Why I Love the Internet

I was in the process of developing a website for a client when I hit a creative brick wall: I knew what I wanted the content to sound like, and I knew what I wanted the website to look like, but I didn’t feel like the words and imagery were meshing correctly, and instead of being complementary, I felt like the elements were competing for attention and in conflict. 

I decided that for me to continue on the right path, I needed to select a final color palette. As I am not a graphic artist but have worked with some of the best of them in my past, I pulled out a series of portfolios and notebooks to inspire my color choices. Absolutely nothing jumped out at me.

"After St. Ives" - Michelle Cobbin

As I knew my written content would be quiet and peaceful in nature, I typed “peaceful watercolor imagery” in the Google images search bar. I scrolled through pages of beautiful images and color combinations and suddenly, THERE IT WAS: A fascinating abstract piece with harmonious blues, golds and white that I knew would work perfectly with the language of my website. Within five hours, the website was in its final draft mode and ready for client review. I couldn’t have been happier.

Yet even after I placed the finishing touches on my website write-up, I couldn’t bring myself to delete the inspiring image from my computer’s desktop. There was just something about the piece that spoke to me, and I realized it looked like it was created specifically for my and Jim’s home office. I decided to try to track down the artist and maybe obtain a copy of the print.

After a half-hour of generalized website stalking, I determined the piece was entitled “After St. Ives” by an artist named Michelle Cobbin. Success! Sort of. I still had no idea where Ms. Cobbin was from, if she had a gallery somewhere on the planet, if she would even sell her artwork, if her work was even remotely affordable to someone in my tax bracket, or even if she were living or dead.

I popped “Michelle Cobbin” in the Google search box and hit return, and immediately found two people on Facebook with that name, one artist and one yoga instructor, both out of the United Kingdom. I selected “Michelle Cobbin Facebook artist” and to my surprise there was the actual Michelle Cobbin I was looking for, with a small collection of watercolor pieces on her gallery page.

I discovered she was born in Suffolk and was the same age as me. She wrote on her Facebook page that her art practice is based on her background in yoga, meditation and natural health, and has been based in Brighton (Great Britain) since the mid-eighties.

Before I knew what I was doing, I started writing her a personal email at two in the morning, asking to be “friended’ on Facebook. I told her how much her “After St. Ives” piece helped me out of a creative block, and I was interested in purchasing a copy of the print if that would be possible.

I had barely finished hitting ‘send’ when an email popped up in my inbox. It was Michelle! She said she was so delighted that her work had inspired me, and that my timing was impeccable because she was just in the process of finishing-up her online gallery. I would be able to purchase a reproduction print from her in the very near future.

Talk about the world getting smaller. Never in a million years could I have dreamt up a story like this: Lost writer finds creative inspiration as a result of a Google image search, and embarks on a mission to find the random artist whose contemporary imagery left an indelible impression on her mind’s eye. With mere keystrokes, the writer is lead to the virtual front doorstep of the artist via Facebook, where the writer and artist chat across the Atlantic Ocean and develop an endearing friendsip based on mutual respect and their shared love of the arts.

Don’t let anyone ever tell you that surfing the web is a waste of time – you never know where those keystrokes may lead you.