If I had the drive, knowledge, and (most importantly) the connections, I’d love to do a radio or TV show interviewing artists about their artistic processes. Part of the underlying thesis of the show would be debunking the myth that artists rely on inspiration. Most artists get to where they are through hard work and through consistent practice.
Along these lines, I was reading this article about Nick Cave (whom I got tickets to see in April, with Sharon Van Etten opening) and the following paragraph stuck out to me.
The deluxe edition [of the new album] comes with a facsimile of the notebook Cave worked out the album’s lyrics in. “Some of it’s dreadful and painful to read, but I just thought – what the fuck,” he says, before getting the actual notebook out and offering me a brief precis of his working methods. “Pages and pages of absolute shit,” he sighs, turning them over. “Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. And just every now and then something, little tiny ideas start to come out.”
You could put a podcast right here. Then tell everybody on every message board that it’s here.
I feel like we talked about inspiration before. And if we did I probably mentioned Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED talk. http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html
She comes down on both sides of the inspiration/put the work in question, in a way that I think is sensible and, well, inspiring.
Gilbert’s talk is great. But still, you have to be there in the chair before the muse can make use of you.
The problem I have with the podcast is funding and access to artists. Though I guess I could start small with people I know.
Yeah, absolutely, you have to do your part, put your hours in. It is the labor of a devotee who has seen the genius of the medium and aspires to one day be possessed by it. In that view, you get both. It isn’t either/or. Argue away inspiration and you diminish the world you would enhance with your art.
By all means, start small. And big too. Ask who ever you want, see who says yes.