Creativity, Coming & Going

Have you noticed how many creatives have particularly fertile periods of output – times of especially high levels of creativity? Why is that?

How do you call the muse? Can you even call it? Why does it appear to fall away? Can you keep it? What is inspiration? Too many questions!

For any creative, there are times of heightened connection/awareness of the muse.

It’s always best to jump on an idea when it’s fresh. That visit is a combination of time and circumstance – two things which by definition are never exactly replicable. Therefore you must jump, before the time and circumstance take you out of the mindset, the inspiration, that has found its way to you.

You have to work your butt off to get to the point where things start flowing through you. Art is about productivity and output. You have to work at this.

This gives you the run-up to periods of creativity. Your effort, the right collaborators, put you into a sweet spot of creativity.

What causes the muse to leave? What causes the output to decline – both in terms of quality and quantity?

Part of it certainly may be that you’ve exhausted your creative well and there’s not much left.

Sometimes, the circumstances that brought the muse to you change, and so does your artistic expression. Hungry becomes satiated. Lack of success (however you define that) becomes success.

Another reason could be that our internal fears and insecurities eventually overwhelm us. Our wounds prove to be too much. We wind up in addiction of self-sabatogue.

Maybe we’re burned out – emotionally, physically, spiritually.

Perhaps one of the biggest factors is falling out among collaborative partners.

Can you capture, or recapture the muse?

Going back to the Greeks, the muse has been mysterious. This is perhaps as it should be.

A Christ-follower has at least a few bread-crumbs to explore this path.

First, the Lord is the creator and we are made in his image. We are created by him in part to create. This means the Lord provides all the raw materials we need to create. And all of us create, consciously or non-consciously. It just comes down to if/how you want to focus your creativity.

The christian artist also has a heightened awareness of the God-imaging: that is part of our identity.

Push hard. Create the best possible circumstances for creativity. CREATE.

Be careful of the effects of sin in your life. Sin, in part, is a deconstructive, anti-creative force in our lives. Keep at it! Be open to God’s leading.

God creates the time and circumstance for us to create. Every good and perfect gift comes down from above. He has made a universe in which creativity can flourish – a non-limitless pallet to draw from as we go beyond imagination in our creative output.

If that’s true, CREATE!