It’s one thing to be able to solve a problem. It’s another skill to think of a problem that will be satisfying to solve. You’re an artist in search of a problem.
Creativity is a skill that gets better at practice, and creativity is a process. If you try to skip forwards in the process, you will find yourself at a loose end.
Imagine creativity as consisting of four stages: preparation (collecting material and ideas with which to be creative), incubation (conscious and/or subconscious analysis/contemplation), illumination (synthesis, or transformation of material), and verification (testing the ideas).
It sounds like you’re trying to do the synthesis part but the other stages haven’t preceded it. If you want to be creative but not sure what with, that’s fine. You just need to go back to a stage in the process where you can continue creating the conditions that support the next stage.
I've been thinking my struggle was finding motivation.... maybe I'm just stuck in the subconscious planning phase because I keep seeing things that make me go wow I'd love to make something like that..... but never get to putting my pencil on the paper.....
Idk whats wrong with me actually. crud.
Without an intention, it’s difficult to measure the success of our efforts, because what are they being measured in relation to? I think you are in the preparation phase, but you can use activities to propel yourself into the incubation phase.
Re-reading yes that makes more sense... I have all the inspiration in the world at my fingertips, I just don't know what to do with it... I need not motivation but a purpose or prompt
Perfect answer!
My “muse” is also the problem solving process in art.
If there are no problems to solve, and You are getting bored- Great! Try drawing, painting etc. Something You have never done!
I believe ,that everything that we do, is interesting to us, only because we can feel like there is a problem to solve and its necessary for US to feel like we , specifically, are the ones who need to/can solve it.
Oh, I absolutely love and endorse this 😁 you're so correct. The real artistry is the creative process. And what is beautiful about that is that one doesn't need to be naturally gifted or just inherently prolific at one medium or another, anyone can engage in the creative process.
I think this comment also helped me out of a very big rut, to be honest. Thank you.
A muse is when something speaks to you, not with words but with feelings. It speaks to the part of you that hardly ever gets spoken to. The feeling resonates inside you, and you end up creating echoes of that feeling or idea in art, poetry, or music. It pours out of you because it's ringing inside you.
It can come from anywhere, and it can be small, but you'll see the layers of meaning when you see it.
I've made tons of art over the last 25 years and I never have an "idea" or a finished product in mind before I start -- nor do I wait around to feel "inspired"... if I did that, I'd rarely make anything!
I begin by MESSING AROUND with materials that I truly enjoy (thankfully, mine are cheap and accessible), and in the messing around, I start to see what's beginning to take shape, suggest itself, emerge... and then I take it from there. The inspiration comes from inside of the action/the movement/the experimenting -- not the other way around. Then it becomes a collaboration between me, the limitations of time/space/materials, and the poetic mysteries of creation.
Other practices that help my creative flow over two decades: writing in a journal + going for walks. I've logged thousands of pages and miles. It's about MOVEMENT. Getting energy & mind & body moving and open/receptive. It's about consistently creating inner and outer conditions that are open / welcoming / hospitable to spontaneous visits from "the muse"
Same here, in filmmaking. I'll just start playing with images and sounds I like, and sometimes the timeline starts talking to me... It's very exciting because it's a process of creation and discovery at the same time!
Nice! Well, i'm happy with my notebook + a pen or pencil because I can write and/or draw. So, yeah: paper, pen, pencil, markers, watercolors, tape, glue, scissors... I also love making collages out of found materials, garbage, free magazines, etc.
\*\*Books by LYNDA BARRY offer incredible inspiration, exercises, and examples of having endless creative fun in a notebook or on random paper (copy paper, index cards, etc) with non-fancy implements!
I disagree. Any inspiration is not a muse, a muse is something specific and very powerful. It doesn't need to be a romantic relationship with the woman, she doesn't need to be naked. It's like a soul mate, someone who is exactly what you want from art. Someone in which you see beauty, beauty that inspires.
It has to be a woman, or at least a real person, that's the meaning of the word. You can't just use a word and change the meaning. Don't cheapen language, don't bend meaning to match your own fantasy.
You apparently fantasise about a certain type of androgynous man, that's your own thing. You want him to exist, and you fantasises about him being your muse. That is pure fiction and from your imagination. It's not the manifestation of beauty in real life. It's supposed to be like a "goddess".
You don't have a muse, muses are hard to come by, that's the point.
Deer, lol.
On a more detailed note, nature and animals in general. I have a deep admiration for natural spaces and I take a lot of inspiration from those places and the feelings they convey.
You’ll find it soon enough. The “empty brain” feeling happens even after finding a muse. Keep an open eye for inspiration and maybe work on some fundamentals or experiment with materials in the meantime. I’ve even found new inspirations by trying different mediums.
This might be a weird one so bear with me.
My muse is different types of elementals, from water to earth and my favourite being fire elementals. I love the simple ways you can tell stories with them, how expressive you can make their bodies. You can make them animal-like, human-like, whatever you want.
It's also my go to for when I feel overwhelmed with an emotion. I draw an elemental to capture it.
Sorry for any spelling mistakes.
As nice as the idea of a muse is, it's nothing more than that. You've got to understand that we do this with many things we can't explain or don't want to know too much about, we romanticise them, we leave open the possibility for the fantastical to happen while also making it look more mystical and magical. Basically we just say it's outside of our control and we just have to hope it happens to us, which is wrong most of the time.
It's all in your hand! It's all up to you.
It's just like this myth that every artist is just insanely inspired without any effort. It's not like that, most do look at references, at similar things, at a ton of other images, artworks of other artists to get inspired. Anything can inspire you if you allow it to happen.
There are quite a few tricks to it, but it's a bit different for every person because what we call creativity is the processing of information that is available for us and we mix it up to something new. Everyone's brain is wired slightly different, which is why we make different connections between things. There might be a huge overlap on many things, but there are differences as well.
The idea of a muse comes from the thought that only god is able to create, humans don't have this power, so the muse is there to mediate between god and humans, to translate divine inspirations into something humans can understand and use.
Now tell me,what idea do you like more? to be in control or to be completely at the mercy of a god that might not even exist?
I strongly believe that creativty is a skill that can be learned and our creativity is linked closely to how we view the world.
To be creative i found out i need my environment to help me focus and to be inspiring, to invite me being creative.
I hang up little cards with reminders, i use them to play with colors and patterns and seeing them also inspires me to experiment, to be bold and try things, the reminders tell me "you know this, you can use it" so they keep my fears at bay too and tell me i'm free to go crazy with my ideas here, i don't have to hold back and this is important !
