happy wednesday + welcome back to imprints. it’s beautiful to see so many new subscribers, thank you all for being here. as always if you want to listen to this post instead, tune into the voiceover above for the podcast version.
last week i had the pleasure of being interviewed by the crew over at LIT. they do a weekly spotlight, or SpotLIT as they call it, highlighting a member of the LIT community. i was honored to jump on stage with their brilliant hosts, statuette and samari. (i know some of you were present for that live interview, thanks for making it out!)
during the interview we touched on inspiration and i wanted to dig into the topic a bit more. i mentioned that i approach my art through observation. taken at face value, this can be a limiting definition…
“observation: an act of recognizing and noting a fact or occurrence often involving measurement with instruments. a record or description so obtained.” — merriam-webster
that’s all rather clinical sounding, isn’t it? that’s because it’s only a sliver of what i’m hoping to convey.
in any given moment, i’m observing the world around me. i’m taking in the structures, both literal and figurative, that define our surroundings. this can be a passive exercise — which i believe it is for many — or it can be active. in a single moment you can choose to observe internal reactions (thoughts, feelings) arising alongside a plethora of external circumstances. the key is that you have to choose it or, said another way, tune in.
during the interview i believe i mentioned this much more succinctly as being aware of “what i feel”. while this is an accurate description, i find in the moment of inspiration it often goes beyond that, off into a space that is wholly undefinable.
i’ve come to believe that it may not be possible to fully understand an artist’s inspiration. this isn’t meant as a pessimistic perspective, i mean it to be an honest one. in order to understand inspiration, you’d have to crawl inside an artists skin, hook into their nerve endings and breathe air with their lungs. you’d need to literally walk with their feet and drink their morning coffee while they yawn and replay the mismatched scenes of their previous night’s dreams.
inspiration is an all encompassing event. something that goes beyond a simple verbal answer to spoken questions. if anything, an artwork is a question created in response to the very inquiries arising from inspiration itself.
for instance let’s look at the resonance series. if i’m 100% honest, i’m still not fully sure what these pieces are all meant to convey, i myself have more questions than answers. is it a reflection on connection? humanity? oneness? yes, sure, all of it and more. now i get that this may not be the sexy answer an audience is hungry for. it could even be taken as a grating (or perhaps just confusing) perspective.
i think this is due to an over emphasis of the outcome. yes, you read that right. i believe we often over romanticize the finished output of art when in reality, the process of creating a piece is equally important. the observations, feelings, brushstrokes, pen marks, color decisions and unexpected mishaps are also the art.
here’s what i’d love every human who’s curious about an artists inspiration to take away from this wild, meandering river of thought — inspiration is the art. you already get to experience it because you’re an artist too.
we all have the ability to observe and feel, therefore creativity is inherent in all of us. inspiration is right there. you’re standing in it. you’re breathing it. you don’t need another human’s body or mind to “get it”. pause for a moment and let it resonate.
now, go create.
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as always, thanks for reading and / or listening this week. have questions or comments? i welcome them, drop ‘em below.
see you wednesday!
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p.s. if you want to hear my SpotLIT interview in full, head on over to twitter to check it out.
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