The Source of Ideas

Introduction - Mira Kamada

"I lived in solitude in the country and noticed how the monotony of quiet life stimulates the creative mind." - Albert Einstein, Physicist

Creative people take risks. They hush the voices that discourage them from going into unknown regions. Great joy comes from creative work - also anguish and frustration. Inside this issue of Regarding Art we explore the paths to inspiration taken by eight very different artists. Recurring is the introspective aspect of their journey, and the intrinsic joy they find.

Creative work unfolds in stages. These stages are fluid, and may repeat or overlap, but tend to follow a pattern that begins with preparation. For the artist this stage means exploration and preparing materials. Some may read topical material or look at related art to expand an initial idea. One friend listens to recorded literature, reciting favorite passages along with the actors. Others read poetry. Looking at photographs, cutting and pasting, playing word association games, all are methods to force the unconscious to reveal its secrets.

"All the really good ideas I ever had came to me while I was milking a cow." - Grant Wood, Painter

Active preparation is followed by a period of rest or incubation. Relaxation is necessary to allow the unconscious to work while we appear to daydream. Marie-Louise Rouff carefully prepares her stretchers rather than buying them ready-made. While this may seem like preparation, in effect it's part of her incubation process because she finds it relaxing. The task of building stretchers is a transition to creative thinking. Other artists listen to music, take walks, cook or play with pets. Napping is also good. Those moments while one drifts off or comes to may reveal the nugget we are seeking.

"The anxiety is unbearable. I only hope it lasts forever." - Oscar Wilde, Writer

If we are in good form next comes illumination. However, it usually isn't so easy. We haven't dug deeply enough yet to uncover a really good idea and we know it. We drift into anxiety and frustration. Here, the harder we try, the further we stray; we become riddled by self-doubt. This is when we need courage to persevere, when passion outweighs talent. Something psychologists call intrinsic motivation also helps. For me intrinsic motivation and passion are one. The drive to work because you love it, no matter how difficult it is.

"...everything around me became suddenly vivid...there was a special translucence that enveloped the world..." - Rollo May, Philosopher

Finally we arrive at illumination. The "a-ha" moment. The pleasure of working in-flow. Everything comes together. The idea is obvious; so sharp, so clear, we wonder why we didn't see it before. Elegant, it gushes out of us and splashes onto the canvas. We slide from illumination to our final stage of execution without realizing it, we are so excited. Emotional contact with an idea is what inspires the artist. This is the heart of the creative process. The following excerpts are also written from the heart. We thank the artists for their thoughtful responses to our query regarding inspiration and the creative process. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we did.

Painting Freaks ~ Susan Long


Susan Long is a painter of extraordinary people. For many years she has entertained her figure drawing students with the chanting of Tibetan monks.

I love New York. I love the subways and the streets full of people of all shapes and kinds-their look, their feeling and more particularly, their spirit. I wonder if it is the spirit that flags? I just read of Juan Felix Sanchez who went alone into "the outback" of Colombia for nearly 50 years and built chapels of the rock he found and made sculptures of the woods. How does one do that? How did he survive alone? What kept his faith? He was a weaver, so he knew that creating begins with the hands. My intent when I began the circus show was to paint freaks, for they fascinated me as a child and do now. Of course, everyone thought that was weird and a bid to enhance my reputation of being peculiar. But the human condition isn't a surface. We enjoy looking at what we call beauty; we are moved by the spirit. Diane Arbus said "Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats." I want the content of my art to make visible the human condition.

Clay Board and Canterbury ~ Carolyn Berry

Carolyn Berry's works include paintings, artists' books, sketches and most recently a series of clay board scratchings inspired by Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

Sometime this year I ran across a few lines of something I had read and saved for a book illustration. It reminded me of our life at the time - small birds singing in the rain and flowers springing up. It was from the prologue to Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. We live in a wooded area of Monterey and have brilliant short purple irises scattered all over. The small brown birds seem here permanently but periodically we are visited by little flocks of other birds - they are all magical. There are townsends, warblers, brown creepers, chickadees and nuthatchers - flashing yellow, brown, white and a soft red. They are tiny and move very fast between the oaks and pines - the warblers splash in the water bowl but not the creepers or nuthatchers.

Some things that triggered the creative process in my work last year were: my granddaughter and daughter, small birds darting & singing in rain, country music concerts, Pavorotti, genealogy, Jane Austen's novels made into movies, death of Ben Johnson, rodeo performer and movie actor, friends, poetry, folklore, dreams, Anna Akhmatova, the Brontés, Tu Fu and Li Po.

