Had an experience with inspiration?
Had an experience with premonitions?
Had an experience with unusual dreams?
Had an experience with spirits?
Share your story with me and others
E mail me and I will post it on my web site
Artistic Inspiration
Today the term inspiration is used loosely to mean anything that motivates you to do something. Historically, however, it was used to mean a spiritual influence upon a person. The divine spirit comes into a person and they receive a message or impression which they tried to recreate. This was often described as an ecstasy, mania, or a natural “high” that the person received. I used manic vision as a name for my web site to describe those times when I have received unusual inspiration for my art. These times are not linked to conscious attempts to find a subject for my art, but rather to moments when my mind is at rest and colors, patterns, and shapes come to my mind from unknown sources. Sometimes this occurs when I am listening to restful and inspiring music, sometimes merely when my mind has entered a restful state. Most often they occur when my mind has entered that state between waking and sleeping. Colors and patterns like a kaleidoscope go through my mind. Sometimes I see swatches of fabric with colors and patterns on them, one after another. Other times I will see a person’s head turning around in a 360 degree view. As I watch, the face and other features will slowly morph from one face to another. The faces are never anyone I know, but remind me of many people that I have known. I have seen many different types of colors and patterns in these times, but they have always been like a stream of color bubbling up from my subconscious. I cannot say where they come from, but they always amaze and astonish me in their vividness and their detail, and always “inspire” me to create in my art the beauty that I see. I have just recently learned about synethesia, where the brain translates inputs from one of the senses into another sense at the same time, and I have just learned the amazing creative possibilities of the brain. I am sure that when this cascade of color takes place it is just the brain processing input, but it is amazing how it is able to synthesize the input and produce something completely new. Many people who I have talked to have told me that after they create something they are often taken aback and surprised to see what has been created. The end product of their creative efforts is surprising to the creator, and it is almost as if some other force has been working through them.
Certainly, many times artists sit down and consciously attempt to produce something like something they have seen, or something that pleases them. At other times, the artist may surprise himself/herself with what they have produced. Can it be that there are outside forces at work? Do you think that inspiration can come from a higher source, or is artistic inspiration merely a synthesis of the artist's experiences and impressions?
Do you have a story about how you receive inspiration for some artistic work? Send us an e mail.
