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Inspiration: what is it? Where does it come from? Artists are always looking for inspiration. We look for it…but we don’t wait for it. Part of the artistic process is just showing up to your studio every day and doing the work, inspired or not.
One may invoke one's Muse, but she might not notice. If left to our own devices, as we so often are, we find the road toward inspiration is always before us. It is in the shape of a spiral. It is definitely not straight, and most emphatically not a loop. Plus, it's irrational, just like pi or phi.
Above: symbol for pi; below is the symbol for phi.
The mind goes in a loop. Those who cannot successfully disguise this fact are called “loopy.” You see it clearly with dementia patients. They have a finite set of subjects they talk about, and those subjects go around in a loop. My mom’s subjects, for example, were (in this order) her will, her money, her grandchildren, and whether or not it was windy outside. A curious thing was that she wouldn’t repeat herself exactly— she would change the wording every time. As if a part of self knew that it was following a loop, but couldn’t escape from it. The best that could be done, if one could not get out of the loop, was at least to change the order of the words.
The phenomenon is not exclusive to Alzheimer’s patients though— everyone does it. If you think your thoughts don’t go around in a loop, I invite you to think again.
In order to to spiral out of the loop, we need outside stimuli. We need to see new things, hear new ideas, listen to different music, go for walks, engage with people, make an effort to roam beyond our comfort zone.
When we were kids we put up posters of our heroes in our bedrooms. We also put up images we liked, that we found inspiring. I don’t know about other types of artists, but musicians always have band posters and other memorabilia in their studios. Always. Because, inspiration.
Inspiration leads to Intuition. Or is it the other way around? Or is it both?
Intuition is what the guy in Slumdog Millionaire had.
It’s what Detective Columbo had.
It’s what my friend Carol has.
Yesterday we brought Carol and Larry over to see Johnny’s school. Someone had just donated a collection of vintage National Geographic magazines, there must be around a hundred or more issues. They are on shelves but they’re not in order yet.
Carol started telling me about a certain issue that featured the story of an antique embroidered 11th century tapestry commemorating the Norman Conquest. It was commissioned by the wife of William the Conquerer, and is referred to as either 'Queen Mathilde's Tapestry' or the 'Bayeux Tapestry,' and is housed in the Bayeux Museum in France.
It is nearly 230 feet in length, and 20 inches high.
Back in the day, Carol's favorite history professor had regaled the class with tales of this remarkable tapestry while holding up a copy of the National Geographic issue with the tapestry on the cover. The professor said, “if any of you find this issue, buy it immediately!”
What year was the issue, I ask Carol. “Oh, I don’t know,” she says. Then, at random, she reaches for one of the issues on the shelf and pulls it out. Guess which issue it was?
Yep. Uh huh.
That’s intuition at work.
Perhaps William the Conquerer was able to overcome the many challenges to his assumption of the English throne due to intuition, who knows? After all, he became Duke of Normandy around the age of eight, still young enough to be influenced by intuitive messages. His marriage to Matilda was opposed by Pope Leo IX, but he followed his intuition and did it anyway, thus solidifying his leadership by uniting Normandy and Flanders, one of the most powerful French provinces at the time.
Not all of us are as intuitive as Carol. But we can practice. One way to cultivate intuition is, when you go into a restaurant, order the first thing you notice on the menu. Why? Well for one thing, it saves time! But the idea behind this is that your intuition will guide your eye to the food you are supposed to eat.
Another way to cultivate intuition is by going to a museum. I used to get very frustrated going to museums. I had the notion that one must look at every single thing in the museum. In places like the Met, the Smithsonian, the British Museum, that’s well nigh impossible. So I developed a different technique: Whatever I’m drawn to intuitively is what I spend time looking at. Most of the works in a museum I don't look at. Because my intuition tells me what I need to absorb at any given moment in my life. Next visit, I’ll be looking at different stuff.
In her book The Artists Way, Julia Cameron advises us to go on Artist Dates. That’s something you do by yourself. It's a place you go to, not to work or to run an errand, but simply to enjoy and take in the impressions. The Artist Date can be a great way to connect not only with our intuitive process, but also to sources of inspiration we hadn’t considered. Since we don't really have an agenda on an Artist Date, we can relax, hopefully surrendering the rigid control we normally try to maintain over our activities.
“Intuition is allowing the ‘invisible’ to communicate with the visible world. We recognize it and bring it with us.”
–Mark Ax
If we don't feel comfortable believing that we have a natural intuitive capacity, we can pretend that it's a permission slip given out by the Graces, or the Muses. The Three Graces of Greek/Roman lore were closely associated with the nine Muses. According to symbolsage.com, "The Graces symbolize beauty, arts and joy. They also symbolize the way in which happiness and beauty were thought to be fundamentally connected by the Greeks in ancient times. This is why they’re always depicted together, holding hands."
Beauty, arts and joy–intertwined in the Three Graces. What’s not to like? But I know there are artists who don't look at art that way. Some artists focus not on idealized forms but on their version of reality, ugly though some may consider it to be. For me personally, I gravitate towards beauty, as did my mentors and idols. It's what makes me happy.
The Muses were said to be the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (memory). They were first perceived as a group and only later identified separately, each assigned the role of inspirational goddess in a specific art. Hesiod said, "He is happy whom the Muses love. For though a man has sorrow and grief in his soul, yet when the servant of the Muses sings, at once he forgets his dark thoughts and remembers not his troubles. Such is the holy gift of the Muses to men."
Note Hesiod's use of the word 'servant' to describe the musician. The word is apt, because ultimately we are only vessels for a divine creative force. Acquiring technique on one's instrument is only to be able to better serve the creativity that descends to us from who-knows-where.
Regardless of where inspiration and intuition come from, they are ours for the taking as long as we know how to access them. Regular exposure to art, music, movement and writing that is new to us creates the spiral that leads us away from our own repetitive loop, toward novelty.
The way the world's societies are constructed, most of us are steered away from utilizing our intuitive capabilities. That usually starts as soon as we enter school. The intuitive faculty is not considered important in the training of youngsters to grow up to become good little workers, undoubtedly a keen and inspired insight on the part of the inventors of the public school system.
Being that intuition is a natural human quality–moreover, one that can be further cultivated and enhanced–nobody should think they don't have it. But just like an unused muscle group, it will atrophy if not exercised. Relax. Let some freedom into your life. Feel the vibrations of people and things. Do your art. Above all: follow the spiral road, for it is there we will find inspiration, intuition, and illumination.
A couple thoughts on this most excellent article, Su.
When I am sitting to write, I place a glass with some sort of tasty drink in it on the table / desk where I'll be working; whether Mextaxa or blueberry juice. But this is not for me. It is for the Muse to invite her to sit with me. It would be bad manners to not offer your guest something to drink as She sits with you. But don't you drink it! At least not until your session is done. This was taught to me by a Yoruba priest. Whatever deity you're petitioning, make sure to offer something in invitation. A welcoming gesture.
The most important gift you, or your patron, can offer is the gift of time to do nothing. Sitting by running water is, for me, the best catalyst. A brook, a stream, a creek... it is the water that carries ideas in and also, away. Your job is to watch and listen and snatch the thing that will set you rolling.
I was noticing just the other day my tendency to give more value to a musical idea that involved lots of time and effort. The ideas that come to my instantly and easily I tend to ignore because they feel less valuable. And then I inevitably end up returning, in the end, to the initial idea - the intuitive one - because it’s always the better one. Someday I’ll learn 😉