We all get ideas for artworks in different ways. The starting point I mean. I’d love to hear where you get yours. Here are some of the ways in which creativity is awakened. Which of these resonated with you?
- A brief from a client or a request from a friend
- A competition or exhibition with a theme
- A beautiful or meaningful piece of text /poetry
- An event or a response to an event
- A word
- Another artist’s work (Some people begin a piece of calligraphy by flipping through Letter Arts Review. I did the illustrations for Rope of Words inspired by a sculpture I had seen)
- A scene – perhaps like the Black Swans yesterday
- An object – like a beautiful flower
- and many more…
Here is a brief I was recently given for a collaboration: I had to write the word so that it could be scanned onto a photo of a wall. I’ll receive a copy of book of everyone’s contributions.
The word is fruscio (rustling, whispering). It is the sound of the wind in the trees. When you spell it out loud, you can really hear it. Everybody loves it. In the Bosco della Ragnaia, my garden in San Giovanni d’Asso, in Tuscany, the word is carved in stone. So people can hear it too, even though maybe it is not present
How would you write this word? There is no right or wrong and dozens of solutions.
Lin,
One of the poems I wrote went in part, like this:
The wind in the trees,
for the trees’ circulation, excitation, pulse and ease
blow the winds through the trees.
My English professor always wanted me to remove a word in that long line, and I said no, the flow is there. I absolutely love the wind in the trees. When they put me under the ground, I really hope there is a tree around, so the wind will blow and swoosh and rustle through it. Peaceful. Wise tree. Wise wind. Wise Father Wind Maker. Maybe that is a book for me to write! Wise Father Wind Maker. Yop.
Hi Carol
This is beautiful and you have a gift with words. I am glad that “fruscio” inspired you.
Lin