Inspire Me (series)

i’m in a creative pickle. i’ve got an idea brewing for the novel (which includes a cannibal, an anti-semetic Jew modeled after the real-life Daniel Burros, and possibly an environmentalist – but this can all change) and i even have a first scene committed to memory, but nothing else. typically i have to “see” the characters before i commit them to paper. they reveal themselves to me, visually, and it is only then i can write. if i don’t hear their voice, don’t obsess over it, don’t see their face – it’s just words on a paper. ink fading. charcoal fearful of white.

i’ve tried blasting billie holiday, thumbing through cookbooks, and have even rearranged my bookcases (which always invigorates me) but i’ve fallen flat. i’m all dried up for the moment. i stared at a photo of my poor pom-pom rug to-be (a project for my office) and i crawled under my desk and said: not today.

but then something minor happened. in between author meetings, meeting reminder pop-ups, unanswered emails and message lights blinking, i stumbled upon a handful of blogs I visit on a daily basis and i started to feel that twinge. that tick that makes you a little numb in the hands, a little disoriented. something’s brewing. i don’t know what it is quite yet, but it at least got me from up under my desk (well, an author meeting did).

my dear friend summer pierre is good at many things: engaging me in long conversations about sylvia plath and nabokov. she’s good with a whisk. she joins my lament for a blender. and she makes beautiful art. her brilliantly vibrant calendar is a testament to her talent: 365 days of facts about luminous women, 12 illustrations of women who’ve inspired her (anyone from joan didion to miranda july to frida kahlo) – the result: a spiral bound calendar which is both a celebration of her artistic talent and a nod to women who have influenced her work. so when i saw this image of miranda july as well as many other pieces in my friend’s studio (how she can be build a story on canvas), i thought about art and prose and it reinforced that the two mediums, like all things, are inevitably converging. there are no distinctions for me between canvas and paper.

i’ve been alicia paulson’s fan for a long time (snaps to alex for turning me on to her lucious handbags and darling wool flower pins). she fashions the softest sweater purses and her home is a visual wonderland. when i’m blue and unispired, i trek to alicia’s site for a daily dose of color! my home is still of want, and when i wondered upon alicia’s photo of her cabinets and her striking mugs, i gasped! i’m a tea junkie with a budding mug and tea-cup collection. i find myself picking up random pieces (nothing matches although i desperately want it to, but have since given in to the fact that a part of me likes disorder) – a butterfly mug here, a blue china one, there. but why not make tea whimisical with your friends who come over for a cookie and conversation. recently, i had a tea party and all the girls marveled at the scones, the plump biscuits and maine preserves (thanks, millwhistle) and nothing looked more sweet than a hodge-podge of mugs and the tea brewing in them. as each day passes, i’m making a conscious effort to bring some more whimsy and harmless chaos into my home. not all the plates have to match, the saucers to the cup. but there must be beauty and function, and miss paulson certainly inspires both.

*photos courtesy of summer pierre & alicia paulson, respectively

what inspires you?

Read: finished Marguerite Duras’ The War. Started Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (one word: stark)
Listen: Modest Mouse “I Came Like a Rat”
Watch: Hard Candy

This entry was posted on Monday, October 23rd, 2006 at 5:01 pm and is filed under daily murmurs, get crafty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.