Travelling has always been one of the biggest inspirations in my life and I still don't fully understand why that is. Obviously some of it comes from seeing the stunning scenery, experiencing the unique cultures and the people I have meet along the way. Although the excitment I get from travelling doesn't have to come from an 'around the world' expedition it can be as simple as a short weekend away or even a few weeks of travel I just find that anytime I leave my comfort zone everything I come across has a major impact on me. As I design I still pull on things I saw in Hong Kong, explorations of Australia, summers in Vermont and even unseen corners of the UK that I have never been to before. I think there is a certain level of inspiration gained from how I change as a person from these travels something to do with shrugging off a mundane life feeling, my everyday woes and other peoples expectations of me and there is no pressure as it's not about achieving anything but self-fulfillment.
I have recently arrived back from a tiny town in Tuscany-Italy called Barga which was amazing. I think some of my enthusiasm about this town comes from experiencing it along side some wonderful people but I also think that it was so different from the life I live in London and this escapism was exhilarating. Barga and London are polar opposite, here I sleep below ground level where in Barga I was up high with a breeze blowing through the window, in Barga drinking and eating with friends & family every evening is a big part of life while in London my lunch break today lasted 10 minutes, London is a hub of activity while Barga is so sleepy it falls asleep for a few hours each afternoon. The difference in life between what I am used to and where I went is what I was inspired by. I do believe we have to accept a certain level of reality, paying bills and working but I also think this can easily become a treadmill and we live just going through the motions becoming accustomed to a way of life which is sociably acceptable. In other cultures and also within our own cultural history we have always travelled and we only found new places around the world with this adventurous human spirit. Life is for living and part of that is experiencing the joys of the world we live in, I believe travelling helps break the monotony of our accepted reality and helps us test ourselves through our experiences in unfamiliar situations and environments. From these experiences you can only learn more about yourself and this creates a passion for living life to to the fullest. This is what I find impossible to keep out of my creative work and I now understand it is one reason why my work grows and becomes stronger the more I travel.
I am not the only person to find inspiration from travel there are many such as Paul Gauguin and his visits to Tahiti he not only drew on inspiration from his travels but literally painted the colours and passion he saw around him. It wasn't until I left UK shores that i understood exactly the source he was drawing from for his creativity.
Another was American architect Frank Lloyd Wright who found inspiration in his designs from his travels and love of Japan. The simplicity of his designs especially in Fallingwater in Pennsylvania was previously unseen in western countries and in part came from what he saw around him in Asia. Also Earnest Hemmingway who travelled from Cuba to Spain, Italy and onwards relentlessly. His experiences, and there were some good and some bad, inspired him to write many novels winning the Nobel Prize in Literature and Pulitzer Prize. The list of those inspired by travel is endless but those who do travel have undoubtably created some of the most thought provoking work of our past and those who travel now, who dare to leave their comfort zone and see the world with open eyes are the ones whose work I am excited to experience in the future.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain
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