Dolph LeMoult on Inspiration
FAS Instructor Dolph LeMoult offers good advice on the role of inspiration in creative work:
I’ve found that many of my students complain they are not inspired, and so use that as an excuse for not painting and drawing regularly. To me, this is a bit like the habitual smoker who decides to wait until he no longer feels like a cigarette before he will quit. Neither works; the smoker will always want to smoke, and the artist who waits for divine inspiration will not paint.
I’ve been fortunate to see this both as an artist and as a novelist, and I’ve found that there’s not much difference between the two. I’m hard pressed to remember a time in either discipline when I was struck with inspiration. The key word there, I think, is discipline. In both art and writing, my experience has shown that it’s probably one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. Does that mean that art has become a chore for me? Far from it. I’ve been in the art field all of my life, as a designer, illustrator, and gallery painter, and the thought of not working as an artist would be unbearable. But I’ve had to put it in perspective.
Interesting word, perspective; just as its dictionary definition is, the effect of distance on the appearance of objects, understanding the creative process in art has taken the effect of time on my most cherished notions, and made me keenly aware of the facts:
First: Not everything I paint or draw will be good: There will be days (sometimes many in a row) when nothing works. It will seem that, no matter how hard I try, things just seem to get worse – and it seems as if that slump will never end. Not true: In over forty years of experiencing those dreadful times, I have always pulled out of them, most of the time for no good reason.
Second: If I stand at the drawing board or easel expecting to miraculously come up with an inspired idea I’ll be sorely disappointed. My most successful work has been the result of trial and error, of frustration and persistence, and, more often than not, the happy accidents that seem to occur to all of us when we put pencil, pen and brush to a surface.
So my advice to anyone who feels inadequate because he or she is not miraculously inspired is, stick to it. Work when everything you do seems awful; when you’re convinced that you haven’t got what it takes to be an artist. Believe me, you’ll work your way through it and one of those happy accidents will happen to you, and you’ll look at it in disbelief and wonder. And you’ll be an artist, and take it from me, there’s no better thing to be in the whole wide world.
I couldn’t agree more, perspective and perserverance apply to anything worth doing and worth doing well. Most times the hardest part of any task is actually starting. Once started the task takes on a life of it’s own.
Posted by Stanley H Thompson on 03/31 at 03:21 PM
Next entry: The extravagant art of Salvador Dalí
Previous entry: Picasso, Miró, and Dalí -- the Catalan connection
