The main question interviewers ask artists and poets is

“Where’s your inspiration come from?”

The response tends to be artists that influenced them or what their work is about.

But is that really answering the question?

I think all artists can agree that inspiration comes from within,

since our perceptions are reflections of ourselves,

but what IS inspiration and how do you get it? How do you KEEP it?

The Senses: Touch, Taste, Sight, Sound, Smell

If our perceptions (the way we view the world) are the subject of our work, then our senses are doorways that open us up to receive the message.

Ever see the movie “Dead Poets Society?”

Remember when Robin Williams blindfolded the student and turned him in circles to freestyle a poem?

He’s doing sensory work to unlock that poet’s potential.

By blocking off the distraction of his sight, the poet was able to “see” clearer.

The famous poet Arthur Rimbaud believed heavily in sensory work.

Through letters to his publishers, he writes about exploration in the senses where he didn’t just play with blocking off one sense (like sight) but also zoning in on the senses to heighten his perception.

He believed so much in sensory work that he stopped calling himself a poet and started calling himself a “see-er.”

If our senses are the doorways allowing us to create, then they’re the key to inspiration.

If you’re walking through life numb, or haven’t unlocked your senses then your doors are cracked or worse, shut.

You’re A Vessel For The Muse

Inspiration doesn’t strike - it’s a constant current. You train yourself, through the senses, to reach in and out of that current.

Everything is a prompt.

Inspiration is everywhere.

If you’ve been keeping yourself a vessel for the muse by working with your senses, you can find meaning, ie: metaphor, memory and relation in anything.

All the way from a blade of grass to a sink full of dirty dishes.

Many artists sit around, waiting for something to happen, for the “divine download.”

But when you’re proactive in vessel work, you don’t have to wait.

You create more frequently, find more joy, self discovery and you’re able to heighten the level of your work.

Everything you interact with becomes meaningful on a deeper level.

Imagine touching a wooden railing, if you aren’t paying attention to the feel of the wood consciously, you’d think nothing of it.

But when you’re zoning in on the sense of touch - the railing resembles the feel of your grandmother’s hands. You’ve found a relation, a memory to the sense.

Something as simple as a wooden railing becomes so much more and you’ve found gratitude in the feel of the wood. In turn, you’re appreciating life, your body for being able to feel texture.

It’s like taking your experience from 40% to 100%.

Our lives are so busy, there’s so many experiences we take for granted daily.

I hear people talk about how they want to practice being present more.

Being present means being completely focused on what’s happening right now in front of you,

which can be difficult at first.

We’re constantly focused on the future or carrying the past.

But through practice it becomes easier and faster.

If you’re just starting and working on the sense of sight by focusing in on a glass sitting on a table in front of you, it may take an hour to find meaning in what you see.

But if you remain aware of your senses and practice blocking everything else out, the connections will come faster and your gratitude for life will grow with it.

When you see beauty and meaning in everything, you’ll find overwhelming gratitude and joy.

From someone who’s struggled with depression, I’m telling you, it works.

What Goes Into Vessel Work?

There’s another layer to being a vessel for the muse that’s just as important as sensory work and it’s about lifestyle.

I went to perform at a show in Aiken South Carolina this week and was excited because I got to hang out with poet Derek Berry from Charleston.

I love his work, and one of the things I told him was how much I respect the way he lives his life.

Artist lives are different.

There’s things we need to seek out like new experiences, places and people.

If you want to interpret life, you got to go live it.

And be fully in it.

There’s a “letting go” that all artists have to do in order to remain open to the muse. The letting go is allowing yourself to be submerged into the experience.

Derek does this very well and it shows by how vivid, raw and visceral his language is.

You can tell he’s experiencing the moment he’s writing about at 100%.

If he were to write about a dove on a branch, it wouldn’t just be a brown bird on a brown tree.

It would be a thrusting heart of joy singing to a clawing sky.

That’s the difference between work that resonates at a small frequency, to one that pulses, pounds, breaks the doors down and sweeps people into the experience.

When you adventure into life with curiosity and desire to cultivate whatever’s there, you’ll always find something to turn into art.

Let me be clear, I’m not saying do anything reckless…

Some artists think by introducing themselves to drugs for stimuli they put out better work but they miss the point.

I was at a friend’s house once in college and I saw a beautiful piece of art hanging on the wall.

I asked him “Did you paint this? It’s beautiful, what was your message?”

He replied “Oh that, I don’t know I was on acid when I done it.”

He missed his own experience.

Beauty without meaning is like froth on a cappuccino, yeah it’s pretty, but the good stuff that makes your heart pound is underneath the foam.

There’s also artists that use how different their lifestyle is as an excuse to do whatever they want.

Kerouac was an amazing writer, but he was a deadbeat dad and put several women through the ringer.

Just because you’re different, doesn’t mean you get a pass at being a crappy person.

That’s why many of those artists fluctuate between beautiful joy and tortured artist.

It’s a form of self sabotage.

Everything is a Relationship

If the Muse were a woman…

How are you treating her?

Do you get mad when she shows up at the “wrong time” or do you constantly complain that she’s never around when you want her to be when in reality she’s standing right in front of you?

Do you make statements like “it hurts to write about this” when really it’s therapy and you and her both know you’re gonna feel better after?

It’s like having sex and complaining the whole time, only after to say “man that was great.”

She’s gonna be like, what???

These things seem small, but they effect your subconscious.

You’re training your brain to have a love hate relationship with your work.

Be mindful in how you speak about inspiration aka the muse.

Treat her right, appreciate her and she’ll never leave you.