2 of 14

Write now Article Tools

Passion's Palette: The Ingredients of Inspiration

What inspires a painter to paint? What instigates a chef to cook? What compels a sculptor to sculpt? What abstract, unarticulated energy is the force that drives an artisan to create? There's something about that sensual and clandestine authority of one sound, one smell, one touch, one image, or one taste that can wholly arrest the senses. The tangible tinge of a memorable sensation can spontaneously bring about an intangible surge of familiarity, unleashing an unbridled gush of emotions. That unrelentingly appealing and passionately indefinable instinct is universal, one of our basest human natures.

There is always a first love, commonly and unluckily an ephemeral bond. Dismantled but not forgotten, it is the harmonizing things that remain dear: the song played during the first kiss, the restaurant of the first date, the scents permeating the air during the love-laden hours or the little catchphrases that become inside jokes between two. When the fusion ceases, and life pit-a-patters along, those memory landmarks develop into the emotional stimuli that unleash torrents of passion. This kind of flashbulb memory is akin to a drop of food dye in a pitcher of water: one bead consumes the entire jug. In the same manner humans establish inexplicable connections, so the artist retains a uniquely mysterious link with his source of inspiration. The five senses are the ingredients of the muse, but it is whatever olfactory, or sensual, or palatial trigger to the senses that ignites the inspirational fire.

Inspiration is a concept not founded on cognition, but derived from the environment enveloping the mind. For artistry, it is ficklea separate spark for everyone, sometimes unintentional, sometimes sought out. Above all else, inspiration is characterized by individual interpretation.

A literal entity, like a movie, a book, or a walk in the park creates different effects on the recipient, depending on the artist's goal. Consider a sunset. A watercolorist might see swarms of color fused together, a violinist might visualize a moving harmony of notes and a chef might concoct a new dish incorporating innovative textures and tastes. Pure inner vision, on the other hand, is like an internal storybook. First begins the introduction. Something in an artist's life might ignite a new idea; perhaps a photograph, a scent or an overheard conversation. These are the triggers that awaken the emotional passion which waterfalls into inspiration.

Literally, the word "inspiration" means "breathed upon", emphasizing the spontaneity of the burst of creativity. Historically, inspiration was believed to contain a divine element, that an artist's very deity had bestowed him with holy thoughts. This theory was founded in biblical days and accepted through the Romantic period of the eighteenth century, when philosophers capitalized on the sublimity of nature and human emotions. With the emergence of Sigmund Freud's psychological findings, modernized theories professed subconscious elements characterizing inspiration. Likeminded artists began to use the mystical, like Ouija boards and dream diaries, to tap into their subconscious thoughts, like a backdoor way of stirring the senses.

Inspiration is the why. It is the repetitive drawing from that palette of ideas coloring the artist's mind as pencil touches paper, fingers caress piano or toes tap floor. The moral of the story is this: engulf yourself in that waterfall of emotion, for it is that cascade of feeling that sparks creative genius that keeps the passion from fading into the doldrums of familiarity.

Learn more about this author, Alizah Grace.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Unleashing creativity by expressing your emotions?
We want to hear your view. Write now!