Art Is A Luxury

In today’s fast-paced world, it is probably not surprising that art is underappreciated.  What I find surprising is that there is any art being done at all.  Being a creative type does require skill – to do the creation process – but it requires an important element, inspiration.  This element is rare and random.  When it appears, you need to seize it.  And the busier you are in life, the less inspiration seems to arrive.

Today, I worked late at work and on the way home, I made mental plans to wash my car.  While stopped in traffic, I saw a silhouette of someone talking with their hands behind tinted windows in another car.  For some odd reason, this was fascinating to me and I came up with an opening line for a possible poem: “Today, I watched some hands, through a window…”  As I continued home, I made some small development on it, but without any paper to sketch my ideas on, I was destined to lose the rhythm and forget some of the phrases and wording.  Inspiration came at a poor time.

As I was driving and trying to concentrate on imagery and the story that needed told, my thoughts kept getting interrupted by “What about the car?”  If I immediately went to work on the poem, I wouldn’t be able to wash the car.  If I washed the car first, I’d lose the inspiration.  On top of that, once I got home, there was the cat begging for food and a package that arrived with much-needed printer toner.  Life felt like it was really piling up.

By the time I got home, I had abandoned the poem idea, gave up on the car washing for the day, and thought maybe a blog post about the whole situation would be relevant, since I have blogged so little as of late.  I got thinking about life as an artist, where some would say they are lazy and are unproductive, I would say they are waiting for inspiration to strike.  You couldn’t be busy out of the house when an idea comes to mind.  You have to be at the ready.

I’ve read that artists can do some of their best work in later years.  It’s too bad we have to take all that time to learn how to slow down.

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