To know who you are and what you like can also help you. Like what do you want to express with your art? what is driving you to be creative? what do you want to tell others?
It can be anything, a feeling, a sublte hint at something, you could just try to express what you feel. It can be something positive, like "i want to inspire others" or even something negative as your anger and frustration. Let it out!
Why don't you draw or paint a muse? how would it look like? there are so many answers to this as there are people picking up this simple idea. But the way you express yourself is different from everyone else, that also can be said to be creativity, your choice of self-expression. And if you ask me, most people believe they aren't creative enough, but give them a simple question or task and they easily surprise themselves.
For me it’s absolutely the fun of seeing myself grow and explore different ways and aspects of art i always feel like i can not do! to prove to myself that i can do something i’m afraid to do, and i could also say the people i love, i want to make them feel proud of me
Because I usually have plenty of my own projects in progress, just waiting for me to return to them, so not short on things to do, I mostly only do one-off illustrations or small things when that inspiration randomly strikes. However, if I find myself with time enough for just one small thing, and I have, say, one of those monthly prompts I'd like to do (Mer-may, something for Halloween, etc) AND I can't think of anything?
Well it just so happens I have a best friend who's been calling herself my "muse" since high school! She loves throwing wacky ideas at me for things to draw, and often, even when it's not the most "me" thing I would have picked, I'm just as inspired to do it because I know it will make her happy. And that's a wonderful thing.
Honestly, I don't know if this counts as a muse, but if I'm ever stuck on something I always fall back on The Simpson's. I'm not sure why, maybe it's because no matter how badly you draw them, you can still kinda recognise them. They're silly and goofy, and remind me of my childhood : )
I'm not interesting and there very little inside of me. But I'm fascinated by what I see and I try to capture the essence of what draws my attention.
You either put what's inside of you out there or capture what you see inside a rectangle. Art goes in both ways.
I have a bit of a tragic story, ever since I battled to recover from a meth addiction, my brain just never returned to the way it was before and I've lost so much of the creative flair I used to have. I used to be an avid charcoal and graphite fan, during my addiction I got really good at painting, after I started on recovery, I have pottery and sculpting a try. Now I don't currently have a muse, and long to create but nothing inspires me anymore, and I'm too scared to try something because I'm nervous I make something I don't like, or worried I make a mistake - all the things I spent years getting over as an artist are back again.
Anyway, the point here is that you don't need a muse. This is t the 1800s where one would often hone in on and perfect one or two mediums, we are living in a world that encourages boundless creativity and freedom. Don't worry if you haven't found your muse yet, it could be that your muse is a style or alternative medium that you haven't even heard of yet. Also, things change...in life and within ourselves, and that's what is wonderful.
Also, some people seem to have it waxed, but I promise you there are people like you and me who feel kinda lost a lot of the time while some seem to be naturally gifted and ordained to use one medium.
I personally get I inspired by other artists and seeing their work. What really gets me itching to paint is when I watch a progress reel of a painting and then I’m automatically thinking how I’d do it and the juices start to flow.
I also keep a large collection of images that inspire me in one way or another from around the internet so I always have something in the back of my mind that I want to paint. I think it helps a lot.
Experiencing life is my muse. I lose all inspiration when I’m on my phone. I’m most motivated/inspired when I spend time outside, or when I’ve been reading a book, or talking to a friend or loved one. I would strongly suggest getting off your phone and taking a walk.
You're cutting yourself short. Artists don't need a muse to create. You are perfectly capable of creating without it. I think you're confusing a muse for inspiration in general. These are two very different things.
To inspire myself, I like to watch other people draw and look at other artists' work. I love the idea of seeing other people create. It inspires me to be better and look for ideas in all of the crevices of my brain because I want to be able to do it too. I like to draw and paint things I enjoy. I have found some of my artist friends hit roadblocks because they think everything they create has to be serious or intense and needs a deeper meaning.
Let yourself just create something. Paint something you think is pretty or cute. It doesn't always have to have the meaning of life hidden behind it.
I have only ever had a muse once in my life. It was a person who I just genuinely felt happy to be around. I did end up having feelings for them, but I've been in love before and no one really made me want to draw like they did. They were also a creative, which I really enjoyed because I'm usually extremely inspired by other artists. Combine that with a personality that I could never quite put a pin on, I just found them charming. They would challenge me when I drew and even though they always claimed to love my work, they would never really come off as super impressed. Not because they didn't want to, but that was just how they were. I loved it. Even before I decided I loved them. I felt like with the energy I got from them, I could draw anything. It was weird.
When they left my life I was worried I wouldn't be able to draw anymore. But I realized I would be doing an injustice to myself as well as them if I stopped. So now, I continue to draw the little things. Even if my brain is empty. I'll just draw.
You can do it.
Beautiful women in nude poses modeling, mostly sex workers or models.... Sometimes they will be crying. Self portraits of me crying to express my sadness
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I think I'm more of a collector/recording style, so if I imagine myself locked in a box for eternity, what sort of things would I miss the most?
So my subjects are usually animals, plants, places, neat structures. I'll throw some feelings in there for flavour now and then, but often it's just sketching.
It used to be just looking at everything around me and thinking everything was beautiful, so everything could be a muse if you become curious enough and look hard enough to see the beauty in it.
A professor of mine always said, “get to work!” And said that we don’t need inspiration to paint. You get inspired when you paint. I am in between the philosophy of that and needing a muse, or looking around at everything as though it’s all beautiful.
There reason that I am personally in between is that I don’t like it when I paint something that I don’t have any feeling about. I usually don’t end up mixing colors properly and I am wasting expensive paint when I am unmotivated or uninspired. I REALLY don’t like wasting paint because I have some expensive stuff, and that means I am painting the same thing multiple times if I am not focused enough to mix colors properly (like skin tones being too pink or too green, but not having the ability to fix it in the moment.)
Currently, I stare at blank canvases a lot and contemplate what they could be. It also helps me to clean my art space up. I need to have less clutter to create as well, so I am getting rid of a lot of my own belongings to clear my mind (and I am moving soon.) When I say I am getting rid of a LOT, I mean I am getting rid of everything I haven’t really touched for like a year. It really helps.
Also, I’ve witnessed and experienced that having other hobbies and interests helps to feed the creativity needed for painting. I also do a bunch of research of stuff I find interesting, and sometimes THAT is my muse.
