Creativity- Emotionally Inspiring or just Hard Work for achieve?

Cristi James
Tender Bliss
Graphic Design
I once wrote a Editor's Dedication for CF's IMPRINTS Magazine:

"Throughout our lives the artist's heart and mind travels through a boundless journey of observation, resulting in various forms of positive and negative memories.  We take these memories and turn them into the heart of our craft-- Imagery.  This heart involves one or more of the five senses: to see, to hear, to taste, to smell, to feel.  If our craft is done well, all of these wonderful senses will stir inside the minds of the reader. They will hear the rain spattering onto vibrant Autumn leaves and smell the cracked, dry earth softening from the moisture.  They will see the air swirl from the flapping of a bird's wings rising in flight from the bounds of a painted canvas. They will feel the heartache of a long-lived marriage dissolve, or the longing of a student experiencing his first crush, crazy about his school teacher.

The journey our staff has taken this past year has led to endless paths of self-discovery.  We have sweated through the trials of losing layouts, and cheered at the joy of completing our very first campus-wide, student-only magazine.  We hope dear reader, that IMPRINTS will provide a respite from the daily travails of your life. Maybe, it will even serve as inspiration to delve into your own heart's journey and find the boundless wisdom held within."

It wasn't something that I struggled with, it was just "inspired".  So, how did it come to fruition?  A love for what I was doing?  Music, a great piece of art, someone else's work, or even a great quote?  Nope, it was the love of Imagery that jumped out from the magazine itself. I don't always do imagery justice. She is a force to be reckoned with, hard to hit, and hard to tie down for me. I don't just see the Schlage worn out silver key; or hear it as it taps against the beaded bracelet intertwined with the key ring as I open the door.  I also feel the smooth steel round top between my fingers as I struggle to get the key into the lock slot (our door is so messed up).  I feel the slight pain of my fist pounding against the handle of the door as I try to get the door to un-stick. It is every step that I see in my mind's eye.

Imagery is not always a great thing though. I mean, sometimes I get so stuck on the details and the adjectives used to describe those details that I lose the reason to write-- to tell a story. 

Narrative Poetry, Memoirs are more my strength. As I write, I tend to do short stories, flash fiction and novels too detailed that I get lost in my own story. The denouement  is without feeling as if I am rushing over it to the conclusion. 

So, how do I go about writing with a purpose and write freely at the same time?  I haven't a clue... I can only imagine it comes from sitting down every day and just putting pencil to paper or fingers to keys and begging my brain synapses to fire up like a faulty shredded electric cord.


I don't get inspired by the classics. Sorry Ernest, you just don't do it for me. It's not about the author or narrative's POV that gets me, it's the life that I live in the story itself. In INKHEART, the fun part is the characters entering into the reader's world. This is not a new form of writing; The movie The PageMaster does the same thing. I have ALWAYS been sucked into the story I am reading. Sometimes I am so deep in that I become one of the characters, just like in INKHEART until I am abruptly jolted out of the story by one of my family members. The Character's personalities and their experiences are what inspire me. 

The same thing goes for creativity in my art, teaching, playing the piano and the guitar. It is all about the emotions that is invoked through my fingers, ears and eyes that ends up inspiring my heart.  I love deep, warm colors and texture. These things have got to be in a piece of art to make my heart skip a beat. Of course, dark colors like grey, black and dark purple will ALWAYS create a chill through my veins. For some reason those colors continually make me think of the Macabre. Yet, interestingly enough, dark red, does not. Go figure! (shoulders raised and lowered in a shrug...)



I'm curious to find out what inspires you to be creative...  (leave comments in my comments.)



*Art Work courtesy of College of Central Florida's Imprints Magazine. 

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