Good question…I feel it most directly when I’m writing. I can feel when I hit a certain threshold and words start emerging from a different, more spontaneous place, and I’m just transcribing them. With painting, it’s more visual and if I’m in the zone, I can respond to what is needed moment to moment. It’s a sort of dance between the vision and what’s on the canvas, if it makes sense. But I remain a believer in maintaining a practice even when I don’t feel particularly inspired knowing that developing my craft will serve me when inspiration strikes.
That’s true. The technical ability came later for me. Some of my early poems are not great writing but they are full of honest emotion. I can totally relate to what you said about ‘getting finicky and maybe I’ll add a coma here …’ I’m a bit of a perfectionist myself and if you become too self-critical you can lose the original impulse and the whole thing collapses! Do you ever write in French? I like Baudelaire’s poetry and I’ve read a few different translations of his poems.
You’re right, being too self critical can kill the whole thing. It stiffens the work. I don’t really write in French these days probably because I don’t read a lot in French either. My reading informs my thinking and writing a lot.
From a poet’s point of view, you should only write when you are inspired; when the creative spirit forces you to. My best example of this was when I was on the island of Rhodes. I saw the full moon in a place with no man-made lighting to distract and I immediately had to rush back to my hotel to find pen and paper. I then wrote down what was ‘dictated’ to me (the word for poet in German is ‘Dichter’). The result was a completely free poem, free from my ego and a direct communication with Nature.
Have you had a similar experience when you felt compelled to paint?
Good question…I feel it most directly when I’m writing. I can feel when I hit a certain threshold and words start emerging from a different, more spontaneous place, and I’m just transcribing them. With painting, it’s more visual and if I’m in the zone, I can respond to what is needed moment to moment. It’s a sort of dance between the vision and what’s on the canvas, if it makes sense. But I remain a believer in maintaining a practice even when I don’t feel particularly inspired knowing that developing my craft will serve me when inspiration strikes.
That’s true. The technical ability came later for me. Some of my early poems are not great writing but they are full of honest emotion. I can totally relate to what you said about ‘getting finicky and maybe I’ll add a coma here …’ I’m a bit of a perfectionist myself and if you become too self-critical you can lose the original impulse and the whole thing collapses! Do you ever write in French? I like Baudelaire’s poetry and I’ve read a few different translations of his poems.
You’re right, being too self critical can kill the whole thing. It stiffens the work. I don’t really write in French these days probably because I don’t read a lot in French either. My reading informs my thinking and writing a lot.
From a poet’s point of view, you should only write when you are inspired; when the creative spirit forces you to. My best example of this was when I was on the island of Rhodes. I saw the full moon in a place with no man-made lighting to distract and I immediately had to rush back to my hotel to find pen and paper. I then wrote down what was ‘dictated’ to me (the word for poet in German is ‘Dichter’). The result was a completely free poem, free from my ego and a direct communication with Nature.
Have you had a similar experience when you felt compelled to paint?