Creative Process - Notes on Inspiration
Inspiration is often described as a sudden event, an experience connecting seemingly random variables in new or interesting ways.
It is also hard to describe/study it more specifically. What brings it about? How can you tap into it intentionally? Can you? Should you? and yet it matters a lot to artists and creators. It brings an emotional arousal and focus, that seemingly gives the act of creating a mystical and/or divine connotation. To some creators, implying by extension that which is created outside of this metaphysical experience isn't as good or special. To such a degree that ardent followers of inspiration choose only to create during such creative bursts of inspiration instead of creating "uninspired" work.
As when a storm forms when different variables come together, such are these creative bursts of inspiration. Some creators decide to wait for the storm to happen over them, while some of us decide to go chasing storms. We look for the variables that are sometimes present in the storm, hoping they will connect again. Its a game of chance. Some wait for the perfect hand to go big, some try to make the most of the hands they get, making progress along the way.
In the end, its a matter of personal preference, but personal preference can get tainted by vice and comfort. Vice and comfort can easily sneak into our belief system, pitting our beliefs against the discomfort of getting up and doing something. Similarly to a smoker concerned about his health, yet hesitates on setting an specific "quit date", often quoting that their personal style of handling it is better, ultimately failing in their efforts. Furthermore, we discover that inactivity begets inactivity, just as activity causes activity.
When something is as capricious and subjective as inspiration, How can you navigate? Should you navigate? What criteria should be used? our own whims? whenever they choose to appear and for whatever reason? what whim do you trust? just any whim?
A north star at least needs to be identified. A way to sift through subjectivity, to make sure it aims at some point to materialize into something. To me, much like a lot of other things, I find myself in the middle. For me its not a question of "either or" rather of it being both. It needs to be whimsical AND we can be strategic about it. A plan that leaves space for chance and whims. A plan that creates opportunities for chance and whims to connect. A plan that tries to create these opportunities more often.
An active yet whimsical artist.
As an active artist you must:
Find ways in which you can create more often, consistently
Make time for
Creating
Experimenting
Educating yourself
Consuming art
Identify your excuses vs. your beliefs
What is a firmly held belief and what is a cop out?
Learn to navigate through your excuses
Learn to work with/despite your beliefs
Hold yourself accountable to some type and level of activity
Figure out the best habits to support and complement your whimsical half
Daily, Weekly and Monthly habits of:
consuming art
indulging in unrelated interests and passions
creative work
Identify the emotions, stereotypes and beliefs that help or hinder creativity
Make the work the priority
Don't plan everything. Leave space for improvisation. Leave as many blank areas as you can.
Problem solve obstacles, don't just identify them!!
Socialize with other artists
As a whimsical artist you must
Find ways in which you can experiment more often
Become a master improvisor
by holding off judgment
by rolling with the blows with a "Yes and.." mentality
be humble enough
to challenge yourself
to remain open
find ways to be enthralled
allow yourself to daydream
allow yourself to be poetic
allow yourself to make mistakes
be kind to yourself when you do
allow yourself to be inspired
avoid being whimsical about your creative habits
Socialize with other artists
Above all else, identify your priority, and make it a priority by giving it time and space; play the odds by stacking as much as you can in your favor by:
Putting yourself out there frequently and consistently
Generating creative habits and discipline around them
Leaving space for error, experimentation and improvisation
Feeding your soul.
As artists, the work needs to come first: before our ego, before our fear, before our flaws, before our strengths, before our idionsynchrasies. Ours is a higher calling that can't be limited or otherwise hindered by the mundane. We must protect it as sacred. Therefore the toil is sacred as well. Both inspiration and the time and space in between each of those bursts is sacred. We must challenge ourselves within both of these spaces. Figure out the rituals that fan the flames of inspiration, and the ones that quell them. Figure out our better angels and our demons.
The artist will be forever torn, at the edge of possibility, being "wrong" just as much as being "right", if we're lucky. We're constantly faced with our angels and demons in this space. It's a struggle we must constantly wage.
Its only natural to try and rest in the comfort of the known. The little things that add up and make you feel safe, less exposed, less judged. To venture out, is to leave that behind. Maybe you have an on-going security blanket, in the form of a day job, providing a predictable routine, income security. Therefore live this disadaptation less.
If so, challenge yourself even more and on different levels. Art takes courage, and comfort can sap courage. The involuntary wish for a "perfect" life, that someday you can attain a balance, not need anything else, have things taken care of....That wishful thinking even if it were possible (its not) is specially dangerous for creatives. The creative spirit when contained, spoils. It sours. It creates a stench. If you're committed to creation, you're committed to an uncomfortable life that you can feel comfortable with, instead of a comfortable life that you feel uncomfortable with.
When you commit yourself to creation for creation's sake, you commit yourself to our higher self. If there's one unique product of our unique essence as humans, it is art. It is creation. It is our imagination. It is creativity and invention. It is dance. It is comedy. It is drama. It is painting and photography. If there was ever proof of the divine, it's in our ability to create.
Each artist is different. Different angels and demons. Different interests and passions. We each have a unique way in which we can create. And the path to this inner core, is different for everyone. Some struggle with discipline, some struggle with inspiration. Some struggle with a rooted belief that they are not creative. Some struggle with overconfidence that closes them off to new things.
In this diverse ocean of variables, our "whims" are our compass. Our whims can come in all forms, shapes and sizes. At different levels of clarity and intensity. In my experience I rarely experience whims with undeniable clarity: "I need a buttoned-down red lace dress over this model" and rarely with an intensity that I won't take anything less. More frequently are the whimsical nudges here and there, that can easily be brushed aside as mundane. A speck of light, a word or letter that stands out, a seemingly obtuse recurring idea. Vague notions without a plan. Mild stimulation with no sense of direction. Threads that you need to pull in order to find out more about them. These will usually pull you into an unforeseen situation and usually one your passion can connect with in some shape or form. Nothing better to test yourself under these circumstances. With limited resources and limits defined in part by things outside of your control. This mixing and matching producing something new. Something yours, and yet not 100% yours.
Whims are there to pull you from your routine and from your expectations. They invite you to explore and to be curious, they invite you to play and to discover. Most of them we brush off as insignificant, because we think of inspiration as an intense moment of pure clarity, which it can be, but it can also be much more discrete. A color that stands out in your vision, might be hiding an inspiring picture. The day dreams you keep coming back to, might be hiding an idea for a book or comic. A subject matter or technique you admire, might be inviting you into a new medium to explore. A new medium might unlock something in your old medium.
A whimsical artist needs to take whims seriously. An active artist needs to make sure there's space and time for it.
This is the reason why I struggle in conversations whether x, y or z is art or not. It's a very personal and unique journey/process. It's hard to qualify something this subjective, one way or the other. The one constant I can identify, is carrying on despite of.
If you tell me "Behold! Now this is art!"
I will answer: "Show me the sweat, show me the tears and show me the blood."
