Meeting 3/3/02

Meeting Overview  At this meeting we started off with a 12 minute freestyle writing activity on the question that Joan brought, When was the first time you were inspired? We also did a modified activity from the book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.  This activity builds on the previous activities where we drew individual feelings. Here multiple feelings become combined on the page. We drew questions we had about inspiration. For our art showing, I read some comments that Tchaikovsky had about inspiration.  Here's a short part of it. He said, "..... If that condition of mind and soul, which we call inspiration, lasted long without intermission, no artist could survive it. The strings would break and the instrument be shattered into fragments. It is already a great thing if the main ideas and general outline of the work come without racking of the brains, as the result of the supernatural and inexplicable force we call inspiration." Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky  Joan showed a drawing from her life drawing class. "That doesn't look like a beginners first drawing." Gary said. Harry sang a humorous song he had created about cancer. I  look forward to when he leads the group in a song creation activity. See the outcome of our exploration below. You can click on most images to see higher resolution versions.

Question drawings

Joan	Harry	Sandra	Edwin	Cheryl
	Gary		Ida

Joan 

Does inspiration come to you without questing for it?
	Working with the question, Does inspiration come to you without question for it? I found my focus initially was representing the feeling that you do not need to go questing for it, that inspiration will find you.  Then along the way I had a change of heart and decided that maybe you might actually not consciously go questing for inspiration but you take a class - go out in the world to do something and find inspiration.  However, now that I am writing about my thoughts I am wondering whether it is actually  coming in both directions. Inspiration can come in many forms - some directly, some indirectly. You may find inspiration can travel from a distance or be right there with you.

The first time I was inspired.

Floating across the stage like a leaf. Everyone once in a while that phrase comes to mind. Little did Miss Epelman know that her phrase would stay with her little student for a lifetime. In a split second I can go back through the years and be standing there on the stage - that huge stage flooded with light and be peering out at the blackness. I can remember feeling everyone has to look at me - I hope I don't trip or forget what to do.

 There was that time that my Mother took me to the Santa Claus luncheon and every child was asked to sing a song. Oh - what a terrible experience. I had never sang by myself in public and had wanted to hide under a table. Walking up to the front of the table - felt like walking the last mile. Then there was the humiliation of "Rudolf the Red nosed Reindeer" and the dead silence.  Oh well - I did survive and now I am here doing my first dance recital with the help of Miss Epelman. This is an experience that will carry me on as that leaf that she used to describe my dancing that night.

Harry

Does inspiration come to you without questing for it?
	I had a sense with this question, that the /a being - near the center - is encumbered/surrounded/supersaturated with possible inspirations. They are zinging past untouched, or some may be reachable or identifiable. They do not seem to be predicable and at times they are not knowable. They may reach beyond us but also, they may help us to reach beyond. Besides these ideational/conceptual forces - far more abundant that one might imagine - there are caves, traps, hazards, but also feeling and power that one may ignore, avoid, embrace, welcome, question, engage, doubt or celebrate. For every marking on the sheet  there are 1,00 mysterious others  - becoming, rich and strange

The first time I was inspired.

Floating across the stage like a leaf. Everyone once in a while that phrase comes to mind. Little did Miss Epelman know that phrase would stay with her little student for a lifetime. In a split second I can go back through the years and be standing there on the stage - that huge stage flooded with light and be peering out at the blackness. I can remember feeling everyone has to look at me - I hope I don't trip or forget what to do.

 There was that time that my Mother took me to the Santa Claus luncheon and every child was asked to sing a song. Oh - what a terrible experience. I had never sang by myself in public and had wanted to hide under a table. Walking up to the front of the table - felt like walking the last mile. Then there was the humiliation of "Rudolf the Red nosed Reindeer" and the dead silence.  Oh well - I did survive and now I am here doing my first dance recital with the help of Miss Epelman. This is an experience that will carry me on as that leaf that she used to describe my dancing that night.

Sandra

The first time I was inspired.

