Sunday, February 24, 2013

The Muse Knows Best




The current, chaotic state of the desk in my studio

 "Confusion is the welcome mat at the door of creativity." - Michael J. Gelb 

My muse should play in the Major Leagues because she knows how to throw a mean curveball.  It seems that just when I start to get rolling with one project, she starts tossing a million other wild ideas at me.

 Sometimes I really dislike this about her.   It makes me question my own ability to focus on a task.  It offends that part of me that likes things to be orderly and chronological or, at the very least, logical.  It makes me feel like I'm not being as productive as I could be.

 But here's the thing: My muse really doesn't care about productivity as much as she cares about creativity.  She knows that while order and logic serve me well in many areas of my life, they often stand in the way of my creative process.  She knows that if I focus on any one thing for too long I become bored and complacent.

 I will probably never be completely comfortable with the madness of her methods but it isn't her job to make me comfortable.  It is her job to keep me inspired and motivated and I think that requires throwing me a little off balance from time to time.

 As you may have guessed by now, being a Slave To The Muse is not always easy.  However, the more I get over my ego's need to rebel against her authority and accept my role as her minion, the more I realize she knows what's best for the work and, ultimately, for me.

 Wow, that is incredibly annoying. 


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Thursday, February 7, 2013

Missing My Muse


What My Muse Looks Like Most Days

My Muse recently went missing for a couple of weeks. She does this every now and then and I haven't always handled it well. This time, however, I remembered her telling me once that sometimes not showing up was her way of giving me some time off. So instead of panicking I decided I would take advantage of the time she was giving me.

This was great for the first few days. I tidied up my studio, organized my art supplies, did a few chores around the cabbage and caught up on some reading. I didn't really start to miss her until the second week. This is when I found myself casually dropping by some of my Muse's favorite places in hopes of running into her. When she failed to appear at the art museum, the craft store or even the clearance section of HomeGoods, I really started to get worried.

My last ditch effort was to try to lure her with chocolate and salty snacks and her favorite movies and TV shows. I even watched an episode of Bewitched in her honor but still, there was no sign of my Endora look alike. Finally, I decided there was nothing left to do but to go ahead and start creating without her.

I had been in my studio painting for about twenty minutes when I felt her presence. I turned to find her sitting in my favorite chair by the window. She looked extremely tan, was dressed in a colorful, tropical print sarong and had a sombrero on her head and scuba fins on her feet.

“Where the hell have you been?” I had to ask.

“I've been right here.” She replied calmly between sips of her umbrella drink. “Where the hell have you been?”

Obviously from her appearance I could tell she was lying but there was also a certain truth to what she was saying, a truth I know but somehow manage to forget time and time again and that is this: Sometimes my muse leads me to the work and sometimes the work leads me to my muse.

In other words, no matter how all knowing and powerful my muse may be and no matter what island paradise she may have wandered off to, if I am serving the work then I'm pretty sure she is contractually obligated to serve me.

So the next time you see me whining somewhere about missing my muse, do me a favor, would you? Tell me to get to work. Thanks.

Happy Creating!
V.
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