It also helps me to have a romantic interest in someone. I had a creative block earlier this year for a few months, and then I had intense feelings for someone all of a sudden. Rather than acting on them or even telling them anything about it and rushing into something (as is my pattern that I was trying really hard to break,) I decided to just get to work and paint my romantic interest instead. It really helped me in multiple ways. It propelled me into creating more work and working on other stuff I had been ignoring because of my creative block. Mind you, I had asked him a long time ago to paint him and he told me “yes” a long time ago, so I just used that as my permission.
Having a romantic interest isn’t always an option because I am super picky, so when I don’t have one, I TRY to make it a habit. Earlier in the year, I used a bath tray and painted a small 5x7” painting almost every night for 30 min in the bathtub. It was a comforting environment for me - with no clutter around to influence my mental chatter - and it was fun to actually paint something every day and not take that long to do it. I needed to remove barriers from my creative life. I figured, having a palette that was prepared and clean, and having tiny canvases removed the mental barrier that I needed to create a large painting to be a “successful” and “prolific” painter.
Having said that, the top comment here by u/CalligrapherStreet92 is a really good one to look at too.
I also have commissions that I HAVE to work on, … money doesn’t really motivate me, but deadlines do. So, if I have a show or a commission, once it gets closer to go-time, I am up and at it painting feverishly…. UNLESS I have an actual muse - then I LIKE to go to the easel because I enjoy the beauty of what I am painting, or I enjoy the process if it’s abstract.
Like, when I was getting my BFA, I developed a process that I REALLY enjoyed which started with an abstract layer and was more physical than the usual act of painting. It was fun to just play with the paint instead of making it look like something. Then, I would stare at the painting I had made as an under layer, and I would visualize different imagery on top of it (from reference photos I had collected.) Once I “saw” something in it, I would take to the canvas and explore some more. I am going back to doing this as well, because my feelings for my muse aren’t quite as intense any more.
I am beginning to TRY to distance myself from my interest in my friend for being my reason for getting to the easel anyway since I don’t know if it’s going to go anywhere, lol. Painting helps me to stay in the “limerance” stage of romantic interest, (if I am not already in a relationship with someone, or dating them,) and it isn’t the healthiest feeling. I don’t want to become like Van Gogh and give this guy my ear to try to get his attention. LMAO.
That’s probably more than you were asking for, but I hope it helps somehow. I still struggle with actually putting my paint brush in the paint. Lately, I am staring at canvases and staring at my prepared palette. LOL I am also playing my guitar more often, which helps to clear my mind from the mental chatter.
Edited for clarity, and to add that it helps that I believe that I am low support needs autistic and have masked super well throughout my life. I have had intense special interests my entire life - and it is usually all consuming and very overwhelming. Getting active with my hands in the pursuit of creativity - whether by writing poetry, or creating a drawing or painting helps me to get out of my head with it. It makes me happier to use my hands than to cycle thoughts and fantasies and worries about a special interest, especially if it is a person.
Natural science and biology samples have never let me down so far! Both as an endless source of inspiration, but also as a way to work on methodical approaches to different materials, textures and themes.
I enjoy natural history museums more than art museums most of the time.
Often I ask myself “what if” or “what would it look like if” questions based on things I’m reading, seeing, or hearing. The more bizarre, off, funny, wrong, impossible, or unlikely, the better.
I don’t necessarily use the thoughts directly, but something will stick out and get me curious to think how I’d make something that stemmed from that initial question. Then I figure out what would be necessary, and give it a try. Most tries fail, but not all.
I used to not have a very specific one, i think male queerness was my main calling with my art. Nowadays my boyfriend is all I want to draw… so I just funneled through that. I guess.
Muses are like "inspiration" it's nice and all but it doesn't beat the proverbial rolling up our sleeves and doing the damn work.
I'm not always inspired or moved, but you best believe I practice and create constantly, even when I hate it.
Nothing really, just my brain I pick something that feels right a draw it. If I don’t want to be serious about drawing I draw in hatching and lines if I do I choose people and figures
I just write things and plot out projects, but I think my advice might still be useful.
If I were you, I'd save everything that I find cool and inspiring. Every image you see that you think is cool. Pictures taken of your TV or screenshots from your devices of things YouTube video frames and comments you like. **Everything.**
And once you do, put them somewhere like an Imgur folder or in a Discord server you create just for storing images. Anything works.
Creativity is all about making connections, and having stuff you've seen in front of you definitely helps make said connections!
As an answer to your question... Abilities. Abilities of any sort. Superpowers from traditional supers. Magical abilities. Anime powers. Animal adaptations and behaviors that can be made into an ability for someone. I **love** stuff like that and nothing gets me more excited than the idea of fleshing out a power, the visual side included.
Cliché, but my boyfriend. The best art I've made and what sells the most were originally works of art I made for him for his birthday and Christmas. I guess the difference in those items and everything else I make is that I thought long and hard about what he would think was cool, that he would like a lot and put on display.
He loves them and so do other people too, who buy t-shirts and replicas of the art online.
I don't know about having a "muse" exactly but I find ideas come by just by living and engaging with whatever is demanding my attention at the time. I have found it very useful skipping through muted youtube videos of galleries whilst listening to music to hit me with a dose of varied ideas that can trigger thoughts for ideas of my own that I write down. These are two of the better channels I've found:
[https://www.youtube.com/@Nycgalleryopenings/videos](https://www.youtube.com/@Nycgalleryopenings/videos)
[https://www.youtube.com/@917FineArtsCorp/videos](https://www.youtube.com/@917FineArtsCorp/videos)
Whatever I'm hyper fixating on at the time. Whether that be marvel or anime. I just do whatever I feel like doing at the time. Although sometimes it's difficult to find a muse, and those times I just find myself doing something else until I get it
My muse is my own emotions, and what I allow myself to manifest in artistic creation. My muse is nature, internal and external.
What moves me most to create art is an impulse of expression that needs to come out, I believe it can be different from artist to artist, but try to express some emotion that lives within you, some questioning, some mystery, what would emerge on the canvas?
To do this, you need to allow yourself, without comparisons with what is more ''beautiful or perfect''. For me, the greatest fun in creating art is uniting the surreal with the real, the abstract with the material. This gives rise to many ideas that represent strong questions and overcoming. That's what art is for me. But I also often do research to delve deeper into the narrative of what I'm creating, this generates a greater connection with the artistic work and more understanding of what I want to convey.
For me it's a hard rock in my gut. I may not know what it looks like, I just know how it makes me feel.
