At first I was disappointed with myself that I was not taking advantage of the fortunes of good weather and filling up my camera with photos, but inspiration took hold when I remembered a comment I once read by the ever-insightful Bono:
When I was 10, I learned what unlocks creativity. We were studying William Butler Yeats, one of the great poets of the 20th century, and my teacher explained that there was a period when Yeats had writer's block. I put my hand up in class and asked, "Why didn't he write about that?" It was like, "Oh, shut up." I've since learned that there's something to being truthful. The Scriptures say the truth will set you free. The truth is at the root of every piece of creativity. So if you're truthful about your situation, whatever it is as an artist—whether it's despair, whether it's hope, whether it's ambition—suddenly you're there.So I made the best of my situationist derive, selections of which follow along with some more photographs of unintentional inspiration.
(click each photo to enlarge or view gallery In Situ)
* View more photographs In Situ
Such fine photographs. I usually chide myself for not looking up more when I walk, but this post, the images and your reflections make me aware how much I might be missing by not looking down.
ReplyDeleteI found the "dérive" article interesting. In Spanish the words derive and deriva also mean to drift, sort of like a rudderless ship. I guess if we knew where inspiration comes from, it would either stop flowing or not be inspiration.
That is true about inspiration. I never realized it before, but if I think about it too much, about why I should create/do something, then it often doesn't happen, or if it does, it doesn't feel quite right. Maybe inspiration needs the sponteneity of creation in order to be fulfilled.
ReplyDelete"Authentic transformation requires that we be profoundly rooted in both the eternal peace of pure being and the ecstatic urgency of the creative impulse." – Andrew Cohen