Artists constantly look for sources of inspiration.  Once you get your artist’s eyes, you see it everywhere.

One of my fondest sources of inspiration is Door County, Wisconsin.  I’ve created many paintings depicting the major sites as well as the off-the-beaten-path type of scene.  It’s easy to be inspired being this is the site of my family’s annual reunion. 

One of the new things we do as a family is geocaching.  The great thing about it is that it takes you to some fun places you’ve never think to visit like our boating trip to find a single cache.

A couple of years ago I created a Door County reunion travel bug to celebrate the reunion with my sisters.  A travel bug is a trackable item with a mission to move around cache to cache.  The mission for my travel bug was to visit all the states in which my sisters live.

From Minnesota it traveled to California.  It eventually made it very close to Sea World Orlando.  Talk about memory lane!  Florida was the vacation destination for us growing up.  We hit all the stops–Disney World, Sea World, and countless probably now extinct tourist destinations.  I have such fond memories of the long road trips.  All the stops along the way made it that much more exciting.

Sea World was special though.  I felt so transported, so close to the sea as it were.  I remember spending hours walking the grounds, fascinated by the close up views of saltwater fish.  At that time, Sea World was new.  We were on the cutting edge of tourism visiting this incredible park.  I remember getting splashed during the Shamu show, thinking this was the greatest thing ever.

I hadn’t reached back to those memories for some time until that travel bug made its way there.  Alas, though, it is now missing.  Perhaps fitting that it should live here, in a place of happy memories.

I guess if I had to name one source of inspiration, I’d have to say my family.  Photo by Bob Jagendorf

• Tweet
• Pin It