An old friend

Published on 02/27/08

The contrast of subject matter between this post and the last will seem odd, but this blog is about what interests me. So if it doesn’t interest you, then you can go read something else (that is not meant to be as nasty as it sounds).

Something happened this morning that has not happened to me in a long time. It was the energy of creative inspiration, and it felt like I was sitting down and having a conversation with an old friend.

I was going through my morning routine and an idea for a story came to me. I have always had a desire to write and illustrate books for children, but the pressures and stresses of my professional life have always ended up draining the creative energy out of me. Don’t get me wrong, I always apply creativity to the projects I am paid to do (yes creativity is something you can “apply”; it is a tool to use at my discretion).

Creativity, however, is not the same as creative inspiration. Inspiration comes when creativity is applied and a world of content opens up for me to capture. This inspiration doesn’t have to be something “artsy.” Inspiration may end up as a story, a painting, a web application, or even a company.

I guess, and I am thinking as I am writing so this may not hold up under scrutiny, that inspiration is what happens when an idea comes along, and the artist is able to grab ahold of it and see it for what it is. The inspiration comes from the fact that what the artist finds in the idea is more than what he was expecting; it has a largeness to it. It is that largeness, or greatness, that energizes the artist in his work. It is a view of what can be and a desire to get there.

I hope that my idea from this morning lasts. I have written it down and there is no reason that I shouldn’t act on it. Who knows, it may end up on this site sometime.

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