So, off the bat, I admit  I am not a huge fan of Eat Pray Love……….I know sacrilege. I thought I’d give you a moment to react. Now mind you I read the book and I saw the movie once it hit cable, not in the theater (reason=see above). It didn’t “do it” for me like it did so many of my friends. I just thought it was so so. Yes I said it. Not a glowing review.

So imagine my surprise when I came across Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED talk: Your Elusive Creative Genius. Now this is my favorite work of hers yet. In honesty I only have EPL and her follow-up committed (surprised I read it? I was) to compare it to but this subject I could sink my teeth into. So watch it! No, I mean watch it NOW!

An argument could be made that I’m an addict, a creativity junkie. It is my catnip for sure. And I have enumerated on the creative spark, pursuing your passions, where inspiration lives, the art of failure, obtaining imperfection artfully and most importantly know thyself and to thine own self be true.

My favorite thing about teaching was seeing my student’s creativity come to fruition. To watch the process as they discovered their muse. What is it in the job of creativity that keeps an artist going? As Gilbert contends it is our job as artist to show up. The Tuesday Talent Interviews and Rogue Illustrations are two of my favorite blog features, living proof of the inspiration that lives inside each of us.

My very best pieces, in my opinion of course, have come when I am inspired by another. A friend’s love letter to her husband tenderly shared over lunch. An intimidate pain of a high school girlfriend after a failed suicide attempt. These poems seemed to flow through my pen with an ease reflecting the beauty in their creative source, the original poets themselves. I was simply honored to reflect.

Now if you’re chasing the dragon (fame) so to speak as a creative you are bound to get lost down the rabbit hole, to depression and many have come to a sad ill-fated end, often at their own hand. Artists and Muses have not fared well throughout history.

If you create for fame or fortune you are bound to be disappointed, left unfulfilled. If it comes, Great! Enjoy it for the fleeting moment it lingers in your orbit. Just know it is elusive and will be gone as quickly as it arrived. So as artists create because it is an expression of whom you are, not for others approval or accolades. You will find no peace in that.

Tim McGraw put it so well, “Live like you were dying.” This means leaving the past where it belongs, behind you, and don’t get stuck waiting for the future to show up. Create! You’re an artist and the moment is now. Do a little something every day to express you, for yourself. No one and nothing else matters.

Last weekend I shared with you my muse’s free flowing voice. Today I will leave you with the condensed version of Muse (a poem). But first watch Elizabeth Gilbert’s Video. Go! Now! Listen to her realization of the mystical, creative process, of discovering the muse that indwells all artists. I promise you won’t be sorry.

 
Enjoy your weekend. Until then here are the usual goodies.
 

Blast from This Blogs Past

• Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

The Weekend Reading List

• How to Improve Any Service by Simplifying it~ Fast Company
• The Inside Out Project ~ A global art project designed to put us all face to face in a call for action.
• to be a poet: 10 Instructions ~ A how-to poem of a sort by Silvi Alcivar, my most recent poetic crush
• My Life as A Screenwriter you never heard of ~ A day in the life of a writer revealed

Something Extra