The Inspiration Myth

[simmerdown]

"The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case.” ---Chuck Close

[Buleriachk]

What an inspiring quote. As soon as I hear another one, I'll get started...

[H20nly]

^

very cool simmer, what inspired you to post it?

[simmerdown]

...thought i'd save people some time if they are waiting around for a lightning bolt, i know i used to

[oblique strategies]

Well there's art & there's craft. Craft can be done at any time. Art sometimes does result from inspiration & the Muse showing up, just as it sometimes does result from working on the craft.

That said, I do agree that ideas often arise from being engaged in the work/craft.

One side feeds the other.

[UnCL0NED]

The "Eureka-Effect"!

[ian_halsall]

you know that you have more chance of being struck by lightning than win the lottery (UK)

and people every week believe that it's gonna be them

how many people leave the house in the morning thinking "today's the day I am gonna be killed by lightning"?

[ian_halsall]

Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.

[beats me]

My inspiration usually comes from the sounds when starting a track. My problem is staying motivated past that.

[simmerdown]

" You have to show the muse you are serious " --- Johny Cash....he was asked about motivation, how he would have these intense periods of songwriting, putting out of his mind whether it was anygood or not...every so often, you get a Ring of Fire....love that quote

art vs craft is a great topic, that line is getting blurred more and more all the time...basket weavers at moma, etc....i think it is all in the mental approach, not the material or media

[Dragonbreath]

Mostly agree with this but cashh didnt write ring of fire his wife did

[simmerdown]

"The Ring of Fire" is a country music song popularized by Johnny Cash and co-written by June Carter Cash (wife of Johnny Cash) and Merle Kilgore. The single appears on Cash's 1963 compilation album, Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash. The song was originally recorded by June's sister, Anita Carter, on her Mercury Records album Folk Songs Old and New (1963) as "(Love's) Ring of Fire".

you are right! that was my mistake though, not part of the quote...ok, Every so often you get a Walk the Line

[H20nly]

his wife was no joke. home girl could belt out a song. i'd say the quote is still applicable.

[Dragonbreath]

Sorry just busting your balls/getting facts right, still really like your quote

[regretfullySaid]

Talking about working is very inspiring.