CREATIVE INSPIRATION

Creativity as Throughline

No matter what else I am doing with my life, creativity is a throughline. It is the plot that never bores, the muse that never ghosts me, the thread that never breaks.

One of the great joys in my life is the conversations I have with creative friends all over the country. I am so grateful for the artists I learned from and was inspired by when I was at an earlier stage of artistic development, who have agreed to maintain our long-distance connection.

Some things that inspired me last week.

1. Poet Radha Marcum interviews two women poets who have maintained a long-distance collaborative relationship that has led to their newest poetry collection. “A Third Voice Emerges: Poets Elizabeth Robinson and Susanne Dyckman on Collaborative Ekphrasis” can be viewed and heard here.

2. Writer/comedian John Cleese’s 2021 video talk, “How to Become More Creative.” Takeaway points include the essential values of carving out specific time and space for play, “open” and “closed” stages in the creative process, and staying in a extended state of uncertainty as long as possible. View and listen here.

3. When do creatives get their ideas? Apparently some famous creatives figured out how to recreate states of semiconsciousness when they felt most receptive to new ideas. Cleese gives the example of Edison who laid down to sleep holding a handful of steel balls over a metal tray, because he believed his best ideas came at the moment he was awakened out of a dream. Then there is this quote by Mary Shelley, “Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos.”

4. Collage artist Eunice Parsons, who for over 60 years and well into her 90’s climbed her attic stairs daily to tear paper and create collage art. Thanks to artist Margaret Levy for sending me this video. View and listen here.

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In my studio, now down to its bare essentials while I am packing up my house for the move next month, I ended up with this little work on paper that I returned to again and again as I pulled items out of closets and off shelves, some went into boxes, some donated, some still waiting for assignment.

I leave you with a poem I wrote this week, generated in that in-between, liminal time where a glimmer of an idea flares just long enough to be seen.

Wishing you creative times, a throughline of joy in everyday life. If you’ve read this far, thank you for connecting with me this week! While this stream will always be free, subscribing is the support and encouragement that keeps me going. Thank you for being a subscriber! Celeste

One last thing to think about

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