From “The Discipline of Inspiration: The Mysterious Encounter with God at the Heart of Creativity” by Carey Wallace
Where do you get your inspiration?
Artists hear this question all the time.
Some of us respond with pat speeches. Some of us give the most sincere answers we can. Some of us lapse into sullen silence, because it’s a question that makes it sound like creating art is mainly a matter of swiping ideas out of the air, which ignores the choices, and skill, and sacrifice art also requires.
But there’s a deeper reason the question makes us uneasy: most of us don’t know the answer.
And all of us are aware that anyone who asks has placed a finger squarely on the central moment in our lives as artists.
The insistent voice of inspiration is what first prompted us to create. It’s why we’ve spent so much of our lives making things we may not ever be able to explain.
Without inspiration, we know that all our work and sacrifice may not amount to anything.
But we don’t know where inspiration comes from.
We don’t know why it arrives when it does, why it disappears, or what it means.
We don’t understand its properties, its mechanics, its price.
And we are never sure where to go to get more.
But it is possible to think rigorously about inspiration: what it is, where it comes from, and what it might mean.
Exploring these questions can shed light on many others: the source of art, its purpose and definition.
It can point us to practical tools, to welcome more inspiration in both our work and our lives.
And an answer to that constant question, from the world and our own hearts: where do you get your inspiration?