Sunday, June 17, 2007
It's Not the Heat . . .
I was on StumbleUpon and found a website for a woman who is putting together a book based on fan experiences of Dave Matthews Band. The woman, Lynda from New York, has created some very fine art inspired by the band's music. Check it out here. There's a link to her MySpace page on her website for more personal info about the artist.
As a writer and artist, the idea of inspiration is an interesting one to me. What is it about a particular band's music, or a particular writer's essay or book, or a particular artist's painting, that drives us to create something new? How does that inspiration turn and twist through the fibers of our own experience and emotions to convolute into something new, something that may, in turn, be inspirational for someone else?
In thinking about this, it would be fascinating to take an inspirational work and put together a schematic of all the additional works the original has spawned. Take something like Poe's "The Raven" and chart out its influence. Hmmm. Has this ever been done before? The genealogy of a work of art?
In other news, it's miserable hot again. No wait! It's not the heat, it's the humidity. Windy as all get out, too. The silvery backs of leaves are showing themselves, which means we're in for rain. It can come none too soon. I'm roasting.
As a writer and artist, the idea of inspiration is an interesting one to me. What is it about a particular band's music, or a particular writer's essay or book, or a particular artist's painting, that drives us to create something new? How does that inspiration turn and twist through the fibers of our own experience and emotions to convolute into something new, something that may, in turn, be inspirational for someone else?
In thinking about this, it would be fascinating to take an inspirational work and put together a schematic of all the additional works the original has spawned. Take something like Poe's "The Raven" and chart out its influence. Hmmm. Has this ever been done before? The genealogy of a work of art?
In other news, it's miserable hot again. No wait! It's not the heat, it's the humidity. Windy as all get out, too. The silvery backs of leaves are showing themselves, which means we're in for rain. It can come none too soon. I'm roasting.
Labels: art, books, dave matthews band, dmb, edgar allan poe, fans, genealogy of creative work, inspiration, minnesota, music, rain, someone working on dmb book, stumbleupon, the raven, weather
Friday, April 20, 2007
Inspiration
Something dawned on me recently that quite surprised me. Before I get to that, I'd like to talk about inspiration. As an artist and writer, I take inspiration from many, many things. Science, the woo-woo mysteries of life, birds, flowers, children, historical events, small human behaviors, technology, the interesting juxtaposition of words and the sounds of words, and, of course, the creations of others, be they books, art, movies and music. I'm never sure how all of these things will come together, or what the result will be. My latest realization came to me while listening to a U2 CD. As I was listening, the music translated into images in my mind. This has happened before with U2 music. It has also happened with the music of Duran Duran and Ultravox. The result is that I'm inspired to create visual art with the songs of U2 et. al. The surprise about this is that I've been listening to the music of Dave Matthews Band a lot these past couple of years and it makes me want to write stories. It wasn't until I re-listened to U2 that I saw the difference. U2's music doesn't have the story-writing effect on me, not in the least. U2 inspires visual art, DMB inspires literary art. I don't know why this is, but there it is.
So, now, what inspires you to fits of creativity? Feel free to be more specific than I was. (Science, sheesh! That about covers everything, doesn't it?)
So, now, what inspires you to fits of creativity? Feel free to be more specific than I was. (Science, sheesh! That about covers everything, doesn't it?)
Labels: album art, children, creativity, dave matthews band, duran duran, inspiration, music, rocket science, technology, u2, ultravox, writing
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Nikki Giovanni
I was listening to Midmorning today on Minnesota Public Radio and heard Kerri Miller interview poet Nikki Giovanni. What a great program. Nikki has spark and snap. During her discussion, she was talking about copyright and whether people could use her work. She said that as long as she's alive, she wants people to use her work. And when she dies, she will have left instructions with her executor that people will still be able to use her work. She believes that her art is meant to be shared.
She's a girl after my own heart. What with all the big companies clamping down on copyright, sometimes even trying to squelch fair use, it's getting so that I feel I must get permission from artists merely to be inspired by their work. It's a dreadful state of affairs. Thankfully, there's a movement afoot to counteract some of this overreaching by heavy-duty copyright owners (who have the bankrolls to lobby for themselves and hire lawyers to glare at and sue anyone who dares put a finger on their works). That movement includes something called Creative Commons. Creative Commons is a voluntary licensing program wherein the creator of a work can choose the rights he/she wants to reserve. By using the Creative Commons program and posting the Creative Commons notice on a work, those who want to use it to inspire their own works will know exactly what rights they've been allowed. I've added a Creative Commons license (CC) to my blog. The license I've chosen allows others to use my work, but they must attribute it to me, they can't use it for commercial purposes, and if they use it, they have to be willing to share it.
She's a girl after my own heart. What with all the big companies clamping down on copyright, sometimes even trying to squelch fair use, it's getting so that I feel I must get permission from artists merely to be inspired by their work. It's a dreadful state of affairs. Thankfully, there's a movement afoot to counteract some of this overreaching by heavy-duty copyright owners (who have the bankrolls to lobby for themselves and hire lawyers to glare at and sue anyone who dares put a finger on their works). That movement includes something called Creative Commons. Creative Commons is a voluntary licensing program wherein the creator of a work can choose the rights he/she wants to reserve. By using the Creative Commons program and posting the Creative Commons notice on a work, those who want to use it to inspire their own works will know exactly what rights they've been allowed. I've added a Creative Commons license (CC) to my blog. The license I've chosen allows others to use my work, but they must attribute it to me, they can't use it for commercial purposes, and if they use it, they have to be willing to share it.
Labels: album art, blog, copyright, creative commons, inspiration, mpr, nikki giovanni, poet, share
Sunday, September 24, 2006
99% Perspiration
Thomas A. Edison said that "Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration." It's that perspiration stuff that most of us can't live up to. It doesn't take much to filter the vast amount of stimuli that is thrown at us on any given day and splice it into some new, fresh idea. How many of us have the time, energy, or the other resources necessary to bring that inspiration into the world? Maybe if we could stop at one idea or inspiration, but we humans are filtering and splicing machines. Go ahead. Have your ideas. Generate lots of them, but don't be scared to let most of them go. Do what you can do. Leave the rest for someone else. If one of your ideas really grabs you, you'll find that you have all the perspiration you need to bring it to fruition.
Labels: fear, filter, genius, idea, inspiration, splice
