Got inspiration?

What is inspiration?
It is:
a : a divine influence or action on a person believed to qualify him or her to receive and communicate sacred revelation
b : the action or power of moving the intellect or emotions

c : the act of influencing or suggesting opinions

But, what does it look like? Where does it come from?

A couple of weeks back I decided to have a fun art day with my sizzler. We had been working hard all week and it was Friday. Perfect idea! Plus, we had just received some new art supplies and a book called Art Lab.
I get so excited when we get new "stuff". It's like instant inspiration. Right?
So, I cleared the dining table and got it all set up for an awesome art session. I looked through the book for a cool idea to try out. The watercolor with salt idea looked fun and easy.
Ok, we're all set. Well, at least I was.

So I called the sizzler in to paint with me. I got all enthusiastic and jumped right in. See how fun this is? He is not convinced. He wants to know where the "real paint" is. Hmmmm, he's not buying what I'm selling here. I kept painting and hummed a happy tune. Then, he took the bait. He picked up the brush, dipped it in the water and grabbed some paint. He dragged the brush across the paper and was instantly unhappy. The paint was not doing what he wanted. It is stupid. It isn't real paint and he doesn't want any part of this art lab. Humph!
Why isn't he inspired? Look at these cool supplies! And this great book with tons of inspiring artists and awesome projects.
He isn't inspired because these things are not speaking to him. He doesn't care about the art I want to do. This is not his idea of fun. He has an idea of making a zombie vampire (what is it with the fascination with zombies?). OK. What do you need to create this zombie vampire?
Real paint!
Oh, that's right. So I pushed aside the watercolors and got out the acrylics. Now he'll be inspired!
He picked up his pencil and began to draw the zombie guy. It wasn't right. Erase. Frustration was bubbling up. I tried to encourage him to not worry about mistakes but to just keep creating. He couldn't. He was hyper focused on what was wrong with his picture.
How about trying some paint? He agreed. He dabbed the brush in and..........

It didn't look right. He was unhappy. He wanted to quit. Me too.
But I didn't. Well, at least not with my own creation. I gave up on trying to get him to do art, for now.
So I continued to create. After all, I was feeling inspired!

A little while later he was curious about what mom was making. Oh, some sort of collage thingy. I don't know yet.
What's a collage? he asks. I explained that it's a mixture of different things in a piece of art. It could have some paint, some drawing, some images that you cut out, whatever you want, really.
His interest is piqued. Maybe he could do this. I see that he was looking inspired so I moved in with my bag of ideas. He'd been looking at pictures of Lego monster fighters in his magazine (including the zombie vampire guy). So I suggested that he draw a cool action scene and cut the guys out and put them in the scene.
Now I'd gotten him! Hook, line and sinker! He wanted to do this. He grabbed his pencil and got to work. He was motivated now baby! He was in his element - drawing - with pencil. Heaven! (Grin)
The sizzler cranked out the background and put the guys in and proceeded to tell me the whole action packed story.
He was happy.
So was mama.
So, I need to remember to not push my inspirations on him. We are inspired by different things.
This

Inspires him to create this

I remember now.
What inspires you?