THE WILL TO SEE IT THROUGH

I watched the film "Frost/Nixon" last night, and the story is a valuable lesson on inspiration. Upon seeing news footage of Nixon leaving the White House in disgrace, Frost had the idea to interview him. It was a big, expensive undertaking, with a ton of prep work.

With three out of four interviews complete, no one except David Frost himself, believed that the final outcome would yield anything worthwhile, and yet, Frost had truly believed in the concept from his first moment of inspiration, even staking his fortunes on it. Instead of joining his colleagues who'd lost heart, he persevered, to great success.

Having a clear vision, being certain about the right direction and staying the course....Believing in an idea enough to see it through, even in the face of one's own doubts, others' criticism or impending failure....these are all pieces of what genuine inspiration looks like.

RISING TO NEW CHALLENGES

Today, I realized how completely refreshing it can be to experiment in a new medium! Rising to new creative challenges, whether in our primary medium, or a diversion, can sometimes delight and surprise us. This can energize us, creatively, helping us find new passion, focus and depth of insight, which will then come through in our work.

SPARKS FLYING

What a difference! Yesterday, an acupuncture session and an art club meeting lifted my energy level! Nurturing our physical, mental and spiritual selves can be a good way to start energizing our inspiration.

This evening there was a particularly brilliant sunset which made me think about how euphoric those colors make me feel! It was a spectacular show and I had the luxury of spending some time studying, as it unfolded. As a painter, color is both tool and vice for me. Some colors in nature make me want to drink them to excess and bathe in them!

Many great painters have studied nature in depth, learning much from her. In his "Reminiscences," the abstract painter, Vassily Kandinsky, talked about how sunset was a magical time of day, when the colors profoundly inspired him.

As artists looking for deeper inspiration, we can try and figure out what elements of our art inspire us most, and immerse ourselves in them, especially when we need an energy boost.

LOOKING FOR A SPARK

So, do you ever hit that wall, where you're too tired to dredge up the effort for creativity? One of my college professors said that whenever he felt that way, he'd make himself go sweep out his studio. The point is, when we are too tired, if we can steep ourselves in the paraphernalia and surround ourselves with our creative process somehow, it can work to energize us.

I still feel there is mystery and magic to be uncovered, but maybe I'll have more energy for it after I clean out my studio: it needs it!

THE MYSTERIES OF REALITY

Here are a few poignant thoughts from a speech entitled "On My Painting" the painter, Max Beckman gave in London, in1938.* Beckman was important in the style called "New Objectivism," a subset of the German Expressionists. His figures were realistic, somewhat distorted, and monumental scale, his canvases around 6'H x 10'W. His experiences in WWI, and later, fleeing the Nazis, gave his work a tortured, haunting beauty.

"What I want to show in my work is the idea which hides itself behind so-called reality. I am seeking the bridge which leads from the visible to the invisible... My aim is always to get hold of the magic of reality and to transfer this reality into painting - to make the invisible visible through reality. It may sound paradoxical, but it is, in fact, reality which forms the mystery of our existence..."

(And now, in the year 2010, 72 year later, Quantum Physics has shown us that reality is indeed, mysterious!)

"In my opinion, all important things in art... have always originated from the deepest feeling about the mystery of Being. Self-realization is the urge of all objective spirits. It is this Self, for which I am searching in my life and my art..."

"To transform height, width and depth into two dimensions is for me an experience full of magic in which I glimpse, for a moment, that fourth dimension which my whole being is seeking."

Seeking a spiritual experience seems to be one of the common motivations for the act of creating. It occurs to me that most of the time, the deep inspiration we seek, may actually come to us as we engage in the creative process, as opposed to beforehand.

THE INTRICATE DANCE OF CREATIVE EXPRESSION

Inspiration is COMPLICATED. Sometimes it’s a fleeting, bare wisp of a concept that needs to be nurtured and molded. Other times (the lucky times…) it comes to us whole and intact, an exact concept in our mind that we only need to replicate. Mostly, inspiration lies somewhere between the lightning bolt and the hunch, but when we have some kind of idea we consider worthy, it’s often enough to get us off and running off in the right direction…

It’s important to try and keep active, practicing our art form. We can’t sit and wait for the perfect “revelation:” it doesn't always work that way. Julia Cameron, author of "The Artist's Way" says that enthusiasm for our art should be less of an emotion, more of a commitment, a "loving surrender to our creative process." *

Have you ever begun a project on a whim, and only after getting deeply involved in it, understood the REAL significance of the piece? Those are the times when the inspiration can be deeply spiritual and magical.

OBSERVATION: It seems that by acting upon an original inspiration, we can open ourselves up to deeper and more profound levels of inspiration as we dance that intricate dance of creative expression.

FULL INTENSITY INSPIRATION

“…and thus, the native hue of resolution

is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,

and enterprises of great pith and moment

with this regard their currents turn awry

and lose the name of action.”

- William Shakespeare, Hamlet: Act 3, Scene 1

(Forgetting, for a moment, the context of these lines...)

What an appropriate thought for the beginning of a New Year! I wish everyone the best for this coming year, with especially, the courage to ride the current of our inspiration 'till we manifest it!

Being primarily a visual artist, I find a beautiful metaphor in Shakespeare’s thought here. He likens resolution (or inspiration) to the intensity of a deep, rich, vibrant color. Then, he suggests that thinking too much about a resolution (or inspiration) will dim its intensity and brilliance. Picture what a dense fog does to brilliant colors: this is what he meant by a "pale cast." In fog, all the intensity is lost and you have soft, diluted, weak colors.

Inspiration can easily become a fragile and tenuous thing. Weakened in any way, it will not yield us the purest creative expression we seek to manifest. We need to guard our inspiration carefully, from our own and others' distractions. We need to treat our inspiration with respect, as the truly valuable entity it is. We need to focus clearly on it and if necessary, sequester ourselves until we have visualized it thoroughly, and at its fullest intensity. Then that inspiration can illuminate us and our world through our art.