Huh?
No, no. I really meant the title as written. One of the best things about artists of all forms and mediums is they inspire not only the public but others artists. Writers, like all artists, get inspiration from the world around them. We can look at the checker, the couple on the beach, or the lost puppy turning the corner and feel something. Our form just happens to be words. Those images grow words to sentences to paragraphs to stories.
But, sometimes we forget to look to the other artists as other artists look at each other. A painter will look at a sculpture and see in color what the sculptor saw in metal or ceramic. Just the same we
should remember to look at the inspiration of others to find another source of inspiration for ourselves.
No, no. I really meant the title as written. One of the best things about artists of all forms and mediums is they inspire not only the public but others artists. Writers, like all artists, get inspiration from the world around them. We can look at the checker, the couple on the beach, or the lost puppy turning the corner and feel something. Our form just happens to be words. Those images grow words to sentences to paragraphs to stories.
But, sometimes we forget to look to the other artists as other artists look at each other. A painter will look at a sculpture and see in color what the sculptor saw in metal or ceramic. Just the same we
should remember to look at the inspiration of others to find another source of inspiration for ourselves. When I was still in school I learned this through a lesson the teacher passed out. She put down a stack of art magazines and had each student pick an image and write a short story. Mine was this cafe scene at night. There there was just the tender and a few lingering patrons. It was so fun to come up with the mystery story. One of the patrons poison the suited man's coffee. The police suspect all the patrons and it turns out in a twist ending to be the tender...
...Oops, diverted from my main point here. Getting back on track with my thoughts, try taking a look through some art magazines or better yet go visit some art districts or museum and see what ideas you come up with.
If you've already tried this technique, what great ideas have you come up with? I'd love to know.
Good writing...and imaging all!
I am an artist and I do almost the opposite, I look to writers and literature for inspiration. I've tried looking at other visual artists, but for some reason, photographs, paintings, drawings, are not able to give me the same inspiration as the written word. I love art, and paintings, and so on, otherwise I wouldn't be making them myself. And of course I have been influenced by some artists' visual style more than others, but when it comes to inspiration and artistic role models, I mainly look to literature and books. For me it's easier to come back to the oevre of an author over and over again, than it is to go back to the works of a painter, for instance.
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