Musing on Inspiration

 

“I love you, Lucien, but I am a muse, you are an artist, I am not here to make you comfortable.”
― Christopher Moore

 

In Greek Mythology, the muses were the daughters of Zeus and the titan Mnemosyne(Memory). They governed over various arts and were said to inspire artists to create. They were alluring and graceful and many an artist tried to woo the muses when they undertook a new endeavour. From a kaballistic standpoint, Zeus would be Chesed (expansion into form). In other words, art’s inspiration comes from the expansion of memory into form. This would include but not be exclusive to the artist’s personal memory. It would also include to my mind both the archetypal memories that live in our collective unconscious and atavistic memories that are buried even deeper thus giving us a bottomless well of inspiration would that we could tap into it.
How can we call on the muses? How can we find the inspiration we need to create? Here is an exercise that you may find useful. Imagine if you will swimming below the surface in a clear beautiful river. You sense that you are not alone in your swim that there are other forms swimming around you. You come out of the water into a beautiful clear moonlit night. As you leave the water you sense that you are not alone. There is a woman there, attractive and somewhat shy. Ask her her name and what she may have for you in the way of ideas and inspiration. Listen to what she has to tell you.
Understand tho that many of the memories that lie below the surface may not be pleasant comforting ones. Then again, we seldom create from comfort. Usually we write or draw or create based on themes and ideas that we are trying to work out within ourselves. Quite often the work of creating art is the purest form of shadow work and in interacting with our creation, we gain awareness of parts of ourselves we would otherwise be unaware of.
Blessings, G

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Finding a New LabyrinthFinding a New Labyrinth by G A Rosenberg

 

Rainbow PropagationRainbow Propagation by G A Rosenberg

 

Inspiration

 

“True alchemy lies in this formula: ‘Your memory and your senses are but the nourishment of your creative impulse’.”
― Arthur Rimbaud

 

What nourishes your creative impulse? What is it that you feel, think or see that makes you grab for a pen or a paintbrush or a computer keyboard and mouse in order to express it in your own unique way?
Is it a vision of beauty or outrage that strikes you? Is it a new song that you’ve never heard before? Perhaps it is the taste of something so delicious that you want to heap praise on it (‘His lips tasted refreshing like the first swim on a hot summer’s day’ or perhaps ‘I scream. You scream. We all scream for ice cream.’). Is it the first sound from a baby’s lips or seeing it smile? Are you inspired by a vision from whatever deities you hold dear? Whichever it is (and I have been inspired by almost all of these things), enjoy it and create on for every artistic endeavour becomes an electric impulse firing through the brain of the universe.
Blessings, G

 

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Minerva From the WavesMinerva From the Waves by G A Rosenberg

 

PulsarPulsar by G A Rosenberg

 

Hunting the Spark

 

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
― Jack London

 

Be very very quiet. I am hunting inspiration. I listen to friends speak and sometimes in the odd moment they say something that sets thoughts cascading and I write or draw or find insight into something that’s been puzzling me for years.Occasionally I find inspiration in the words to songs that I had forgotten or in a melody that reaches inside of me and pulls on a thread that I have long let lie. I often become inspired by dreams or by meditation, the quiet moments walking the dog or doing laundry where the mind finds the exact answer it has been looking for. Still sometimes none of those things work and I call on my muse only to hear no reply. Her messages have been forwarded and her mailbox is full. In those times, I need to actively seek it myself and go hunting for the words and images I momentarily lack.
Blessings, G

 

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Gateway OpeningGateway Opening by G A Rosenberg

 

Colour Study 23Colour Study #23 by G A Rosenberg

 

A Thousand Dreams

 

“A thousand Dreams within me softly burn:
From time to time my heart is like some oak
Whose blood runs golden where a branch is torn.”
— Arthur Rimbaud

 

Sometimes dreams whisper. They sneak in as memories or relatively normal conversations and then take strange turns. Sometimes they pop into my head fully formed as I get a glimpse of possible futures that I immediately want to make happen. Some become nightmares both in terms of fears that they bring out and in terms of events that happen subsequent to them. Nightmares can whisper also tho as little insecurities and doubts that echo and keep on repeating until I accept that they are there and let them pass through. The best dreams for me tho are the contagious ones where the more they are shared, the more people start dreaming and acting on those dreams. They are melodies that long for a chorus. Dreams of freedom and dreams of self-direction that fill me with hope. Of course there are silly dreams as well where someone hands me a spaghetti pizza or boiled eggs but I leave those to others to interpret.
Blessings, G

 

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Strange SushiStrange Sushi by G A Rosenberg

 

Fate's KeepFate’s Keep by G A Rosenberg

 

Inspiration – A list

 

“For instance, someone who watches the stars in the sky assumes that they are millions of light-years away from him. Yet, the stars are right inside himself, at the center of vision of his brain. While you watch this film, you are, in truth, not inside the room you assume yourself to be in. On the contrary, the room is inside you. Your seeing your body makes you think that you are inside of it. However, you must remember that your body, too, is an image formed inside your brain.”
— Harun Yahya

 

Things That Inspire Me:

  • Music- the genre doesn’t seem to matter but songs that have certain qualities at certain times
  • Colour – colour combination, such as those found in campfires and sunsets and certain flowers, skies and eyes.
  • People-Whether at their most ridiculous or most heroic or most despairing. So many I carry with me in my mind and heart.
  • Animals-Some of my deepest wisdom or what passes for it has come from four legged family members.
  • Art and Literature – Both have given me so much.
  • Imagination-Our purest gift from our own spirits.

