09.24.07
So here I sit, bleary-eyed, at my computer screen while outside a perfect autumn day is flowing by without me. I’d love to go outside and crunch through some early autumn leaves, but I have to sit under these anemic fluorescent lights and earn a living like the rest of the working stiffs… unfortunately. Besides mindlessly typing away like an automaton at work I’m struggling to come up with something inspiring for the very first blog entry I’ve ever created. Not an easy task. A little daunting perhaps. So where can I look for inspiration? Where is my 500 lb gorilla?
Just as with any artistic endeavor beginning a new project really is the most difficult part. I wanted to start off this blog entry with something bizarre and surprising- something like a 500 lb gorilla in a tutu. Why a gorilla you ask? Well it all started when I was putting my brain on the rack, trying to think about what gets me excited about creating art. How could I share the experience of artistic inspiration? Well, sometimes it really IS like a 500 lb gorilla knuckle-dragging through my brain. Here’s this giant simian bashing my cerebellum into compliance with the flashes of inspiration. Of course those flashing lights could just be brain damage, but I digress. That flash-bang of inspiration really can be a 500 lb gorilla gnashing his teeth at me: the idea is not going to go away until I start that new project, that new piece of art, whatever it may be. Otherwise I’m going to have a very pissed off ape skulking around my grey matter, one who is already pretty torqued that he’s in a tutu and I’m not going to improve his mood by not bothering to acknowledge his presence. On the good days that’s how my “muse” works for me.
Of course not every day is a good day. Not every week is a good week. I’ve had months at a time where I thought I had lost all artistic ability! Of course then the neurosis sets in and I start to wonder what the hell I did to chase away that damned ape! Meditating on this point, or rather obsessing over it like a fanatic, I have decided my 500 lb gorilla-muse has learned a very interesting skill. My muse, eschewing all concern for physics and natural laws, has figured out how to metamorphosize into a very devious little bat when he refuses to play nice and be a good muse. To be sure I rather like the idea of a crazed little bat skittering around in my skull- it’s definitely a more appealing thought than having a hairy ape in my head, but he’s wily and sly. Most of the time he hides in some dark cobwebbed corner of my brain refusing to come out. Such is the case with creative inspiration. It doesn’t really respond to commands. It’s like a wild animal. You THINK you have trained all the wildness out of it, but you’re just deluding yourself. So when this happens what I really need is a juicy spider. Bats like bugs, right? Maybe my muse will play nice if I feed it. Now where did I leave those spiders?
Lyzard
So here I sit, bleary-eyed, at my computer screen while outside a perfect autumn day is flowing by without me. I’d love to go outside and crunch through some early autumn leaves, but I have to sit under these anemic fluorescent lights and earn a living like the rest of the working stiffs… unfortunately. Besides mindlessly typing away like an automaton at work I’m struggling to come up with something inspiring for the very first blog entry I’ve ever created. Not an easy task. A little daunting perhaps. So where can I look for inspiration? Where is my 500 lb gorilla?
Just as with any artistic endeavor beginning a new project really is the most difficult part. I wanted to start off this blog entry with something bizarre and surprising- something like a 500 lb gorilla in a tutu. Why a gorilla you ask? Well it all started when I was putting my brain on the rack, trying to think about what gets me excited about creating art. How could I share the experience of artistic inspiration? Well, sometimes it really IS like a 500 lb gorilla knuckle-dragging through my brain. Here’s this giant simian bashing my cerebellum into compliance with the flashes of inspiration. Of course those flashing lights could just be brain damage, but I digress. That flash-bang of inspiration really can be a 500 lb gorilla gnashing his teeth at me: the idea is not going to go away until I start that new project, that new piece of art, whatever it may be. Otherwise I’m going to have a very pissed off ape skulking around my grey matter, one who is already pretty torqued that he’s in a tutu and I’m not going to improve his mood by not bothering to acknowledge his presence. On the good days that’s how my “muse” works for me.
Of course not every day is a good day. Not every week is a good week. I’ve had months at a time where I thought I had lost all artistic ability! Of course then the neurosis sets in and I start to wonder what the hell I did to chase away that damned ape! Meditating on this point, or rather obsessing over it like a fanatic, I have decided my 500 lb gorilla-muse has learned a very interesting skill. My muse, eschewing all concern for physics and natural laws, has figured out how to metamorphosize into a very devious little bat when he refuses to play nice and be a good muse. To be sure I rather like the idea of a crazed little bat skittering around in my skull- it’s definitely a more appealing thought than having a hairy ape in my head, but he’s wily and sly. Most of the time he hides in some dark cobwebbed corner of my brain refusing to come out. Such is the case with creative inspiration. It doesn’t really respond to commands. It’s like a wild animal. You THINK you have trained all the wildness out of it, but you’re just deluding yourself. So when this happens what I really need is a juicy spider. Bats like bugs, right? Maybe my muse will play nice if I feed it. Now where did I leave those spiders?
Lyzard
