Creative renewal — How do you eat YOUR creative inspiration?

By Dan Goodwin

As creative people we all need inspiration in some form or other. It can come from the most unlikely of places and the most unexpected of times — as long as we are aware and looking out for it.

If we imagine the way an artist needs inspiration to create new works, in the same way as our bodies need food and water to function, it gives is the opportunity for some interesting analogies.

A healthy diet — in terms of how we intake food — might consist of a steady balanced diet, ensuring that we get enough of each of the food groups, vitamins and minerals we need, in a series of equal meals spread throughout the day.

Many food experts go as far to say we should dispense with set meals altogether and instead listen entirely to the wisdom of our bodies, eating simply when we feel hungry and until we feel full, then stopping, until we’re hungry once more.

So how is this an analogy for creativity, or more specifically for creative inspiration? How can we use this to increase creativity and help us incorporate our creative abilities into every part of lives?

What, for you, would constitute a healthy diet to feed your creativity? Maybe it would be a mixture of obvious artistic influences, such as reading novels, going to art exhibitions or listening to music, at home or at concerts. Some way to give yourself fresh creative “food”, to fuel your own ideas and creative output?

You may add to this diet times spent out in the countryside and in nature. Or time spent in meditation. What is a good creative diet for you and your creativity?

Be willing to experiment, and be honest with yourself. Is it enough to visit an art gallery once a month to motivate you in your own paintings? Maybe simply viewing a few online photo galleries each week is sufficient to inspire your own photography in new and exciting directions?

Most of us also try different mediums and cross-pollinations. Maybe as writer, the most inspiring sources for you are old black and white silent movies? Maybe as a textile artist, you’re most absorbed and moved by studying slides of micro-organisms? Maybe as a musician you’re fascinated by mathematical equations or chaos theory?

Again, by trying different things, you can get a great idea of what you enjoy and what helps you to generate new ideas for yourself.

As an alternative to the idea of a steady intake, the balanced and regular diet, is the creative equivalent of bingeing. To do this for a sustained period of time, like bingeing on food or alcohol, has its obvious consequences.

But just maybe once in a while, as a creative artist, this change of pace can be just what we need.

Try listening to seven new records in a row non-stop (or at the same time if you can gather together enough stereos!), or visit four galleries in one day. Then have no more creative “food” for a week. Just let the influences you gorged yourself upon slowly seep into your consciousness, and into your creative work.

Be as strict as you can initially, just as an experiment. After the creative intake, have no other sources of inspiration around you. Don’t read any books or magazines, don’t listen to music, don’t surf on the internet for a whole week. Simply use what’s in your head — your own internal inspirations - and see how this influences your creative work.

You may find, once you take the time to listen to your internal inspirations, you may produce some amazing shapes, concepts, and ideas, that may have not surfaced if you had simply continued to “feed” your creativity every time it was hungry.

As always, be playful and open with these ideas, try new things and notice what works for you, and what doesn’t work so well. Curiosity and experimentation are two major keys to continuing to develop ourselves as artists and as a people.

So, here’s to your creativity — may you eat and drink heartily! (or maybe starve for a while…) •

© Copyright 2006 Dan Goodwin.

03/23/06