Story telling is what we do as artists. We tell many types of stories. But sometimes we run into artist’s version of writer’s block. Story themes may dry up, or has been done to death. Going straight to the canvas and just start painting is great, but as we know, words mean things. And often times, those words inspire ideas. Research has uncovered that our brains constantly search for familiar patterns. Take for example the Rorschach ink blot test. Where a psychologist holds up a series of different organic ink blots in which the participant interprets what they see. I bring this up because often times when we try to create interesting compositions, designs and abstractions in our work, we run into some repetitive designs and structures. We may also find the composition is flat and predictive. Especially when we start with the deadly blank canvas. I walk away from the studio and do several things that inspire different thoughts and perspectives. I look at shadows and reflections and isolate them into different compositions. I tear through magazine pages and articles and take a marker and randomly mark out words so that the story completely changes. I force things that don’t belong together into new combinations.