I wonder, I wonder, I wonder

I wonder about the color blue

I wonder how grass grows

I wonder why the cat is so soft

I wonder who you are

I wonder what death is

I wonder where god went

I wonder why I sing

I love to wonder about things and stuff and people and god and myself

I wonder what life is

I wonder how and where and what and why

Can I still open myself to wonder, I wonder?

today I wonder thru Berkeley

I wonder what it would be like

to buy this or that house.

I wonder what will happen

When I say this or do that

I wonder who you are

I wonder who I am.

I wonder, I wonder

I love to wonder

Edwin

How to cultivate inspiration?

I thought of the question of how to cultivate inspiration? Then the thought, How to cultivate inspiration in a hostile world? If I was inspired I probably  wouldn't be asking this question. So the drawing started off with some heavy lines along the top. Then obsessive circles and more heavy lines. In the center are light delicate lines. The pencil broke and I started using the piece of lead, a little inspiration,  going and using what is. I started being more delicate and using smudges from my finger tips. I created finger prints. The drawing looks hostile, heavy on all sides. Turning the image upside down, gives new insights. feelings like a locomotive charging ahead. The inspirations come out of the smokestack. Turning the image on the side, inspiration pours out of a box.

The first time I was inspired.

I have trouble remembering the first time I was inspired. There was a time when I was 3 or 4 years where I saw a large praying mantis eating a grasshopper. I sat fascinated as the mantis ate away at the living grasshopper. This was not real inspiration however.

I recall reading adventure books when I was 8, 9,10 or so. These books inspired me to want to travel. I am trying to go back farther in time for when I was inspired. It's hard to remember farther back. I remember being fascinated with catching frogs, tadpoles, minnows in a creek near by. This would be around 7 years old.

Still I would like to remember farther back. I have memories of fascination,.... 4-5 years old, catching Japanese beetles in the garden and dropping them in a gar of gasoline to kill them.

It looks like I didn't' have any inspiration until the adventure books. There must have been some before that. It's frustrating not being able to think of something. With the adventure books, I was eventually inspired to travel around the world.

Lot's of experiences seemed to fascinate me, fishing, backpacking,.... hmmmm.. I may have been an inspired fisherman. I'd get up at 4 in the morning and ride my bicycle with my friends down to the river and fish. I still enjoy fishing.

I just remembered writing a story when I was 8 or 9. It was about a guy like Robinson Caruso on an island. That was inspired. I got totally involved in the writing of that story.

Cheryl

What is inspiration?
	Inspiration is the interaction between this world and the other.

The first time I was inspired.

The first time I was inspired must have been when I was taking art or dance class that my mother had put me in. I am sure there were times when I was younger. All child's play is inspired, I think. There must have been times when making up games.. remember Barbie's? that inspiration stuck. When we put on the parent's play, we were definitely inspired, although, Missy might have had the inspiration.

 Remember thinking and singing it's a small world After All? Good God. During grade school, we had a lovely presentation and booth on Japan. Certainly we we inspired! I was often inspired to pick flowers for the neighbor so I could get candy or a cookie. Hi, Mrs. Hammer! Remember the baton presentation? Remember the lessons, though. Remember gymnastics? I was certainly inspired to do the tumbles well.

Don't remember much about Ballet, however, I do remember doing the poses, though. I remember working on my buggy for the fourth of July parade. Good lord, what was it? A doll body with chicken wire stuffed with tissue. The three little kittens who lost their mittens. They began to cry. Music... singing lovely songs, my mother's guitar. The trees inspired me. The green against the brilliant blue sky.

 

Gary

Can inspiration be found in obsession?

Obsession often seems to destroy inspiration or to be its opposite, Yet I wondered if it wasn't actually inspiration in disguise. What this has to do with the drawing I'm not sure. Energetic but repetitious marks seem to spiral around a murky and jumbled core. The drawing only looks like obsession in the middle. Around it is a lot of energy. Perhaps with a slight twist this energy could be creative. Perhaps it is in fact denied creativity. Perhaps the same energy could be used differently. It looks like broadening the focus out from the congested center may reveal a lot of useful energy or a movement one could follow.

The first time I was inspired.

