Living in Inspiration
14/11/16 12:58
Working with other artists to create collaborative enriching experiences is the best thing about my compositional life.
Almost a year ago, I started working with an artist from Puerto Rico - Nayda Collazo-Llorens. From my first exposure to her work, Nayda’s art captured me because of its uniqueness, bravery, and its ability to exist within time as well as space. Some of the most beautiful, moving art throughout history exists in only one moment of time - a painting, a sculpture. I don’t wish to diminish their beauty and importance, but such art is a captured moment and the observer tends to experience it from the outside looking in. Nayda’s art moves past that barrier.
These images are from a recent installation at the Grand Rapids Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts and they can’t capture a fraction of Nayda’s work. This piece was presented in two parts. In a slightly sectioned off dark corridor within the UICA, one approaches and sees indistinct blurred lights of all colors moving in a gentle but erratic pattern across the walls. I sat within that living light space for a while and began to feel I was pleasantly lost in space.
But then...
I heard music. Nayda’s art writes music in my mind. Just as with ELFsong, the saturating, transportive nature of Nayda’s art inspired me to write.
All artists live in a world of bombarding creative energy. Whether it attacks you and demands expression or you quietly seek out inspiration, artists must NEVER stop stepping outside our corner of the creative world and diving into another. Attend concerts, art galleries, ballets, film festivals, workshops, street fairs - and never stop. If you feel lost, blocked, or tired out by creative energy (and it can be relentless in sucking it from us) then leave your creative corner for a while and go live in another one.
Almost a year ago, I started working with an artist from Puerto Rico - Nayda Collazo-Llorens. From my first exposure to her work, Nayda’s art captured me because of its uniqueness, bravery, and its ability to exist within time as well as space. Some of the most beautiful, moving art throughout history exists in only one moment of time - a painting, a sculpture. I don’t wish to diminish their beauty and importance, but such art is a captured moment and the observer tends to experience it from the outside looking in. Nayda’s art moves past that barrier.
These images are from a recent installation at the Grand Rapids Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts and they can’t capture a fraction of Nayda’s work. This piece was presented in two parts. In a slightly sectioned off dark corridor within the UICA, one approaches and sees indistinct blurred lights of all colors moving in a gentle but erratic pattern across the walls. I sat within that living light space for a while and began to feel I was pleasantly lost in space.
But then...
I heard music. Nayda’s art writes music in my mind. Just as with ELFsong, the saturating, transportive nature of Nayda’s art inspired me to write.
All artists live in a world of bombarding creative energy. Whether it attacks you and demands expression or you quietly seek out inspiration, artists must NEVER stop stepping outside our corner of the creative world and diving into another. Attend concerts, art galleries, ballets, film festivals, workshops, street fairs - and never stop. If you feel lost, blocked, or tired out by creative energy (and it can be relentless in sucking it from us) then leave your creative corner for a while and go live in another one.
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