Inspiration is not an exclusive privilege for artists. Practically everybody is familiar with the flight a thought can take, the spirit that goes adrift, the feeling between daily routines and a revelation. And although people in creative professions depend on their ideas, they lighten everybody's path of life.
The difference lies at the most in the necessity of their occurrence. Often they arise as a natural response to a problem, but sometimes they need a hand. And there is the rub. As the saying goes, you get an idea, only not from whom. And everyone who needs them professionally, sometimes will be empty handed.
Now in a past Dolphin Address I have outlined, that if you want to evoke ideas it is recommended to organise the circumstances, or, more poetically, to build a nest of straws, twigs and a strand of wool and then the egg will come by itself.
In the 12 years I lived alone on the farm I could furnish the house in such a way that it functioned maximally in obtaining ideas. On every corner and in each alcove I placed pieces of wood with a natural shape, characteristic markings and/or articulate (differences in) colours. Walking through the house, I would take them along in the corner of my eye and regularly got surprised by an idea.
Now I have lived in my van for five years and only work in wood sporadically. Instead, most of my time I spend on writing, photographing and making videos and all this centered around Dusty. And although my circumstances are very different from the farm, getting ideas still is necessary for keeping in motion and developing my website. And haven't I found something for that again!
As the example of the farm suggests, an important condition for getting an idea is that it comes into being spontaneously. That's in its nature. After my experience an idea often is so self-evident that it has gone by before you realise. That's why you want to get accustomed to catching yourself in the act. As this cannot be systematised you need to monitor yourself continuously.
In the Verena era we often used to make videos of each other with Dusty and then in the evening discovered what we had not seen while filming. A variant on this I do now with photographs. The last 'over a hundred' series of Dusty in her golden sun shroud that I took just before the opening of the exhibition I have installed as desktop and these shift every five seconds. This way by occasion I get to know them better and as they come in the order in which they were taken, they are often in thematic groups. This way they pass, often through the corner of my eye, until suddenly something strikes me.
Musing away, the phenomenon of ring bubbles surfaced. Touch 'Ring Bubbles' into Google and prepare to be amazed. Dolphins that emit round bubbles that rotate around their own axis, reminding one of smoke rings. And not only that, they seem to 'push' them forth horizontally and sometimes even angle them downward.
Air!
They make them with contractions of their blowhole. From a larger ring they 'pick' a smaller one or they swim through it, revolve it as a square or bite them back into regular bubbles. But if light refraction by a surface movement is projected on the skin, why not also a movement 'within' the water?
Thus an underwater movement gains in probability and a nifty theory seems to track with reality.
In my Dingle days in the evening we often came together in the pub and forged theories about Fungi which we tested on reality the next day. Often it looked as if he had been eavesdropping, as he smashed them to smithereens. So does Dusty. Take a close look at this photo, taken right behind, but a little lower of her dorsal fin: