Looming Lempi

Deep Diving scarf, plain weave & Rosepath, linen, cotton, silk mixed wefts on Swedish cotton warp.

Creativity, inspiration, borrowing, copying. Where do the ideas come from? For me, they spring from many sources. Some that I'm aware of, and others that I'm not. I'm someone who believes she knows her own mind, but come to find out, I'm too close to the forest to see the trees.

I'm old enough to know there's nothing new under the sun, everything we can do has been done by someone before us. But not quite the way we will make it. That's the way imagination works. It spills, and moves from person to person. Ideas are meant to travel. I've met artists, weavers, who try never to look at anyone else's work, so they'll be sure never to be guilty of being influenced. It might be their method to work that way, but what kind of artist stops looking at anything? I try to see everything, everywhere, all the time. The effect can only be beneficial, and, frankly, I need all the help I can get.

My ideas come through my window, from other artists and painters, from pictures on Flickr and artist's blogs, and some, spookily, seem to come over my shoulder while I'm weaving at the loom. I think it may be a Finnish grandmother suggesting, "Yes, now pick up the unbleached linen...." The biggest enemy to my creativity is self censorship. When I see how far and wide other artists go, I wonder, Why do I stop myself? I'm actually not doing anything alarming, or earth shakingly over-the-edge. It's only a scarf, and mine is a scarf with crooked edges, and bright moments.

Congratulations, Sofia Arnold!