Inspiration

Inspiration features people, places, thoughts, things, links, books, music, films, and videos I find interesting to me as a writer. It may have something or nothing to do with creativity. It may just be silly or nonsensical (likely) and maybe even thought provoking. I’m interested in your thoughts on these as the list grows. They are listed, not in order of importance, but in order of entry. No one is more important any other, just like us.

Life without work is guilt; work without art is brutality.
— John Ruskin

Because life without art sucks.

In 1960, pioneering American artists Sol LeWitt and Eva Hesse met for the first time and became close friends. In 1965, Eva found herself facing a creative block during a period of self-doubt, and told Sol of her frustrating predicament. Sol replied with this letter. Click this link to hear Benedict Cumberbatch reading it.

The responsibility of an artist is not to render things visible, but to make them visible.
— attributed to Paul Klee

Every artist joins a conversation that’s been going on for generations, even millenia, before he or she joins the scene.
John Barth

Wherever you go, there you are.
Buckaroo Banzai

Beethoven’s Seventh – The work was premiered with Beethoven himself conducting in Vienna on 8 December 1813 at a charity concert for soldiers wounded in the Battle of Hanau. In Beethoven’s address to the participants, the motives are openly named: “We are moved by nothing but pure patriotism and the joyful sacrifice of our powers for those who have sacrificed so much for us.”

Watching My Life Go By – Michael Hedges – While not a direct inspiration for Eleven Little Deaths, this song is certainly applicable to Jacob Will’s life.  As with Jacob’s best friend Farry, Michael Hedges left us all too soon.

The Power of Myth – Joseph Campbell – The Power Of Myth launched an extraordinary resurgence of interest in Joseph Campbell and his work. A preeminent scholar, writer, and teacher, he has had a profound influence on millions of people. To him, mythology was the “song of the universe, the music of the spheres.” The Power Of Myth touches on subjects from modern marriage to virgin births, from Jesus to John Lennon, offering a brilliant combination of intelligence and wit.