Images: Calling the Muse
Dan is a recreational artist. It is something he does to relax and create after a busy professional day. Around Dan’s study at home are images and photos of athletes in their struggles, but what he loves most are photos of rock climbers. Dan cannot explain what these images do for his creativity. He can only tell you they are intrinsically linked. Viewing and studying video and still photos of rock climbers struggling to master the stone beneath their fingertips and toes calls to some primal part of Dan and provides a short cut to his well of creativity.
Tanya is a chef. It is part of her job to create new dishes and find interesting things to do with old ones. Presentation of the food on the plate is also a creative part of her job. She has noticed over the years that she feels more creative and produces more useable ideas during the storm season. She loves to stand outside and watch thunderstorms roll in, or stand at her patio window as rain and wind attempt to beat down trees and telelphone poles. She feels alive when the static charge is in the air, at one with her core. Often, she’ll grab her sketch book and work on recipes or presentation after witnessing a storm, and they are usually her best ideas.
I can’t explain how it feels when your primal self rises to your attention and merges with your thoughts. I’ve felt it at night, standing on a hill with wind and stars all around me. I’ve felt it in the woods, coming upon some unexpected glade or interesting tree. It comes strongest at night, breeze blowing and my mind expanding outward; there’s a sense that I am capable of anything. On a daily basis, I can get something close through photos and videos of paths or roads closed in by trees, and winding out of sight. Where are they going? What’s around the corner? A delight or something to fear? The pathway becomes, in a sense, my pathway to creative thinking.
I’ve been fascinated and drawn to pathway photos and drawings for most of my life. Which scenes have drawn your eye over time and retain a powerful pull on you? Do you have a few in your home or office? Can you find one to use as a desktop background…an invitation to call the core of yourself forward to write with you?
It’s a tool, nothing more. We use images to soothe and relax. Why not use them to call the muse?
Photo Credits:
Rock climbing set from left to right: one, two, three, four.
Storm set from left to right: The Morgue File.
Interesting question! I seem to like forests. Dark trees. Water. Not sure why… or what it does to help my creativity, but it makes me feel peaceful, and that’s always helpful!
And I thought I was nuts. Thank you! I go in spurts. Right now I have pictures of abandoned houses on my computer but I also have the winding path through the trees. The one common element in all my choices is there are no humans in them. Solitude reigns.
Great post! We are all moved to creativity in many ways. For me, nature, especially moving water, such as a river or the ocean spurs my creativity.
I’m usually called to images of ancient ruins, particularly ones that have been partially reclaimed by the wild. Like JoniB, the art in my workspace is usually sans people… except one, and that features me with a canoe on my head, scrambling up a rocky portage…
I love the pictres and love that certain things in our life press us forward. I have pictures of barns in my office–old ones–that used to be something.