There is something incredibly cool about the arts. For those that know me you are aware that I am analytical sometimes to the point of annoying (and for those of you that just said “sometimes” again in your head we’re no longer friends).
I want to preface this by saying I in no way think I am hot to trot related to the arts. I don’t think I can relate to Beethoven or Dali, nor do I think most people on the planet since the beginning of time can. What I am asserting is in everyone there is the ability to make art. Whether you hum in the shower, tap your feet while sitting, or doodle on a napkin, you are creating.
For some those creations go on to affect others, but in the beginning, at its most core, those creations affect those making them. Raise that foot tapping to a more complex beat, or start to shadow that doodle a little, and suddenly something is happening. I am going to try my best to explain this phenomenon, but I have to say it will be difficult. Its like explaining love. You tend to dance around the outside of it, but never really get to the heart of it, although every poet has tried.
When inspired to make something, and I am going to expand this to anything, because I think if you are shaving a piece of wood or you are writing a concerto, the same process tends to take place.
Somewhere along the way that little diddy you are humming or that picture you are envisioning starts to take shape, and what started as a small seed in your head begins to grow into something. Now I can’t say that every creation fits this pattern, in that sometimes you set out to make something without being inspired, but due to a job etc. I can say that when there is another driving force behind it, meaning something is nagging at you and it wants to get out, well that is an amazing thing to watch unravel.
I am a fairly logical being, but I think to every logical being there is a hope, at least I know in my case, that there is something mystical or magical behind the surface of everything. Yes you may disregard it and think, “well that song that just played, in that exact moment, that meant so much to me, in the moment I was experiencing it, well that was just a coincidence.” I am going to say that, as an annoyingly analytical being, I have actually stored away these moments my entire life, and I have to say that I don’t think they are all coincidence. It is actually illogical to think that they are, considering if something keeps happening over and over and you can document it, it is no longer coincidental.
I mention this because behind the writing or the song or the painting, there is something mystical or magical about it. Maybe it is just to you and no one else, and that is ok, but it is almost as if you are not writing or composing or painting at all. It is as if someone else were guiding you. I realize that statement just lost me a lot of “street cred”, but it is a true one and anyone that digs deep and creates will understand me. Maybe it is you, or your internal you, that is guiding you, but sometimes it honestly doesn’t feel like you. Sometimes you end up looking at what you created and think to yourself, “Where they heck did I come up with that line, that image, that diddy.”
So next time you start to hum something you feel is unique, or maybe you think of a good story in your head, take a second to listen better. It may just be wanting you to shape it and make it come alive. Remember creation is nature and nature is creation. Don’t discount yourself from taking part in it.