Inspired by a Portrait of a Young Woman

If you can, treat yourself and plan a “museum getaway” where you can visit a number of museums at once. It’s a great way to re-charge your visual “batteries” and give you a solid dose of (often unexpected) inspiration.

Yeah, I realize the title sounds a little, well, crude but that’s not what this tip is about.

I am off for a mini-vaction (with my wife Cathy and the oldest) in NYC for a few days and plan to visit a number of museums, including the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art (and anything else I can fit in).

I went to grad school in Brooklyn (and lived there for 5 years) so I still know my way around the city pretty good.

The first stop will be the Met, where I always love to visit the “Portrait of a Young Woman” by Vermeer.

I could look at this painting for hours on end (and used to). It just has that magical hold on me somehow. It is so filled with artistry and wonder that I am continually inspired when looking at it.

It’s fun to imagine what Vermeer was thinking when creating this masterpiece.

But, I love all sorts of painting, particularly “modern art.” Some of my favorites include Diebenkorn, DeKooning, Jasper Johns, Ed Ruscha and Hockney among many others.

Visiting museums has always been a passion of mine and where I can allow all sorts of visual styles to inspire me. Sometimes this happens consciously but most often subconsciously, where the ideas and forms will bubble up later and somehow find themselves appearing in your designs.

So, if you have the time, I encourage you to plan your own inspirational museum getaways. For, when you least expect it, inspiration is right around the corner.

– by Doug Farrick

PS: It is also a good idea to bring your sketch book (and of course, your camera) where you can take some notes on the spot or soon thereafter (or just collect some visual “debris” for your visual notebook.)