The list could go on with many specifics in each category. Somewhere there is an opposite list of things that cause me to lose hope and oddly enough, the categories on that list would not be so very different. We carry a world of contradictions inside of us as well as a world of joy, despair and the spectrum in between.
Blessings, G

 

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InspirationInspiration by G A Rosenberg

 

Signpost to Another LevelSignpost On Another Level by G A Rosenberg

 

Inspired by Everything

 

“Ideas come from everything”
― Alfred Hitchcock

 

What inspires you? Can you surrender to your imagination and grasp at the fireflies of ideas that blink in and out of consciousness? Can you listen to the voice of deity and become enflamed with new ideas? Can you climb a mountain and walk in the hills, carry a question and hear the answers that come? Can you still the wild fury of your thoughts and be still to the flame that lies within? Can you see shapes within flowers or hear the music in the laughter of old women talking?
Inspiration has come to me through all of these things. It would come more often if only I could learn to let go and be still more, to listen with my heart to the stillness, beauty and pain in the world. Every day I come closer…
Blessings, G

 

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Puzzled DragonfliesPuzzled Dragonflies by G A Rosenberg

 

Bug in the SystemBug in the System by G A Rosenberg

 

Working For the Muse to Come

 

“Inspiration does exist but it must find you working.”
— Pablo Picasso

 

A few years ago I made a contract with myself. Every day I would create either art writing or both. Every night I would blog. I knew then and time has shown that by doing this not every piece I do will be my best but some will be. Not every word I write will inspire but there will be some that do. However if I only create when I am sure the piece will be great I would perhaps make one picture a week. If I wait for a great concept to write about this blog would probably be much emptier. Instead nightly with electronic brush in hand and with poet’s heart I seduce my muse. I woo her with honey and with silk and I flow out onto the screen. Sometimes I create only pretty patterns or colour splashes. Other times the magic comes but I am open to it all. At least for me Inspiration flows best when the channel is open. Besides the time that I spend in the zone creating is the best part of any day.
Blessings, G

 

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Burgeoning AwarenessBurgeoning Awareness by G A Rosenberg

 

A Simple DinnerA Simple Dinner by G A Rosenberg

Starlight Wishes

 

“There wouldn’t be a sky full of stars if we were all meant to wish on the same one.”
― Frances Clark

 

Everyone wishes on the North Star
or the first one seen that night
They wish and dream
most for the same things
They wish money or love
wealth and health
and while gratitude
i feel for the measure
of those gifts I have
or may have
My dream is different.
So I found a new star
and wished for some of its light
I wanted words and visions
to flow from my hands
as the star flowed into me.
I wanted to wake
the slumbering heart
of those who wouldn’t see
I yearned for stories to tell
in ways that would be true
I would be Prometheus
and carry the light home
I would not hide it
nor horde it
but give it away
in art I made
and words written
So I will wish on a farther star
and take what may be given.

 

Blessings, G

 

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Sun GazingSun Gazing by G A Rosenberg

 

EmitterEmitter by G A Rosenberg

Learning From All…

 

“I lost something magical in the process of growing up – my disillusionment.”
― Bauvard

 

When I was younger I found myself looking for mentors and idols. People whom I could pattern myself after, intellectually and spiritually if not in every way possible. I would espouse their ideas, like what they liked, smoke what they smoked and then they would go and blow it by being human. They would say or do something that showed me that they had flaws and that was it. Now all their ideas were suspect and the last thing I wanted to do was to be like them. Luckily there were lots of would be mentors out there whether they wanted the job or not. With each one I would become a bit more disillusioned and cynical. I believed that few people deserved to be looked up to and that I would just create myself.
Then one day when someone came to me for advice, I found myself telling a story that one of my old teachers had told me to help resolve a similar situation. I had been telling the story for years. Considering it a bit more, I became surprised at how often I did this. I would tell jokes or stories or use concepts very similar to the ones used by influences I had discarded. I realized that while my style is my own I am a combination of every influence I ever allowed myself. There were amazing things I had learned from some of the worst people. Waves of gratitude (and perhaps a bit of chagrin at how long this realization took) passed through me for not only those whom had mentored me but for everyone I had encountered. I forgave them their failings (or at least allowed myself to understand them better) and became both more accepting of myself and others but more appreciative of the gifts that each of us have.
Blessings, G

 

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Reflecting on Misdeeds Past and Yet to ComeReflecting on Misdeeds Past and Yet to Come by G A Rosenberg

 

Somebody Spoke and I Went Into a DreamSomebody Spoke and I went Into a Dream by G A Rosenberg