RTW: Inspirational Spots

This week's Road Trip Wednesday (courtesy of YA Highway) really resonated with me. It asks, When you need creative inspiration, where do you go?

And that's a good question, because this summer, I've really needed some inspiration. I don't know if it's the epic heat-wave, the stench of NYC in the summer (if you aren't here, you don't wanna know...), or just the usual tension that comes from having a finished work you love out in the world with a great review and waiting to hear back from various people. Whatever's causing it, let's just say I have the creative equivalent of constipation.*

So how am I going about fixing it? Well, first of all I just keep writing. Even though it feels like slogging through molasses. I am less creative when I stop writing altogether. Even if I'm writing utter shite, at least it's something on the page. I can always fix it later.

But I do have some spots I love to check out when just slogging through the mire isn't cutting it. It could just be me, but I've found that whenever I'm creatively blocked in one area, the best way to unblock myself is to hang around a completely different creative arena.

(me and my work buddy - photocred)
ART!

To be honest, I do not know much about art. What I do know is in Spanish.** But something about visiting the MoMA*** or hitting up the Chelsea art galleries on Thursday during the opening receptions for about 20 galleries (and you can only visit 3 or 4 or you'll just be totally overwhelmed) and spying on the French artists discussing their work, and only understanding 1 in 20 words, maybe, and getting your photo taken looking all fancy with some art, and just seeing all the different kinds of people who turn out for these shows, everyone from fresh grads in their saggy jeans and backwards caps up to the 80+ year old couples leaning on their canes... Something about that shifts the gears in my brain. Knocks me out of neutral.

It reminds me that my fellow writers aren't the only ones who feel this uncontrollable, ridiculous, beautiful drive to create. To pour ourselves onto the page/canvas/instrument and drag out something more than human. Something inspired.

I look at the artwork and I remember what I am really trying to do. Not score an agent or land a book deal or sell a zillion copies (though those would always be nice bonuses!). I'm trying to show the world the story in my head.

(by the way, that is not a photo, it's a painting by Maurizio Zanotto)

* "eww, thanks for that mental image Ellen," yeah, I know.

** as a result of several brilliant art history courses I took while studying in Barcelona. DALI MUSEUM IN FIGUERES OMFG.

*** where an exhibit triggered the whole idea behind Stray