A Pause for Beauty:
An Artist’s Journal
Other Artists as Inspiration
The true artists are, in essence,
the most religious of mortals.
- Auguste Rodin
Creatives get energy and inspiration from each other. We learn from each other. For years, I traveled around North America asking artists about their lives.
I asked them what most occupies their imagination, what fascinates and perplexes them most about life. I asked them about inspiration and discipline, about rejection and persistence. I wanted to know about their spirit spark -- their dream world, their spirituality or meditation practice. I wanted to know where their work comes from -- what they do to relax, to find a core of peace -- a basis from which to create. I wanted to know what they strive to accomplish with their art.
Creative people are above all else people of ideas because all art is the expression of an idea. Creativity is a tasting of the water of our own essence. What has amazed me most about interviewing dozens of artists is the diversity of their interests, the breadth of their reading and life experience in areas seemingly unrelated to the medium they've chosen. Creative people live a rich, vast life under their work. Heron Dance explores that inner life.
With this issue of Reflections, I begin a search for art and innovation that captures my imagination, inspires me. What's interesting? Why? What's inspiring? Why?
I once asked advertising legend Carl Ally what makes the creative person tick. Ally responded, “The creative person wants to be a know-it-all. He wants to know about all kinds of things: ancient history, nineteenth century mathematics, current manufacturing techniques, flower arranging, and hog futures. Because you never know when these ideas might come together to form a new idea. It may happen six minutes later or six years down the road. But creative people have faith that it will happen."
- Roger von Oech, A Whack on the Side of the Head (edited)
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You can find the rest of the 2022 Pause For Beauty posts here.