2011 Inspiration: John Howe, Elizabeth Gilbert
on December 27th, 2010Let’s greet 2011 with positive thoughts about life and work.
At the 2006 IdeaCity in Toronto, Ontario, Lord of the Rings concept artist John Howe delivered a 20 minute speech which you can see at Howe’s website.
Elizabeth Gilbert shares the idea that genius lives in everyone. If you hold yourself back because you believe your voice is not the voice of genius, then you will never find the spark within.
Challenging.
I agree completely that you can’t just sit and wait for the muses to stop by. I also think there’s an aspect of this that she’s gone through that she neglected a bit in her discussion.
When I read Starting from Scratch by Rita Mae Brown, it was an eye-opener. Brown contended that the creative disciplines, especially writing, should be taught in the same way medicine, law and architecture are, as serious formal structures. Until I read that, I labored under the misconception that until I was visited by brilliance, whatever work I did would be dross.
She also contended that society should support the arts and literature the same way it does those other endeavors. Still waiting on that one.
But I bought into the mainstream view of creativity as superfluous and as a hazardous thing to try as a way of rubbing a couple coins together.
I also bought into the mainstream idea that this stuff had little use in the world, really. I mean, you can’t eat it, wear it or buy or warm a home with it, so what good is it?
I bought that stuff. What a sucker game.
Taking the time to really accept that my work would only happen if I did it and would be better if I took the time and effort to learn my craft before starting seems like a no-brainer now, but then it seemed like such an unnecessary tedium.
Truth is, I was afraid of the work and the honesty it demanded. In some ways, I still am, but I have learned that such fears are very selfish and lazy. The only way the work gets done is if you do it.
I hope this makes sense. These remain emotionally charged issues for me, even after decades of doing the work with varying degrees of success.
As a sidebar, I’ve never seen a TED video that didn’t teach me something.
Thanks for a great post, and for a timely renewal of inspiration.
Bodefan, I can understand where you were starting from. I didn’t quite start in that place, coming as I did from a talented family. My mother was a church musician, and my brother made side money leading a dance band in high school and college, so the idea that the arts automatically meant “no money” was not a personal factor for me.
However, of all my talents, writing is the one I’ve had to work hardest at – which may be why it is the one I value the most. Music and visual arts came very easily to me. But when I set out to train as a writer (my whole undergraduate college career was designed for that), I knew that training and work was required. Studying literature, studying myth, studying writing, studying “language” (the effects of it – by way of studying poetry). To me, it seemed the natural choice. I didn’t expect writing to be entirely easy off the top of my head (in spite of getting by in classes on first drafts).
But I was strongly self-directed. I’m not sure how an uncertain aspiring writer can be encouraged to apply themselves to it all. (And now my mind is rambling a bit.)