Ah, the elusive muse. Where does she reside? Is it years of repressed memories of that jerk in school who always shoved you in a locker seeping their way out as a beautiful Freudian slip? How bout an entity that floated a little too close to your exact place in space time and happened to be whistling an otherworldly tune?

What do the Nexians think about inspiration? I'm speaking of course about that rare occasion when you hear a classic song floating on the wind and have to jot it down before it slips past, or when you put your pen to paper and the perfect image leaks out as if it were placed inside the ink itself.

Give it up..

That's a tough one! It's something I've struggled with a fair amount lately. The most important thing to me is to always be ready for when it strikes. I get ideas at the most random, and often inopportune times. I am quick to write them down, because much like dreams they have a way of evaporating without your intention.

Another way it often strikes is when I'm listening to music. It has to be good music, my favorite stuff. I'll close my eyes and let myself be immersed in the songs and enter a trance-like state. Ideas or images float into my head, and I know they are some part of my subconscious mind, but it is as though they just show themselves. A lot of times I jump up and grab a notepad and start drawing at this point.

Finally, entheogens are seemingly an endless well of inspiration. I don't usually try to draw what I see. Maybe I'm just not practiced enough at drawing, but it seems like when I try to draw tryptamine/mescaline images it never works. It's like the harder I try, the harder it gets. So, often during a trip drawing is fun, but my real bread and butter is the after-glow. During the time directly after trips, and the next few days is often when I've come up with my best stuff.

So there you have it! Mr. Peabody's own confusing, murky, completely unguaranteed path to inspiration!

Ahhh inspiration.. Something that seems to be behind numerous walls for myself also at this time..

Kind of vexing as I am often told I am the muse for others thoughts and ideas yet I cannot for the life of me find my next move forwards, which sucks as my life is feeling more and more stagnant by the day.

Seeing my society/environment quickly degenerate into some decadent, self absorbed 80s social club for grown children is not helping. I went into an apple store for the first time in my life 3 days ago and I swear a part of my soul wept, then died. I knew I was avoiding cities in my region for a reason lol.

Random rant over

Inspiration is everywhere, but speaking just for myself, if I sit around and wait for it to strike, I'll never get anything done. On the other hand, if I just pick up the pen everyday and play regardless of whether or not I've got some big master plan, ideas tend to come pretty naturally. Forms emerge and direction becomes apparent, though it's rarely anything I'd planned in the first place. Happy accidents and such.

Picasso said it all - Muses exist, but they have to find you working

I find that it comes from many places. Vodsel's Picasso quote is great, but I have had flashes of inspiration on my bicycle plenty of times. I think the place that advice applies the most universally is that you should always be working on your artistic ideas... They are part of you, tied in to everything you do. So as you walk down the street looking at things you're viewing them in an artistic context. You're seeing not just a fireplug but a shape with a dynamic and descriptive pattern of light and shade wrapped around it; you're seeing a possible new approach to drawing a cylindrical object (which you promptly lay down in your sketchbook). So as you are cruising along on your bike, steadily exerting yourself for a while, as your adrenaline hits a certain level your head clears and you start seeing the bigger picture and making the broader connections. This thinking applies at least partially to your creative ideas... So you may be riding your bike and just have a great idea for a novel project. Bam, outta nowhere. Except that it isn't- by having an artistic approach to life, you set yourself up to have that great moment of inspiration. You worked for it.

One thing I've done many times is finish a piece of art, then on a planned day in a controlled setting have an LSD or mushroom session with it. (DMT seems to be too fast-acting to be useful for this, although I haven't tried an oral spice session with an art piece yet). During these sessions I may actually get up and add some paint here and there- I've had a few technical breakthroughs in this manner. Often I'll be able to look "through" the piece into the larger vision that its trying to convey, then I'll see a way of advancing a step or two closer to this vision with a new art project. So again, this isn't a vision blasting out of nowhere, it's a thing that has been set up with work, intention, and more work. But some of these flashes have been unreal, very much worth the price .