painting by okeef

"The Day the Cat Disappeared and I Realized How Alone I Was, etc..." by Dann Freer

Thoughts:

All who create, (and everyone does, whether they call it Art or not,) believe they are both an expert and an idiot regarding what Art is. Some believe they are more expert than not, some believe they just don't have it, but everyone has at least some sense of what inspires THEM. And what IS Art if not that inspiration?

Inspired by Art, inspired to create... The purpose of this article will be to explore what inspires that creation... The facets of life, the emotions, the exploration, the trials and the thrills... indeed all that life is, and all it isn't... that personal evaluation of what it is to be alive and react to life that encompasses the majority of our time, inside.

Certainly, I can only relate what inspires me to desire to create, and I'm certain many who read this article will have other ideas, and disagree with me at times, sometimes vehemently. And I'm certain that many will believe I have left out something crucial and important. I'm counting on that. My hope is that this article will inspire you into an exploration of the inspiration of visions and views.

Passion:

Inspiration for me is controlled and influenced primarily by passion. And that passion which often begs the most for expression is the passion of distress, the aching feeling that things aren't right, fair or equitable in a given situation.

Most of what I have ever written, and a lot that I see written, (poetry primarily), involves love and frustration associated with it. Lack of love, loss of love, love poured out and not returned, love so powerful crushed by a mistake of fate that brings us closer to a desire for death than any other emotion or aspect of life... The strength of this passionate distress bleeds us in dreams, throws us to our knees seeking the intervention of some benevolent governing power, drives us to a rage of anger, tears, and insanity. Trying even to describe or define how we feel in such situations becomes a creation in itself.

Indeed, I find it extremely frustrating that I can create much more in the throes of distress than when things appear brighter, when I'm more content. Ironically, as a writer, I wonder if this actually directs me to seek out distress just to continue that passionate muse... I hope not, but I wonder... I also wonder and would like to see what others feel about that... Whether any of the readers have encountered similar circumstances effecting their capability to write certain types of work only under certain adverse conditions... Must the writer (or any other artist) be "on the edge" to produce interesting work?

Specifically:

Passion, however, is a generality... What is passion? Desire and caring emphasized by the intensity of it. But what specifically inspires an individual creation? Although we may be inspired to present something by a certain influence, the presentation itself often has another inspiration...

For example, the struggle of overbearing love may be combined with aspects of something unrelated to inspire an allegory... Say, a lonely walk through the woods, or a train careening headlong down the wrong track... Certainly, since Art itself inspires, much that is created is inspired by other work... The combinations are continuous and endless...

What are the inspirations for this piece?

Love, even when rewarding, still renders confusion and doubt... But we must force ourselves on, because it's the process itself that becomes the power of it... still not knowing where it leads. This is the general translation, an idea which inspired a desire to present it in another form. The condition, being in love now with someone, plunging into that love, and the internal experience of acting on those associated desires versus the questionability of unknown fate... inspired the idea.

The piece's presentation is inspired by a vision of a locomotive and comparative aspects to the emotional situation... Also included are superficial reasons, "inspiration" in a broader sense... such as the fact that I wanted to compose a piece here in the article as an example to discuss. And possible uncertain tertiary inspiration, such as recently hearing the song "Driving With Your Eyes Closed" (from Don Henley's "Building the Perfect Beast") providing a basis for the presentation's form.

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