When inspiration strikes...a lesson from beetles and Bejingers...
Every morning on my bike-hikes up in the Laguna Canyon wilderness, I pass black, glossy beetles. They are usually walking, crossing the path of my uphill trudge. On the way down, now flying past on my bike, I see a beetle or two still walking. Never once, no matter how close the bike tire gets to their shiny flank does their walk become a skitter.
Similarly, on the busy streets of Bejing, China, when observing pedestrians or people pedaling carts piled high, trucks, buses, cars, and motorcycles pass with inches to spare. Never do you witness a jolt or a flinch by anyone.
Bejing, China, November 2011
There is a brave purposefulness evident in the beetles and Bejingers. This unwavering intent should be the reaction by artists, whether inspiration presents as a whisper or roars by in a forceful rush, causing neither a flit nor a flinch, despite the implications.
What are the implications? For artists, getting run over by a car or bike isn't part of the worry, but bringing a creative idea to fruition can be nebulous or uncertain. A year ago, as I contemplated my daughter's wedding, I was thinking of the beautiful colors evident in the shadows of the white fabric of a wedding dress. And then I thought of the beautiful sunlit cloth of Joaquin Sorolla's magnificent painting, "Sewing the Sail".
Joaquin Sorolla, "Sewing the Sail", 1896
The next thought was of the deep, contemplative satisfaction that comes when we work with our hands. Suddenly, the finished painting was complete on my mind, roaring by like the whoosh of a speeding truck: a hearty and hardy woman, dark hair pulled to the side, sitting on a sunlit porch, sewing a sail by hand!! Since the inspiration had taken hold like a tugging terrier, not too soon to release its grip, I could not flinch at the need to prepare and prime a large surface, analyze sun angles for weeks to get the right sense of the lighting, take nearly one hundred photos using myself as a model initially to get a sense of the composition I was seeking, track down just the right sail cloth, get the supporting elements to tell the story like sailing books, the correct needle and thread and a sail palm, and most important and difficult of all, find the right model to come to my studio at the right time of day. Eight months--and a tremendous amount of work--later, the painting is finished and on display at the Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach.
"Leeward Shores, Windward Dreams", 56 x 44, Pastel
I am asked by viewers if the model is me (it is not). There is some ambiguity--by intent to allow the viewer to enjoy some mystery and then participate in discovery--about what she is doing. I am also told that the painting evokes a sense of peacefulness and calm. All of these interesting and positive assesments belie the flit/flinch response I had to the jolt of inspiration to complete a piece this large and complicated.
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