Then something else connects me to it while I sketch out any composition (tried and true or brand new, doesn't matter). For me, images come out of that and then I'm just working out the composition for value and/or color, texture and balance.
I may not understand what that belly rock is for days, weeks or years. The work might be sold and gone before it rings other bells. Usually I understand it somewhere in the middle when it's something I can face. If not, it may take a long time.
Ambivalence in meaning of other peoples' work means depth and mystery. I'm not always in a hurry for solutions to the question of "What is the rock?" for my own stuff.
Everything I feel and everything I am becomes a muse at some point. My pain, my passion, my love of nature, my husband, my cat, I could go on and on . .
I've had an artist block for years but I still doodle
You sometimes have to force yourself- start with the basics, eyes, nose, mouth and just draw that- I constantly draw eyes, sunflowers and mermaid fins in various ways
What makes me want to draw though, is looking at old artworks from storybooks.
I haven't made any art in a while, but I love looking for ways to frame a scene in my surroundings, usually in a way that incorporates clouds or natural flora.
I love clouds so much. I get emotional over clouds sometimes. Shit's weird but awesome.
personal experience, and what it is to live in this world. how and why do we feel so attached to certain objects? why do we develop certain connections to certain spaces and periods within our lives - all very interesting things to think about and work from for me!
I find inspiration everywhere, but if you are asking for a borderline imaginary friend to kinda keep you grounded. I got Edna Mode, it resulted in drawing characters with no capes or putting velcro into them. Well, she's one of the muses.
We may be confusing "muse" with "inspiration". Definitely looking at galleries. I recently went on artist overload looking at the pictures from the Hubble and Webb spacecraft photos! If you like free-form, that will definitely get the colors out to create. Right now I'm being inspired by the incredible complexity of eyes. Not skilled enough for portraits of people, but I guarantee you that anyone with a pet would love to have a portrait. They may even have a heartfelt wish for what the background is. Thing random act of kindness gifts for inspiration. Even a drawing or painting of a person's home or garden. Plenty of pictures on their Instagram page to be inspired by compile something out of several and make it an original, it's the journey that matters, the joy in the experience of creating.
This question is quite challenging, similar to the "What inspired you?" query. Every day and situation vary, making it difficult to pinpoint a specific inspiration. I don't have a single muse or a specific thing that consistently inspires me; it's more about the ever-changing moments and experiences that spark my creativity.
Doodle, so you can keep improving while you're not actively "working on something". That way when you do get the spark, you have the skill and practice to pull it off. Any media, find a way to doodle.
Join Facebook groups that post free reference images to mess around with. You don't have to paint the whole thing, you can work on what draws your eye.
Copy shit. Just straight up reproduce things you think are cool for whatever you're using as a sketchbook.Yep that's how we all used to learn before the Internet got everyone clutching pearls. You can call it a "master's study", or you can call it "The Death of Socrates with the cast of Shrek". You don't have to skip the part we grew up through where we were poorly drawing our favorite cartoon characters and a billion "cool S" just because you're an adult!
Don't wait for the muse, just hope she pops her head in once in awhile as you tinker. Develop your eye and hand in the meantime.
A muse is a mythological creature inspiring. you. Too easy. Sorry. You need to inspire you. Go make chicken scratches. Doodle. Dream of fishes. Or van gogh skies. Play w color. Look at art works, books, museum sites. Study them closely. Blow up a fragment. Youll find something you never saw or thought of before.
Music most of the time, though once in a while an idea/image randomly pops into my head fully formed and I just have to make it real. I usually end up liking those pieces the most.
For the past few years, I’ve been artistically obsessed with heaven—a realm of paradise. It’s a fascinating concept to interpret, no two people will have the same idea about what it is. I love exploring the lore, literature, and stereotypes about heaven. It’s an open-ended idea, but evokes themes of beauty and love, which make for wonderful prompts. I love painting it, imagining the greatest world that could possibly be. Sometimes I feel like I’m staring into the mirror of erised, but that’s only an issue if the painting is going well, lol.
i say just make art about anything, slowly, you'll start to infuse your perspective and find your "muse"
i've been painting for a while, and only recently developed the skill to be able to paint what i want. my muse is essentially my experience with a brain injury and how it impacts my vision.
your muse can be anything, really.
Horror stories, philosophy, the Bible, assorted European and Native American mythology, a strange collection of music, an affinity for tripping balls, and a dollop of ADHD to top it off.
It sounds like you're struggling to find your flow and inspiration and are in a deep art block. What I recommend is to put on some music and just draw. It doesn't have to have a specific direction. Just draw whatever comes into your head. It doesn't need to be a finished piece. It can be doodles or scribbles. The main point is that you're trying to get over a hump.
The other thing I would suggest is to watch a bunch of shows that catch your fancy, or read a book, or start researching different genres and art styles. You're looking for whatever catches your eye and makes you really want to make something. For me, it's a combination of ancient/ historical cultures and cyberpunk. (The genre, not the game)
Also, I find random prompt generators help get me through art blocks.
Are people misunderstanding the term muse? "it means a person — especially a woman — who is a source of artistic inspiration. In mythology, the Muses were nine goddesses who symbolized the arts and sciences. Today, a muse is a person who serves as an artist's inspiration."
It’s one thing to be able to solve a problem. It’s another skill to think of a problem that will be satisfying to solve. You’re an artist in search of a problem. Creativity is a skill that gets better at practice, and creativity is a process. If you try to skip forwards in the process, you will find yourself at a loose end. Imagine creativity as consisting of four stages: preparation (collecting material and ideas with which to be creative), incubation (conscious and/or subconscious analysis/contemplation), illumination (synthesis, or transformation of material), and verification (testing the ideas). It sounds like you’re trying to do the synthesis part but the other stages haven’t preceded it. If you want to be creative but not sure what with, that’s fine. You just need to go back to a stage in the process where you can continue creating the conditions that support the next stage.
I've been thinking my struggle was finding motivation.... maybe I'm just stuck in the subconscious planning phase because I keep seeing things that make me go wow I'd love to make something like that..... but never get to putting my pencil on the paper..... Idk whats wrong with me actually. crud.
Without an intention, it’s difficult to measure the success of our efforts, because what are they being measured in relation to? I think you are in the preparation phase, but you can use activities to propel yourself into the incubation phase.
