Inspiration From An Unlikely Source
I feel I am finishing up what seems to be a somewhat lengthy hiatus of being lost inside my creative life. I guess you could call it more of a draught especially if you consider “inspiration” part of a creative rain cycle.
As a result, I have been finding inspiration in unlikely places these days.
And if someone would have told me that my first post for the launch of my new website would be about Neil Diamond, I would have laughed and said “yah ok, seeyah at the quiet hospital!"
But it is…
I quite literally grew up hearing my parents play Neil Diamond’s vinyl Hot August Night on their hi-fi stereo. My parents enjoyed and continue to enjoy living life. And they were and continue to be very social. So they had lots of 70’s get togethers with friends and such, but since I was 3-4-5-6 etc, like all children, I had a bedtime. But I could still hear their music out there in the living room. ABBA, Beach Boys, Neil Diamond, The Hollies, The Beatles, Gary Wright’s, Love Is Alive and my parents obscure yet solid library of 45’s. I have good memories filled with lots of music listening in the dark because let’s face it, I didn’t want to sleep anyway. Not when fondue, macrame, and music are going on! Plus I still maintain sleeping is sort of boring and a waste of time.
Back to Neil. Somewhere down the road within 1977 and 1980 came “Love On The Rocks” and Neil’s duets with Barbra (of which I am not a fan) and somewhere, somehow, Mr. Diamond got lost inside the 80’s soft fluffy rock/adult contemporary. Where was the man behind racey “Cherry Cherry”? Or Solitary Man? Or “Cracklin’ Rose?” Or “You Got To Me”? (my personal favorites)
Then of course for a while, the cool thing for GenXr’s like me and my peers was to make fun of/scoff at what my husband calls the fab four (Kenny Rogers, Barry Manilow, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond) because their “radio hits” at the time when we were young and strapped audibly helpless into our car seats were playing over and over again on the radio. They weren’t even bad songs in retrospect (well, some of them still remain that status to me), but radio has a way of making the best songs horrible. And we fell victim to what the machine was pushing on our parents at the time, unable to change the radio dial with our very tiny arms.
But then you get older and nostalgia strikes. And you wonder _“What ever happened to Neil and his GOOD collection of classics? Did he get lost with all the-used-to-be’s-that-just-lie-on-the-floor-till-you-sweep-them-away? Gosh I sure hope not.” _
So you do a search on the interwebs. And you find he has a newer album out called 12 Songs which is basically him and a guitar. Just like in the beginning. Score.
So you order up the hits you liked long ago in iTunes and then get this new album of his and sit down and have a listen.
YUMMY!
And then you sleep well at night knowing that there is an artist out there making what they are good at again, not really concerned with feeding the machine. Not sure if that was Neil’s objective, but it sure sounds like it from this latest creation. Brian Wilson even shows up on Delirious Love with backing vocals and harmonies and his KICK ASS’d jingle bells.
Uniquely, all highly inspirational to someone coming off of a somewhat lengthy hiatus from being lost inside ones creative life.
Getting lost happens to the best of us. It’s what you do after you discover you got lost that counts. Or not. Up to you, I guess. Or me rather.
Welcome to my new site everyone!
Comments
Hot damn! Neil Diamond, niiiiiice real nice.
Your watercolours rock. They look like they should be in a book. You should make a book. Then you can tell me a story. I’ll sit on the ground like at the library and you can turn the pages and point ok?
And “Shine my shoes too” is awesome. Her legs fit perfect on the pear. Dude, next collage group gathering, may I bring that one to show? We always show stuff, and I’ve gone off on Ralph Steadman enough already.
Wow. Thank you for the compliments Mo! And of COURSE you can bring my collage to your class. Damn! What a flippin’ compliment if there ever was one. You rocketh, my friend. Even way more than Neil Diamond.....
Cool thanks. And it isn’t a class, just a group of artists that get together every so often.
Inspiration (or “creativity”) is a weird thing. Sadly, it is deadlines that force us to be creative, especially since most of us entered our professional art gig in the commercial world. The good thing is that a lot of us have chosen to get into situations where we can set deadlines for ourselves in more recent years. I teach and have many deadlines for classes and I do think of them as creative deadlines because I love to teach and I challenge myself to make the projects interesting to the students and to myself. But it is a different kind of creativity when we are talking about being inspired to create art just for the sake of creating art. I am sounding awfully redundant in that last thought. Does having a gallery show coming up count as a deadline? Sure it does. And unfortunately I need that deadline and probably that’s the way a lot of artists work. But I do have other projects that I have been inspired to start on that have no deadlines. I am not sure how those are going to move along. I am thinking of getting financial backing, but I am not sure if that is because I need a deadline imposed or if I need the money. I know the money would get it done quicker because it involves animation which is very time consuming, but is time really important here?
It is very cool that Carol and I have the band for a creative outlet once a week. The new arrangement leaves us with no “deadlines” or pressure because we are more concerned about making music over playing gigs at this time.
Well that’s my 2 cents. I like the fact that a lot of my friends are moving towards situations where they have more creative freedom. I guess I’m asking how others are pushing themselves to move forward on their own work as they do freelance, teaching or whatever keeps paying the bills.
Hey Rob! Yeah, deadlines contrary to my previous belief are a necessary evil. Actually, “structure” is needed (did *I* just write that!?) But it’s true. I went from one extreme of “structure” (too much for my day job) to the other when I quit the conventional day job (none) last year - and this summer I think I have struck a happy balance. I never thought it would take such a long time to adjust to it all, but I must be honest and say it really does take a year or so to adjust to being self employed and dare I say a little more free-er and happ-ier. I think to some of your points, the more artists that embrace technology, the better off they will be. Like our music blog over at Sweet Jelly. The “world” becomes your venue, whether it be music or visual art or animation or etc’s. And that is just pretty darn cool!
Funny how we can take it for granted that the world literally IS our venue. We can just throw it out there for anyone to read, look at or listen to. Very cool indeed.
Keep up the cool watercolors. I like the direction. I’m curious about the size of the paintings. I know you tend to work small and Mike tends to work gigantic at least canvas-wise .... he is, of course, limited to his monitor size when doing his web thang.
- carol said on Aug 16, 2007:
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Commenting is not available in this section entry.You rocketh my friend. Keep making art whether it be on your own or in our band.....
:D