My memories are scattered and largely obliterated before 1st grade - age 6. I recall 3 odd inspirations. My bedroom was off a small hallway at the top of a steep flight of stairs. One of my toys was  a tiny metal replica of a toilet,   about 2" tall. I had a vivid imagination. One day I decided to use that toilet! It was clear in my mind's eye. I imagined my pee being whisked away to sanitary oblivion - just like to real thing. I set the little toilet at the top of the stairs and squatted to give it a try. Needless to say, what actually happened was a rude awakening.

Another time, I was inspired to ride the escalator in a department store sitting down. I was enjoying a relaxing ride when my seat became the top step and was sucked into the little toothy grille along with part of my pants and buttocks. It was only a minor injury but a major fuss ensued as the adults on scene figured ou what had happened.

I was unusually shy and withdrawn, but another time, I became inspired to demonstrate the difference between boys and girls by drawing on the first grade blackboard during recess. I had an attentive audience of kids as I drew 2 anatomically complete nudes side by side. as I recall my conception of the female was inaccurate - due to inexperience. This must have shocked Mrs. Borrowman, or teacher, but I don't recall meeting with disapproval.

 

Ida

Draw what? Looks like confusion

The first time I was inspired.

We moved to a new country yet again when I was 4

Moved from States to China

Everything was different

the temperature, the air

the humidity, the lighting,

furnishings, buildings, doors.

Not to mention the language, customs.

Then one morning when I was walking to school

I'm looking at the dew drops

on the bridge along side the path

the size of the small marble

nestled near the center of a  flat fan-shaped lotus leaf

It totally caught me by surprise

not only for it's uncanny size,

but because it was the one thing

that resonated with my experience

from the home I just left.

Back home dew drops often formed

in the leaves of bird of paradise that were

planted around our front porch.

I'm not sure it has any far reaching

meaning other that it was one

of recognition, finally in a

place and time of chaos and

transition. Dew drops was

clear, bright, ethereal.

I 'd imagine cool to the touch

refreshing to the taste

familiar to the eyes

and somehow a comfort to the heart.

 

 

Gary H. - The first time I was inspired.

The first time I was inspired I was 12 years old

the moon was full and singing her heart out

to a languid world full of sleepy smells

 

Sitting on a distant hill the city lights were

sparkling intense in a quiet soul

I picked up my pen and began to write

 

Lite love and lobster tails

were all I could think to say

and so I wrote 3 pages

of silly prose on life, love and

lobster tails

 

I know this that when I am inspired

I get goose bumps and my skin tingles

my hearth races and urgency is the only

word I know

 

then and only then do I indulge

some interest whether it be clay or

oil - wood or pen

the only problem with inspiration is that

it seems fleeting, so wishy-washy

So fickle star

The source of my

Inspiration never seems to be something

 I can remember per se-

 

Often after finishing a canvas I will

ask my self what brought on the urge

to paint that particular piece or to

paint at all -

 

I never seem to come up with an

answer that can point to some thought

it is usually a feeling, a need, a drive

to start and there -

 

Inspiration comes

breeze across the back of my neck

never there long enough and understood

just long enough and appreciated

and experienced

 

If I had to point to inspiration and

say that was the 1st time I saw

her. My figure would turn back

towards me and even gently

touch my heart

 

And inside whispers would coat

my mind with

who else Gary, who else

 

 

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Activity - Using drawings to express and explore a question.

A modified activity from the book by Betty Edwards, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. This activity builds on the previous activity where we drew individual feelings. Here multiple feelings become combined on the page.

You think of a question you have about inspiration. Go into your mind and feelings. Start drawing the feelings. Try to convey the tone of the what you experience. Try not to use symbols, characters, objects, lightening bolts, stars, etc. Keep drawing without thinking or censoring. Draw for about 15 minutes using pencil and an eraser.

Evaluate the finished drawing, writing about what you see. Try turning the drawing to see the question  from other directions.

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Notes:

 Where is inspiration, from out there or in here?

Is inspiration received by the artist novice and expert in the same way? This would relate to what roll does skill play in inspiration?

Can fear be the source of inspiration? How to turn fear into inspiration? Fear is the emotive force.

Turning all experience into inspiration?

Uncontrolled energy.

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