Anything an artist creates started from somewhere. Everything down to the smallest stroke of a pencil, word on a page, or the inflection of a note. These small creative actions can trace their way back through time to the things we've perceived all throughout our life. These are the things that influence us.

Some influences of course are things that we choose to expose ourselves to. Movies, books, games music, live performances, what we choose to watch on television, our personal taste in politics, our religions, etc. are all grouped together as influences that we choose. This is how we guide ourselves as creative creatures.

But what about the influences in our craft that we do not choose?

All around us, every day, are the sights and sounds that we take in as part of living on this planet, and they affect us and our creativity in profound wats. Things like the sudden realization of how incredible the sunset is, or a strange juxtaposition of buildings we see while walking through the city. The sight of a child learning. When we're in the park, there are textures of sound all around as the wind mingles through the leaves and sweeps across the grass. The vibratory buzzing of crickets and the calling back-and-forth between birds.

Sounds in our minds can be translated into visual experiences, and they manifest on a page when we are drawing in slender curves and dots and ripples. Likewise, the visual experiences we take in can be transformed into songs and poetry. An old oak reaching to the sky can instantly trigger feelings that connect us to our elderly loved ones, which in turn inspires a song about treasuring our youth. Clouds can inspire a sense of grandiosity. A winding river can inspire laziness, or perseverance against all odds. These feelings come to life when we sit down to create. The first brushstroke on canvas will immediately begin to tell the stories we need to tell, based upon what we have taken in with our senses.

These kinds if involuntary influences don't stop at ordinary sights and sounds, either. When we are in the city, if we look close enough, we will feel the slight disdain at our culture when we notice the oil stains and cigarettes all over the pavement. Walking through an open market we might see piles if fresh fruit arranged in interesting ways, expressions if nature in all sorts of shapes and colors. For less than a dollar we can take the next step and purchase one of these pieces and expose our sense of taste to a fruit that grew from nothing on a plant nearby, or somewhere far away. Where does that trail lead us?

We can see that all around us, the world is absolutely full of influences that at first we have no choice but to take in and accept as part of our reality. These individual parts of reality influence us on every level, and so we begin to see that we can start to turn these involuntary influences into voluntary ones. We can start to notice things and the stories they hold, and what that means about us personally. Does something catch your eyes? Why did it catch your eye and no one else's? Investigate it. Look deeper. There is a story there, and that story is begging to be told. You are an artist, who else is going to tell your story but you?