How Pinterest Affects the Artist Mind
This summer I was listening to the radio one morning and a lady mentions Pinterest, which I hadn’t heard of before. She said she tried it and it didn’t sound like much to me, honestly. Talking about collecting ideas for her new house. Images of beige carpeting and blah furniture popped up in my head. She was fun to listen to, but she didn’t sound that creative to me, so I listened, sort of. She was having some trouble navigating the system. So I forgot about it.
UNTIL a couple weeks later I remembered and logged into Pinterest. Hmmm, it looked pretty interesting to me. Request an invite. Done! I waited a couple days and my interest turned to anxiety… Where is MY invite? Must have been lots of people requesting invites. Finally on a Friday, I am IN! I bumbled along as I learned to pin my images and name my boards with funny titles just for my amusement. God I am clever.
Five hours later… I reluctantly got up from my computer to get something to eat. It was a long day that turned into a longer weekend of absolute bliss. It was this amazing euphoric high, like waking up on Easter morning to a gorgeous basket filled with foil wrapped goodies, jellybeans, chocolate bunny, peeps, designer shoes, DIY ideas and of course, silly cat photos. On and on it went and by Monday morning I felt exhausted but so excited to get back on Pinterest and get more images. More, more, MORE!!! Oh my god, all kinds of cool stuff and the stream appeared to have no end.
I must share that I scared off a more than a few people with my rabid enthusiasm for what I had discovered. As my eyes filled with fire, explaining the magical treasures that awaited them, I could see my crazy reflected in their eyes. I had trouble understanding why everyone didn’t want to jump in the deep end and start swimming in this fabulous lake I had found. I tried to explain that it was like going out on stepping stones on the open ocean and just getting farther and farther out, not knowing what you will find. Exhilarating. AND when my head fills with ideas I always become hyper creative, which for me is the happiest state to be in.
Now as I write this I am happy to announce that I have 66 organized boards of things that inspire me in so many different ways on my Personal Pinterest account. I feel an extreme sense of relief that my love for Pinterest is calmed down and I am a lot less nutsy about it. Almost normal, I would say. It is pretty fun to find an image and know right away which board it belongs in. This system was MADE for creative visual people to devour. I think there must actually be sugar in it because it is so addictive. Now I can actually play on Pinterest and stop… although sometimes I say okay, I will stop in 15 minutes. 8:15 comes and goes, alright at 8:30, well okay… 8:45, which can also turn into I will log off at 11:45. And I am then able to log off. So let’s say, some days are better than others. (Like the days I am collecting amazing ideas and colors and crazy cool stuff… and monkeys, lots of monkeys).
Image Credit: http://bit.ly/14aCjbU
