creative sparks

This world has got the wrong idea about “inspiration.”

They think it’s got something to do with kitschy, kitten-covered, “Hang In There” posters and four hundred dollar seminars. They think it’s intangible and ethereal and comes and goes as it pleases like a aging hippy-dippy grandfather.

Well, there’s two things I learned during my short tenancy at art school:

The first is that inspiration is one hundred percent necessary. Without it you can not create. That may sound pretentious, but by “create” I only really mean “make” anything:

Write a book. Write a song. Paint a picture. Paint a house. Design a toaster. Layout a newspaper. Knit a sweater. Cook a meal. Get up in the morning. Make a life.

It’s hard to do anything without motivation.

The second is that inspiration is actually quite easy to find, but requires hard work. Which is really the antithesis of what we’ve all been taught.

We’ve been taught that “artistes” sit around all day waiting for the muse to strike them - and if it doesn’t they continue to sit around doing nothing. Which is why all artsy types are not to be trusted, or hung around as they are lazy do-nothings who get paid for a minimum of work, that seems to come out of thin air, rather than a Protestant work ethic. Parents: don’t let your children go to art school, et-cetera, et-cetera.

This is totally wrong. I mean, I’m sure there are people out there sitting around in their parents basements after 4 years of art training, doing absolutely nothing but getting high and listening to Bjork, but that is pretty much the antithesis of what a successful creative person does.

A successful creative person surrounds themselves with things that inspire them, and is inspired by everything they see. When they get truly, memorably inspired they hold onto it, write it down and ride it out as far and as long as they can.

A creative person is not on a search for inspiration, but a search for the new. New ideas. New experiences. Because inspiration is lofty, airy, and invisible - impossible to find. But the new is quite easy to pin down. The new is simply what you are not doing right now. What you have yet to experience.

There are lots of activities and rituals and exercises that can help things along (simple brainstorming being chief among them). In the design field they call using your imagination and coming up with ideas “ideation.”

But I think the best, quickest path to getting your mojo going, is to simply soak in some creativity by osmosis.

This is why I am compiling a list. It is a list of things that will likely inspire you, that are available to pretty much everyone on the planet earth as close as your local library, video store or online retailer. Nothing’s out of print. Nothing’s too hard to find.

It is a field of opium poppies for the creativity addict.

And it comes hand selected to be saccharine, kitsch, pretension, self-help and new-age free.

It’s inspiration for the girl who cringes when she hears the word inspiration.