(All credits for the photo above go to @BrianKesinger)
Young artist, Zoe approached her writing desk. Normally this was her absolute favorite place to be. At the end of each day she would come to sit here and sketch what had inspired her. She always found something. But not today.
All day she was out adventuring, photographing, and people watching. Yet, nothing had caught her eye. Her muse was normally whatever each morning brought, which with her luck was always some sort of mischief. But she had found nothing.
Absolutely nothing had come from todays wandering and as she picked up her favorite sketch pencil, she felt frustrated. She'd never had a creative block like this before. It was almost as if something was preventing her from reaching her full potential. Everything she'd looked at had felt gray. The lively shops she regularly passed were dull and people sulked a little lower than normal this Monday.
What ever happened to making the most of a new day? Somehow this concept had now become lost on the world. But what could she do? She was simply an artist. Here to showcase the world from her perspective. She had no perspective that felt cheery enough to depict.
The world seemed much too dreary for her to even attempt to spin it in her usual positive light.
After thinking awhile, finally Zoe decided to look for another positive experience she had already drawn about. There was no harm in reusing memories for inspiration right? Granted she had never done it before, but as she had already clearly seen, today was like no other.
She pushed herself up from her desk and shuffled her way over to her archive of artwork, dodging paint cans and blank canvases along the way. She jerked open the dusty cabinet and shuffled through the art. Finally she pulled out her favorite piece. The paper was worn as she looked at it often.
Zoe sighed in relief, convinced this paper would be just what she needed. She closed the cabinet and stumbled her way back to her previous spot. She made a mental note to clean up her art room later.
She set the page down in front of her and observed the picture. On the page she had drawn a small dragon. The dragon was bright red and held a paint brush in it's hands. Zoe closed her eyes and tried to visualize the amazing day that must have influenced this drawing.
~
She heard the ding of the bell as she pushed open the door to her favorite Chinese place. The walls were dark red and the smell of egg rolls was apparent. She made her way up to the counter and greeted the owner Mr. Chen.
"Hi Mr. Chen, good to see you today." Mr. Chen smiled and recited the same greeting he had said when she walked into his restaurant for the first time.
"Good to see today at all, Ms. Zoe." She returned the same friendly smile and took her regular seat at the counter.
Mr. Chen was always refreshingly upbeat, no matter when she saw him. It was for this reason that she often came to his shop for motivation.
She didn't bother ordering, he was quite familiar with her usual special by now. "So do you have anything for me today?" Zoe inquired as he set her food down in front of her.
"I do, actually." Mr. Chen searched around for a bit before he set a dragon statue on the counter. Zoe put her fork down and stared at the statue, highly intrigued by it.
"Where did you get this?"
"I don't know really. It's been in the back of the shop since we bought the place. I stumbled across it the other day and it reminded me of you."
