiration come from?

I recently picked up the book the Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes to read a second time. I read this book before I became a mama and before I became a quilter. It introduced me to the world of archetypes and has had an immense impact on my subject matter over the years without me even realizing it.

What is an archetype?

 According to Dictionary.com an archetype is: The original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; a prototype. In Jungian psychology it is a collectively inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, image, etc., universally present in individual psyches.

Almost all the quilts in my goddess series are inspired by different women archetypes and their stories.

I lean on the myths of many cultures to relate the stage of my life I am in and the part of myself I am working on.

I study the stories of goddesses, archetypes, saints and everyday women.  They become my model, my idea.

I often discover they were already a part of my psyche unknown to me until I start thinking about why their story stands out to me.

Naturally, I embellish a bit to make their story my own, but I try to always honor the integrity of the original story when there is one.

I may combine many stories into one.

I may only use a very small portion of a story and make it my own.

I try very hard to relay their story through me, through my hands, through my stitches, and tell it through my experience.

And how this changes me and my story…

I better understand why stories have meaning to us and why we share our stories with others.

I see how the stories of the past paint our future and how whether we are aware of it or not how they influence our psyches. Every story we hear, every story we tell, every story we read changes us and changes our perceptions.

This is my inspiration for what I do. 

I want to change my perceptions.

I want to love without judgments.

I want to leave the stories that no longer serve me behind and rewrite my story.

I want to be strong and wise.

Stories and archetypes that teach these lessons to me are my inspiration.

What inspires you?