Art inspires me ~ Wendy Angel

Art inspires me. And I mean great, good or at least real art. I love to indulge in the experience of human creativity at its best. The arts are ingenuity being used to produce something good rather than something destructive. This inspires me. It inspires me that people are capable of investing the time, energy and concentration necessary to make things that are interesting and beautiful. I don't know what other people mean by the term, "art." When I use that term I refer to something that is very real, not something "artificial." I find patterns and arrangements of all kinds intriguing. When I look at a forest, I don't see trees. I see patterns. Watching a sunset on the ocean, I don't see sun and water but light, dark and color relationships. Other areas of intriguing patterns and relationships are those of ideas and feelings. Our minds and bodies are full of complex information, endless material to observe and contemplate. And art is a language that effectively explores and communicates aspects of our experience and knowledge. It is an important language that I am motivated to work with.

Trust Intuition ~ Matthew Muth

I begin painting with a single emotion or sensation. Recently, these sensations have been stimulated by an awareness of Nature in all her myriad manifestations. Through a brief meditation, I quiet my intellect and let the intuitive side guide my hands and choice of colors and shapes as I explore what is appealing about the emotion I have chosen. The painting may take the form of a landscape, a figure, or just colors and shapes. Most of the time I don't consciously know where I am headed until I am well into the painting. I believe that the unknown is creation and that through the courageous process of movement I will always discover what I am doing and where I am going. Often, it is simply enough to know when to stop painting. This is also intuitive. Many times I don't know what I have actually created until days later, or until a viewer comments on what I've done and then I see it.

Creating art may seem self-centered and, ultimately, it is. But it is self-centered in the positive sense that the entire universe may be found within each of us. I can't imagine a more exciting prospect than to explore the abundance of the universe simply by looking inside myself. This is what makes painting such a fun, joyous adventure for me.

First, I cut my Lumber ~ Marie-Louise Rouff

For years I agonized when I could not seize an image in my mind before making a painting. This frustration used up a lot of energy. Now I understand that my ideas become clear after the creative process has been initiated. Often they become clear when the work is almost finished. I set aside all concerns about the final image and start by making my stretcher. I cut the lumber, I drill holes, I measure, I miter corners, I glue and screw pieces of wood together, I glue the canvas onto its backing. The carpentry makes me feel relaxed; I know what I am doing. I whistle and sing along with the music in the studio. Out of nowhere visual ideas present themselves and I get eager to try them out. Usually, there are several ideas. Some I remember for subsequent canvases, some are forgotten again to re-surface later. If there is no dominant idea, I lay out a familiar landscape image, usually suggested by weaving irregularities in the linen or patterns made by the glue under the canvas, or stains I create with acrylic washes. I seize the initial image and go from there. I work until I feel that there is balance and a certain mood. I hope that if a painting holds an emotional resonance for me, it will also have some power of evocation for the viewer.

Staying connected ~ Karen Nagano

All the themes that have fueled major bodies of work have come to me in that unexpected, totally "out-of-the-line-of-thought-I-was-busily-pursuing" way. Most times it's as though some deep, invisible and unknown part of myself operates below my conscious concerns, taking in everything, digesting, synthesizing and revealing itself, in its own time and way. Very occasionally, there have been literal bolts out of the blue, revelations that I can only describe as gifts. These I credit to some mysterious, generous, universal power-a goddess, a god?-gifting me with a theme or subject that moves me beyond my ordinary realm of thought. In addition, these are the things that I realize, in hindsight, allowed the big inspirations to take root and bear fruit.

1. Be in the studio. That in itself is a form of inspiration. The completed works, unfinished work, the accumulated energy of hours of working. The life of the tools: the brushes, the paints, the pencils, charcoal. The postcards and notes pinned on the wall. The view of sky and clouds from the windows.
2. Music. Certain music tunes me into the space of the "big inspirations." It helps me stay connected.
3. Poetry. Some poets seem to inhabit the same mystical universe I do when I'm at my best. I read their poetry to remind myself I'm part of a larger world and to stay connected.
4. Meditation. It clears my mind and focuses me within. It's a way to stay connected to the source of inspiration.
5.Working out. I believe in body memory, body wisdom, body knowledge. A listless body dulls the body/mind. It's like trying to drive a car with a thrown rod. Working out also increases strength and stamina. Painting requires a lot of both.
6. Love. Love of life, the gods and goddesses, the spirit in things, my partner, music, theatre, art, literature, travel, people, nature, rocks, animals, family, friends, ideas, the drama of human life, being loved.
7. Nature. Being in it, attending it, feeling myself as it.
8. Looking at and experiencing art. I am nourished by viewing art. Certain artists' work fuels my will and helps me sustain my inspiration.
9. Not taking myself too seriously. Laughing a lot.

References - for more reading on Creativity look for:

Gardner, Howard. Creating Minds. New York: BasicBooks, 1993.
Goleman, Daniel. The Creative Spirit. New York: Penguin Books, 1992.
London, Peter. No More Secondhand Art. Boston & London: Shambhala Publications, 1989.
Maisel, Eric. Fearless Creating. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1995.