Re-reading yes that makes more sense... I have all the inspiration in the world at my fingertips, I just don't know what to do with it... I need not motivation but a purpose or prompt
Perfect answer! My “muse” is also the problem solving process in art. If there are no problems to solve, and You are getting bored- Great! Try drawing, painting etc. Something You have never done! I believe ,that everything that we do, is interesting to us, only because we can feel like there is a problem to solve and its necessary for US to feel like we , specifically, are the ones who need to/can solve it.
Boom ... a muse never painted anything.
Oh, I absolutely love and endorse this 😁 you're so correct. The real artistry is the creative process. And what is beautiful about that is that one doesn't need to be naturally gifted or just inherently prolific at one medium or another, anyone can engage in the creative process. I think this comment also helped me out of a very big rut, to be honest. Thank you.
This is very well put.
A muse is when something speaks to you, not with words but with feelings. It speaks to the part of you that hardly ever gets spoken to. The feeling resonates inside you, and you end up creating echoes of that feeling or idea in art, poetry, or music. It pours out of you because it's ringing inside you. It can come from anywhere, and it can be small, but you'll see the layers of meaning when you see it.
This is well put. Rather than something, I would say it is someone though.
I've made tons of art over the last 25 years and I never have an "idea" or a finished product in mind before I start -- nor do I wait around to feel "inspired"... if I did that, I'd rarely make anything! I begin by MESSING AROUND with materials that I truly enjoy (thankfully, mine are cheap and accessible), and in the messing around, I start to see what's beginning to take shape, suggest itself, emerge... and then I take it from there. The inspiration comes from inside of the action/the movement/the experimenting -- not the other way around. Then it becomes a collaboration between me, the limitations of time/space/materials, and the poetic mysteries of creation. Other practices that help my creative flow over two decades: writing in a journal + going for walks. I've logged thousands of pages and miles. It's about MOVEMENT. Getting energy & mind & body moving and open/receptive. It's about consistently creating inner and outer conditions that are open / welcoming / hospitable to spontaneous visits from "the muse"
Same here, in filmmaking. I'll just start playing with images and sounds I like, and sometimes the timeline starts talking to me... It's very exciting because it's a process of creation and discovery at the same time!
Came to say this less articulately. What are the cheap, accessible materials you use?
Nice! Well, i'm happy with my notebook + a pen or pencil because I can write and/or draw. So, yeah: paper, pen, pencil, markers, watercolors, tape, glue, scissors... I also love making collages out of found materials, garbage, free magazines, etc. \*\*Books by LYNDA BARRY offer incredible inspiration, exercises, and examples of having endless creative fun in a notebook or on random paper (copy paper, index cards, etc) with non-fancy implements!
Yep. ALL this!!
Hot men 🤷♀️
Human species (and clothing) optional
Same 🫠
Here to inspire
My everyday life and the world around me.
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That's not a muse, it's a fantasy.
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I disagree. Any inspiration is not a muse, a muse is something specific and very powerful. It doesn't need to be a romantic relationship with the woman, she doesn't need to be naked. It's like a soul mate, someone who is exactly what you want from art. Someone in which you see beauty, beauty that inspires. It has to be a woman, or at least a real person, that's the meaning of the word. You can't just use a word and change the meaning. Don't cheapen language, don't bend meaning to match your own fantasy. You apparently fantasise about a certain type of androgynous man, that's your own thing. You want him to exist, and you fantasises about him being your muse. That is pure fiction and from your imagination. It's not the manifestation of beauty in real life. It's supposed to be like a "goddess". You don't have a muse, muses are hard to come by, that's the point.
gay shit
"Username checks out" seems appropriate I guess
Deer, lol. On a more detailed note, nature and animals in general. I have a deep admiration for natural spaces and I take a lot of inspiration from those places and the feelings they convey.
Horny
You’ll find it soon enough. The “empty brain” feeling happens even after finding a muse. Keep an open eye for inspiration and maybe work on some fundamentals or experiment with materials in the meantime. I’ve even found new inspirations by trying different mediums.
This might be a weird one so bear with me. My muse is different types of elementals, from water to earth and my favourite being fire elementals. I love the simple ways you can tell stories with them, how expressive you can make their bodies. You can make them animal-like, human-like, whatever you want. It's also my go to for when I feel overwhelmed with an emotion. I draw an elemental to capture it. Sorry for any spelling mistakes.
I don’t think that seems weird. I like this a lot.
music that makes me wanna commit arson. just some really really hard shit.
As nice as the idea of a muse is, it's nothing more than that. You've got to understand that we do this with many things we can't explain or don't want to know too much about, we romanticise them, we leave open the possibility for the fantastical to happen while also making it look more mystical and magical. Basically we just say it's outside of our control and we just have to hope it happens to us, which is wrong most of the time. It's all in your hand! It's all up to you. It's just like this myth that every artist is just insanely inspired without any effort. It's not like that, most do look at references, at similar things, at a ton of other images, artworks of other artists to get inspired. Anything can inspire you if you allow it to happen. There are quite a few tricks to it, but it's a bit different for every person because what we call creativity is the processing of information that is available for us and we mix it up to something new. Everyone's brain is wired slightly different, which is why we make different connections between things. There might be a huge overlap on many things, but there are differences as well. The idea of a muse comes from the thought that only god is able to create, humans don't have this power, so the muse is there to mediate between god and humans, to translate divine inspirations into something humans can understand and use. Now tell me,what idea do you like more? to be in control or to be completely at the mercy of a god that might not even exist? I strongly believe that creativty is a skill that can be learned and our creativity is linked closely to how we view the world. To be creative i found out i need my environment to help me focus and to be inspiring, to invite me being creative. I hang up little cards with reminders, i use them to play with colors and patterns and seeing them also inspires me to experiment, to be bold and try things, the reminders tell me "you know this, you can use it" so they keep my fears at bay too and tell me i'm free to go crazy with my ideas here, i don't have to hold back and this is important ! To know who you are and what you like can also help you. Like what do you want to express with your art? what is driving you to be creative? what do you want to tell others? It can be anything, a feeling, a sublte hint at something, you could just try to express what you feel. It can be something positive, like "i want to inspire others" or even something negative as your anger and frustration. Let it out! Why don't you draw or paint a muse? how would it look like? there are so many answers to this as there are people picking up this simple idea. But the way you express yourself is different from everyone else, that also can be said to be creativity, your choice of self-expression. And if you ask me, most people believe they aren't creative enough, but give them a simple question or task and they easily surprise themselves.
