Friday, October 3, 2008

WHAT INSPIRES AN ARTIST TO CREATE?

And Who Shall Parent Our Children? Etching. Image about 9 x 12."

A Marbelizing technique was used in this etching. The method is the same as described in the previous post.

The idea was one I had pondered about for a long time. I had worked for a long while as a social worker with deprived families, and encountered more teen age mothers than I liked. So many young mothers love their children, and yet they are still children themselves. Often they have not had time to prepare to be responsible for themselves, let alone their small children.

My own sorrow for their problems cried out for some way to vent itself, and using images was an effective one for me. I did not judge them, but wanted to draw attention to the problem, so perhaps, someone viewing the image would try to intervene and one more young girl would not get pregnant.

Art, for me is not simply about aesthetics. The emotional feeling stimulated by a situation or idea empowers the making of art.

With poetry, this seems true as well. There may be a direct connection between emotion and being able to express an art form. When trying to write, having a strong emotion about the subject enables a connection with the intuitive side, so that words (and images) come into consciousness, and serve almost as a vocabulary for expression. Images seem to be the first language... the preverbal state of awareness.

I am very interested to know, do other kinds of stimuli inspire other artists to express themselves? What are the conditions under which your best art work or writing occur?

All images and writing are the sole property of Ruth Zachary.

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