I’ve just finished a conversation on the ‘phone with a friend and fellow artist. His immediate problem was where to get a supply of drawing paper, since art shops are currently defined as “inessential”, and hence closed because of the pandemic. We fell to complaining (as artists tend to do) about our experiences and about how the work is going …. or not as the case may be.
It was interesting to compare our similar feelings of demotivation in relation to our art work, and we wondered to what extent this is a particular form of the more general malaise that seems to be affecting many people during lockdown. Far from being freed from routine obligations of a variety of kinds, and given unlimited time in which to get on with creative work, everything has started to feel flat. We’re rather like beached whales, stranded by the tide, and unable to find our way back to open water.
I have been wondering, since that conversation, what it might tell us about the notion of artistic inspiration. The conventional, romantic view does tend to see this is emanating from within, and an expression of inherent artistic genius. What I am asking myself is whether we are far more dependent than is often believed upon our social milieu. I don’t mean just that we treat our environment (social as well as physical) was the raw material for our observation and interpretation. Perhaps it is the case that, somehow, the ability to become “inspired” might be intrinsically social in some way. It’s worth thinking about.