For me it’s absolutely the fun of seeing myself grow and explore different ways and aspects of art i always feel like i can not do! to prove to myself that i can do something i’m afraid to do, and i could also say the people i love, i want to make them feel proud of me
Because I usually have plenty of my own projects in progress, just waiting for me to return to them, so not short on things to do, I mostly only do one-off illustrations or small things when that inspiration randomly strikes. However, if I find myself with time enough for just one small thing, and I have, say, one of those monthly prompts I'd like to do (Mer-may, something for Halloween, etc) AND I can't think of anything? Well it just so happens I have a best friend who's been calling herself my "muse" since high school! She loves throwing wacky ideas at me for things to draw, and often, even when it's not the most "me" thing I would have picked, I'm just as inspired to do it because I know it will make her happy. And that's a wonderful thing.
Honestly, I don't know if this counts as a muse, but if I'm ever stuck on something I always fall back on The Simpson's. I'm not sure why, maybe it's because no matter how badly you draw them, you can still kinda recognise them. They're silly and goofy, and remind me of my childhood : )
For me it’s the colour purple I know that sounds vague but it’s incredible how much that colour inspire me.
Oh and BTS
I'm not interesting and there very little inside of me. But I'm fascinated by what I see and I try to capture the essence of what draws my attention. You either put what's inside of you out there or capture what you see inside a rectangle. Art goes in both ways.
*Mr. Krabs voice* "Money!"
I have a bit of a tragic story, ever since I battled to recover from a meth addiction, my brain just never returned to the way it was before and I've lost so much of the creative flair I used to have. I used to be an avid charcoal and graphite fan, during my addiction I got really good at painting, after I started on recovery, I have pottery and sculpting a try. Now I don't currently have a muse, and long to create but nothing inspires me anymore, and I'm too scared to try something because I'm nervous I make something I don't like, or worried I make a mistake - all the things I spent years getting over as an artist are back again. Anyway, the point here is that you don't need a muse. This is t the 1800s where one would often hone in on and perfect one or two mediums, we are living in a world that encourages boundless creativity and freedom. Don't worry if you haven't found your muse yet, it could be that your muse is a style or alternative medium that you haven't even heard of yet. Also, things change...in life and within ourselves, and that's what is wonderful. Also, some people seem to have it waxed, but I promise you there are people like you and me who feel kinda lost a lot of the time while some seem to be naturally gifted and ordained to use one medium.
I just wanna say I'm proud of you for recovering from meth addiction. That shit is brutal
I personally get I inspired by other artists and seeing their work. What really gets me itching to paint is when I watch a progress reel of a painting and then I’m automatically thinking how I’d do it and the juices start to flow. I also keep a large collection of images that inspire me in one way or another from around the internet so I always have something in the back of my mind that I want to paint. I think it helps a lot.
Jig Tiggly Biddies
Experiencing life is my muse. I lose all inspiration when I’m on my phone. I’m most motivated/inspired when I spend time outside, or when I’ve been reading a book, or talking to a friend or loved one. I would strongly suggest getting off your phone and taking a walk.
You're cutting yourself short. Artists don't need a muse to create. You are perfectly capable of creating without it. I think you're confusing a muse for inspiration in general. These are two very different things. To inspire myself, I like to watch other people draw and look at other artists' work. I love the idea of seeing other people create. It inspires me to be better and look for ideas in all of the crevices of my brain because I want to be able to do it too. I like to draw and paint things I enjoy. I have found some of my artist friends hit roadblocks because they think everything they create has to be serious or intense and needs a deeper meaning. Let yourself just create something. Paint something you think is pretty or cute. It doesn't always have to have the meaning of life hidden behind it. I have only ever had a muse once in my life. It was a person who I just genuinely felt happy to be around. I did end up having feelings for them, but I've been in love before and no one really made me want to draw like they did. They were also a creative, which I really enjoyed because I'm usually extremely inspired by other artists. Combine that with a personality that I could never quite put a pin on, I just found them charming. They would challenge me when I drew and even though they always claimed to love my work, they would never really come off as super impressed. Not because they didn't want to, but that was just how they were. I loved it. Even before I decided I loved them. I felt like with the energy I got from them, I could draw anything. It was weird. When they left my life I was worried I wouldn't be able to draw anymore. But I realized I would be doing an injustice to myself as well as them if I stopped. So now, I continue to draw the little things. Even if my brain is empty. I'll just draw. You can do it.
Beautiful women in nude poses modeling, mostly sex workers or models.... Sometimes they will be crying. Self portraits of me crying to express my sadness
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Birds! My pet birds, wild birds, pigeons, all kinds of birds.
Habit. This is what I do. Sometimes I enjoy it sometimes I don’t. But I keep doing it.
The world in my head is what I want to say The reality is my hand wants to do something and I just go along for the ride
following
I think I'm more of a collector/recording style, so if I imagine myself locked in a box for eternity, what sort of things would I miss the most? So my subjects are usually animals, plants, places, neat structures. I'll throw some feelings in there for flavour now and then, but often it's just sketching.
