In Living Color

Written by inspiredwander

After my visit to Europe last fall I did a blog post featuring some images of colorful, vivid street art that inspired me while there. That entire trip is actually what inspired me to finally solidify my plan to take the plunge and make this sabbatical to Europe a reality. These works of art reawakened a creative part of me that I hadn’t let out to “play” in a very long time. This colorful side of myself got whitewashed over years of balancing career and home life, then dealing with loss and grief. I was ecstatic to feel it once again bubbling to the surface…awakened by the authentic creativity that I was seeing everywhere. It was as though it was whispering, that I shouldn’t be afraid to color outside of the lines with my life a bit too. Have some fun, take chances, play! So that is what I have committed to do, on this sabbatical and hopefully in some measure as I move forward personally and professionally.

Being here in Paris, one would be hard pressed not to be inspired to create something. A sketch or a poem, a song or soufflé – it doesn’t matter. It is a response that comes from somewhere deep within. A response to the beauty that surrounds you, and more importantly the overwhelming sense that this city embraces and nurtures the creative soul. As I have touched on in other posts, I am constantly in awe of how people here seem to appreciate and celebrate the beauty in everyday things, bringing forth creativity almost anywhere and everywhere. I continue to photograph these treasures on my daily explorations of the city, and have included some with this post. They take the form of everything from architecture, sculpture and graffiti, to ads and public works of art. These colorful expressions are often juxtaposed against a historic backdrop of Lutetian limestone, symmetry and elegance. Each now more breathtaking, because of the other.

There can be a lot of grey days at this time of year in Paris, so the joyful and unexpected splashes of color that you run into in even the most unassuming places are a delight. Sometimes just like a grey day, life needs a little more color. I have a background in design so naturally tend to gravitate towards the visual arts, but adding a little extra “color” to my life recently has taken the form of this blog and sharing some of my journey through written word. Color is just another metaphor for expressing your creativity through any media of your choosing. Make an effort to dabble into something that captures your imagination, and create free from the limitations of fear, expectation or ego and shine on! You will be adding your unique color and vision to a world that desperately it.