challenging old beliefs

I used to think it was copying. Now I realize it's inspiration. We need inspiration from others, need outside ideas to be stimulated, to give us juice to create our own vision.
I was driving on Main Street today, looking at a flag I have seen many times before. I had been thinking all morning about my flower designs and when I saw the flag, it hit me, I could make a flag design using my flowers.
Some artists, like Monet and Manet, are inspired by beautiful outdoor scenes in France. I'm not that type of artist (I can't draw to save my life. This is one of the reasons I never thought I was creative. That's another belief of mine that I have challenged). But I get now that we need to be around beautiful things to create our own gorgeous things. I used to be so hard on myself, thinking it all had to come from the inside. When I created something based on something that had been done before, I thought it was unoriginal and not worthy.
Like the old me would have thought the flag/flower idea was stupid. You're copying the flag, how silly is that. But now I realize the many ways that's original, it's a twist on an old delicious symbol. I bet even Betsy Ross would think it was cool.
This is what I love about this blogging community! All the beautiful ideas and colors and pretty things to look at! It's like candy for my creative soul.
Now I just need a better camera, that cardboard one isn't going to cut it, I realize!