Inspiration comes from many places. No use pretending it all comes out of our heads with no other stimulation, or making the creative process into a big mystery to outsiders. In the Give Credit Where Credit Is Due department, here are some of my recent influences, which are helping me progress my art, my novel and my writing about creativity:
Learning New Tricks (Inspiration for sharing my work): Show Your Work by Austin Kleon. By reading this, I’ve learned to share more.
Sketching (Item 4 from Ten Ways to Cultivate a Creative Mind): Pick up a pencil and draw. I did. In my little black sketchbook. The pleasure of sketching is immeasurable, especially when you know it’s your own private sketchbook, no sharing required. Conversely, there’s a freedom in that privacy for the artist or writer.
Why make the creative process into a mystery? It all comes from our influences.
Reading (that’s how a writer becomes a better one): Flannery O’Connor. Since learning her art informed her writing, and vice versa, I’ve begun my journey at Flannery O’Connor University (continuing education). On my syllabus:
A Life of Flannery O’Connor by Brad Gooch
The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor by Flannery O’Connor and Sally Fitzgerald
Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O’Connor
Writing on a new platform for Medium: There’s a joy of discovery within Medium’s Collections, and the focus on just the writing there (without formatting and template distractions) is cleansing. Submitting my work to curators of the collections encourages me to polish the work. ♣
What’s been influencing and inspiring you lately?
Want to learn more about my upcoming novel? Subscribe HERE. For more on the art of writing, look HERE. Stroll through my art prints and paintings HERE. Or just find some inspiration among 45 quotes on writing, art and creativity, HERE. And all of my inspiration ends up HERE.
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