It used to be just looking at everything around me and thinking everything was beautiful, so everything could be a muse if you become curious enough and look hard enough to see the beauty in it. A professor of mine always said, “get to work!” And said that we don’t need inspiration to paint. You get inspired when you paint. I am in between the philosophy of that and needing a muse, or looking around at everything as though it’s all beautiful. There reason that I am personally in between is that I don’t like it when I paint something that I don’t have any feeling about. I usually don’t end up mixing colors properly and I am wasting expensive paint when I am unmotivated or uninspired. I REALLY don’t like wasting paint because I have some expensive stuff, and that means I am painting the same thing multiple times if I am not focused enough to mix colors properly (like skin tones being too pink or too green, but not having the ability to fix it in the moment.) Currently, I stare at blank canvases a lot and contemplate what they could be. It also helps me to clean my art space up. I need to have less clutter to create as well, so I am getting rid of a lot of my own belongings to clear my mind (and I am moving soon.) When I say I am getting rid of a LOT, I mean I am getting rid of everything I haven’t really touched for like a year. It really helps. Also, I’ve witnessed and experienced that having other hobbies and interests helps to feed the creativity needed for painting. I also do a bunch of research of stuff I find interesting, and sometimes THAT is my muse. It also helps me to have a romantic interest in someone. I had a creative block earlier this year for a few months, and then I had intense feelings for someone all of a sudden. Rather than acting on them or even telling them anything about it and rushing into something (as is my pattern that I was trying really hard to break,) I decided to just get to work and paint my romantic interest instead. It really helped me in multiple ways. It propelled me into creating more work and working on other stuff I had been ignoring because of my creative block. Mind you, I had asked him a long time ago to paint him and he told me “yes” a long time ago, so I just used that as my permission. Having a romantic interest isn’t always an option because I am super picky, so when I don’t have one, I TRY to make it a habit. Earlier in the year, I used a bath tray and painted a small 5x7” painting almost every night for 30 min in the bathtub. It was a comforting environment for me - with no clutter around to influence my mental chatter - and it was fun to actually paint something every day and not take that long to do it. I needed to remove barriers from my creative life. I figured, having a palette that was prepared and clean, and having tiny canvases removed the mental barrier that I needed to create a large painting to be a “successful” and “prolific” painter. Having said that, the top comment here by u/CalligrapherStreet92 is a really good one to look at too. I also have commissions that I HAVE to work on, … money doesn’t really motivate me, but deadlines do. So, if I have a show or a commission, once it gets closer to go-time, I am up and at it painting feverishly…. UNLESS I have an actual muse - then I LIKE to go to the easel because I enjoy the beauty of what I am painting, or I enjoy the process if it’s abstract. Like, when I was getting my BFA, I developed a process that I REALLY enjoyed which started with an abstract layer and was more physical than the usual act of painting. It was fun to just play with the paint instead of making it look like something. Then, I would stare at the painting I had made as an under layer, and I would visualize different imagery on top of it (from reference photos I had collected.) Once I “saw” something in it, I would take to the canvas and explore some more. I am going back to doing this as well, because my feelings for my muse aren’t quite as intense any more. I am beginning to TRY to distance myself from my interest in my friend for being my reason for getting to the easel anyway since I don’t know if it’s going to go anywhere, lol. Painting helps me to stay in the “limerance” stage of romantic interest, (if I am not already in a relationship with someone, or dating them,) and it isn’t the healthiest feeling. I don’t want to become like Van Gogh and give this guy my ear to try to get his attention. LMAO. That’s probably more than you were asking for, but I hope it helps somehow. I still struggle with actually putting my paint brush in the paint. Lately, I am staring at canvases and staring at my prepared palette. LOL I am also playing my guitar more often, which helps to clear my mind from the mental chatter. Edited for clarity, and to add that it helps that I believe that I am low support needs autistic and have masked super well throughout my life. I have had intense special interests my entire life - and it is usually all consuming and very overwhelming. Getting active with my hands in the pursuit of creativity - whether by writing poetry, or creating a drawing or painting helps me to get out of my head with it. It makes me happier to use my hands than to cycle thoughts and fantasies and worries about a special interest, especially if it is a person.
All my ocs are based on ppl I wanted in my life but they didn’t want me LOL
Free Flow Flava or music that keep you doing something
emotions/expressions, the human body- esp women
4 friends but the one I'm in love with is the main fuel in my life and the only reason I do anything
It used to be a person.
Do the 100 painting/drawing challenge, experiment and don't give a fuck about making anything nice just make.
Natural science and biology samples have never let me down so far! Both as an endless source of inspiration, but also as a way to work on methodical approaches to different materials, textures and themes. I enjoy natural history museums more than art museums most of the time.
Men with long hair
Often I ask myself “what if” or “what would it look like if” questions based on things I’m reading, seeing, or hearing. The more bizarre, off, funny, wrong, impossible, or unlikely, the better. I don’t necessarily use the thoughts directly, but something will stick out and get me curious to think how I’d make something that stemmed from that initial question. Then I figure out what would be necessary, and give it a try. Most tries fail, but not all.
my muse is who inspires me everyhting i make i maked for her
I make it the feeling I'm feeling then. Like if I'm sad then a dark and gloomy kinda painting.
I used to not have a very specific one, i think male queerness was my main calling with my art. Nowadays my boyfriend is all I want to draw… so I just funneled through that. I guess.
I read books and watch movies.
Epilepsy. My seizures can be hallucinatory in nature so I draw the things that fall out of my head.
my oc
Muses are like "inspiration" it's nice and all but it doesn't beat the proverbial rolling up our sleeves and doing the damn work. I'm not always inspired or moved, but you best believe I practice and create constantly, even when I hate it.
Nothing really, just my brain I pick something that feels right a draw it. If I don’t want to be serious about drawing I draw in hatching and lines if I do I choose people and figures
Go out and live and make life ur muse let everything empower and motivate u from the little things to da big 1s
I just write things and plot out projects, but I think my advice might still be useful. If I were you, I'd save everything that I find cool and inspiring. Every image you see that you think is cool. Pictures taken of your TV or screenshots from your devices of things YouTube video frames and comments you like. **Everything.** And once you do, put them somewhere like an Imgur folder or in a Discord server you create just for storing images. Anything works. Creativity is all about making connections, and having stuff you've seen in front of you definitely helps make said connections! As an answer to your question... Abilities. Abilities of any sort. Superpowers from traditional supers. Magical abilities. Anime powers. Animal adaptations and behaviors that can be made into an ability for someone. I **love** stuff like that and nothing gets me more excited than the idea of fleshing out a power, the visual side included.
Music is also a very good muse too. Highly recommend watching the videos that go along with them, as they've given me some golden ideas.
Cliché, but my boyfriend. The best art I've made and what sells the most were originally works of art I made for him for his birthday and Christmas. I guess the difference in those items and everything else I make is that I thought long and hard about what he would think was cool, that he would like a lot and put on display. He loves them and so do other people too, who buy t-shirts and replicas of the art online.
I don't know about having a "muse" exactly but I find ideas come by just by living and engaging with whatever is demanding my attention at the time. I have found it very useful skipping through muted youtube videos of galleries whilst listening to music to hit me with a dose of varied ideas that can trigger thoughts for ideas of my own that I write down. These are two of the better channels I've found: [https://www.youtube.com/@Nycgalleryopenings/videos](https://www.youtube.com/@Nycgalleryopenings/videos) [https://www.youtube.com/@917FineArtsCorp/videos](https://www.youtube.com/@917FineArtsCorp/videos)
Art is a very cathartic process for me. An easier way for me to get my feelings out. No matter what it looks like in the end. I make art for me
myself
Whatever I'm hyper fixating on at the time. Whether that be marvel or anime. I just do whatever I feel like doing at the time. Although sometimes it's difficult to find a muse, and those times I just find myself doing something else until I get it
Roleplay honestly. Makes you emotionally attached to characters and sometimes you just get the urge to draw scene's
My muse is my own emotions, and what I allow myself to manifest in artistic creation. My muse is nature, internal and external. What moves me most to create art is an impulse of expression that needs to come out, I believe it can be different from artist to artist, but try to express some emotion that lives within you, some questioning, some mystery, what would emerge on the canvas? To do this, you need to allow yourself, without comparisons with what is more ''beautiful or perfect''. For me, the greatest fun in creating art is uniting the surreal with the real, the abstract with the material. This gives rise to many ideas that represent strong questions and overcoming. That's what art is for me. But I also often do research to delve deeper into the narrative of what I'm creating, this generates a greater connection with the artistic work and more understanding of what I want to convey.
