How do we find inspiration in reference to art and the art of life?
Finding inspiration is a lot like mining for gold. You have to sort through literally tons of dirt to get a few grams and sometimes you find more, sometimes less, sometimes none at all, but you have to keep digging. You have to keep hope. If you want to find gold, hope is literally the only thing you might have to keep you going at times. Hope and hard work are the only things that are certain. Gold is a mere variable.
Writing for example...
When writing material for my stage acts, I sometimes have no idea what will actually end up in the show. Little of it does. Late night talk shows like Letterman and Leno as well as Colbert each have many comedy writers (around a dozen) that are paid to write jokes and keep up on current events. Something like 1 out of 10 jokes written on a given piece of paper end up in the show. This applies to other art forms, especially at the naive beginning. In a portfolio of a photographer's 10 best pieces, for instance, how many photos do you think were taken for each of those ten? Countless. But how in the world can an artist expect to have any success without "having their line in the water", as a wise friend of mine often recites. You might have to mine through a lot of dirt.
It's like the metaphor of putting a thousand monkeys in a room with type writers; eventually, you'll have an award-winning novel. I think that is a horrible analogy, because it's not true, but it does get the idea across. Be those monkeys. Let chaos flow out of yourself into something which can be understood and loved by yourself and others. But please keep your hygiene.
Art and the art of life is more about truth than ego or even happiness. Art is often about sacrifice. I believe it's about process as much as result. Hopefully, that seems like common ground for you, stick with me here because maybe we can go deeper...
It's often fear that keeps us back and often that fear is over something very small, like the possibility of being wrong, making an ass out of yourself. And it's silly because usually we feel better or relieved after we do something we're afraid to do. The irony of this sometimes day-to-day occurrence is spelled out clearly and poetically by author Don DeLillo...
"What we are reluctant to touch often seems the very fabric of our salvation."
Sometimes we're aware of this and sometimes not. To the extent that we are aware makes all the difference. So squint your eyes.
Most of our fears we take for granted and they are weights we have gotten used to. They are trivial but have more than trivial consequences. I do believe that courage, the opposition of fear, and inspiration often stand side by side. For the gold digger, fear is the reason he gets discouraged. So, the same question gets deeper. How do we find inspiration? Well, I don't think we can look for it the same way we look for something tangible. We can not shop for inspiration. That must be why inspiration is such an elusive animal of the mind, like freedom and love.
But what we can do is turn away from the abstract idea of "inspiration" and look for something we're afraid of. Then, do it. Do it because you're afraid... or just because it's different than what you usually do. The first cliche example that comes to mind is bungee jumping or sky diving, but any idiot with a third nipple can do that. I'm talking about more day-to-day stuff. Talk to someone you're attracted to. Talk to someone you're not attracted to. Dance. Start your business. Throw something away you've been holding onto. Be someone unexpected with your friends. There are a thousand ways to find something you're afraid of, if you take the time to look. The idea is to find something with two ingredients: fear and worth. Something that you want or need to do, but were too lazy or scared. If you're afraid of something, you've probably found a way to live life void of that activity. This is how I was with dancing for most of my life. Now, I love it. Go figure.
By the way, "laziness" is fear's uglier cousin.
"[I don't mean to say that being wrong is the same as being creative but] if you're not prepared to be wrong. You'll never come up with anything original" Sir Ken Robinson
We were trained to avoid mistakes. That's generally good because hitting your head on your kitchen cabinet hurts, but mistakes are an invitation for learning(stop hitting your head on things). We need to adjust our view of mistakes. We seem to fear them rather than look at them for the tools that they are. When we do something new, anything new, we are just asking for a mistake to come visit us. That should be common practice! Let's learn to make mistakes our ally, because with our a willingness to accept the possibility for mistakes, we will never do anything new. Eleanor Roosevelt said "Do one thing every day that scares you." Demand of yourself a revolution of habit, a paradigm shift into a newer, broader world of acceptance.
Kahlil Gibran wrote of love in the same way that I'm referring to inspiration...
"But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears."
So, if finding inspiration is like mining for gold, that means it's a process. Life is a process. Many, many people spend each day repressing this process we call life, keeping it to a minimum. Do you want to allow this of yourself? Even for a moment?
‘Art [and the art of life] washes from the soul the dust of every day life.’ Pablo Picasso
It's not easy finding gold. You don't necessarily know when you're going to strike big. Your vision is filled with only dirt for hours, days, weeks. It takes a long time to clear away the rubble and unearth something of any worth. Your small self-imposed hindrances are dirt that can be cleared away. The secret is that you have to wipe off that dust of the soul, bit by bit, one counter-intuitive, dignity-jeopardizing activity at a time.... and sometimes over and over again. Why? Hope.
And to brighten the metaphor it is often easier to find value in life than gold in the earth. So, look up, because your soul is right there ready to be revealed in whatever way it can.
So, keep showing up. Though inspiration is elusive and seems to come and go at it's own independent will, inspiration is our choice. Fight the battle. Keep your line in the water and keep digging. Fish are always swimming and there is more gold to be found.