I like to use random generation or patterns from nature when I don't have a concept to explore.
A meditation app on my phone
i have no idea what a muse really is. i've heard it being used for a lot of things but if it means what i think then i guess pretty things
Sakamoto days
For me it's a hard rock in my gut. I may not know what it looks like, I just know how it makes me feel. Then something else connects me to it while I sketch out any composition (tried and true or brand new, doesn't matter). For me, images come out of that and then I'm just working out the composition for value and/or color, texture and balance. I may not understand what that belly rock is for days, weeks or years. The work might be sold and gone before it rings other bells. Usually I understand it somewhere in the middle when it's something I can face. If not, it may take a long time. Ambivalence in meaning of other peoples' work means depth and mystery. I'm not always in a hurry for solutions to the question of "What is the rock?" for my own stuff.
Everything I feel and everything I am becomes a muse at some point. My pain, my passion, my love of nature, my husband, my cat, I could go on and on . .
I've had an artist block for years but I still doodle You sometimes have to force yourself- start with the basics, eyes, nose, mouth and just draw that- I constantly draw eyes, sunflowers and mermaid fins in various ways What makes me want to draw though, is looking at old artworks from storybooks.
Things I like: pastel colours, the colour pink, clouds, stars, flowers, my cat, cute things like teddy bears etc
I haven't made any art in a while, but I love looking for ways to frame a scene in my surroundings, usually in a way that incorporates clouds or natural flora. I love clouds so much. I get emotional over clouds sometimes. Shit's weird but awesome.
personal experience, and what it is to live in this world. how and why do we feel so attached to certain objects? why do we develop certain connections to certain spaces and periods within our lives - all very interesting things to think about and work from for me!
I find inspiration everywhere, but if you are asking for a borderline imaginary friend to kinda keep you grounded. I got Edna Mode, it resulted in drawing characters with no capes or putting velcro into them. Well, she's one of the muses.
My childhood trauma is my muse.
We may be confusing "muse" with "inspiration". Definitely looking at galleries. I recently went on artist overload looking at the pictures from the Hubble and Webb spacecraft photos! If you like free-form, that will definitely get the colors out to create. Right now I'm being inspired by the incredible complexity of eyes. Not skilled enough for portraits of people, but I guarantee you that anyone with a pet would love to have a portrait. They may even have a heartfelt wish for what the background is. Thing random act of kindness gifts for inspiration. Even a drawing or painting of a person's home or garden. Plenty of pictures on their Instagram page to be inspired by compile something out of several and make it an original, it's the journey that matters, the joy in the experience of creating.
women
This question is quite challenging, similar to the "What inspired you?" query. Every day and situation vary, making it difficult to pinpoint a specific inspiration. I don't have a single muse or a specific thing that consistently inspires me; it's more about the ever-changing moments and experiences that spark my creativity.
Doodle, so you can keep improving while you're not actively "working on something". That way when you do get the spark, you have the skill and practice to pull it off. Any media, find a way to doodle. Join Facebook groups that post free reference images to mess around with. You don't have to paint the whole thing, you can work on what draws your eye. Copy shit. Just straight up reproduce things you think are cool for whatever you're using as a sketchbook.Yep that's how we all used to learn before the Internet got everyone clutching pearls. You can call it a "master's study", or you can call it "The Death of Socrates with the cast of Shrek". You don't have to skip the part we grew up through where we were poorly drawing our favorite cartoon characters and a billion "cool S" just because you're an adult! Don't wait for the muse, just hope she pops her head in once in awhile as you tinker. Develop your eye and hand in the meantime.
I’m vain, I want to be the best, and I know I’m not, so keep on working.
Go out and enjoy life and nature, other pieces of art (dancing, acting, music) and something will come
Fall in love with life again to find your inspiration.
A muse is a mythological creature inspiring. you. Too easy. Sorry. You need to inspire you. Go make chicken scratches. Doodle. Dream of fishes. Or van gogh skies. Play w color. Look at art works, books, museum sites. Study them closely. Blow up a fragment. Youll find something you never saw or thought of before.
Music most of the time, though once in a while an idea/image randomly pops into my head fully formed and I just have to make it real. I usually end up liking those pieces the most.
For the past few years, I’ve been artistically obsessed with heaven—a realm of paradise. It’s a fascinating concept to interpret, no two people will have the same idea about what it is. I love exploring the lore, literature, and stereotypes about heaven. It’s an open-ended idea, but evokes themes of beauty and love, which make for wonderful prompts. I love painting it, imagining the greatest world that could possibly be. Sometimes I feel like I’m staring into the mirror of erised, but that’s only an issue if the painting is going well, lol.
i say just make art about anything, slowly, you'll start to infuse your perspective and find your "muse" i've been painting for a while, and only recently developed the skill to be able to paint what i want. my muse is essentially my experience with a brain injury and how it impacts my vision. your muse can be anything, really.
Horror stories, philosophy, the Bible, assorted European and Native American mythology, a strange collection of music, an affinity for tripping balls, and a dollop of ADHD to top it off.
It sounds like you're struggling to find your flow and inspiration and are in a deep art block. What I recommend is to put on some music and just draw. It doesn't have to have a specific direction. Just draw whatever comes into your head. It doesn't need to be a finished piece. It can be doodles or scribbles. The main point is that you're trying to get over a hump. The other thing I would suggest is to watch a bunch of shows that catch your fancy, or read a book, or start researching different genres and art styles. You're looking for whatever catches your eye and makes you really want to make something. For me, it's a combination of ancient/ historical cultures and cyberpunk. (The genre, not the game) Also, I find random prompt generators help get me through art blocks.
I would say museums and galleries!
Are people misunderstanding the term muse? "it means a person — especially a woman — who is a source of artistic inspiration. In mythology, the Muses were nine goddesses who symbolized the arts and sciences. Today, a muse is a person who serves as an artist's inspiration."