To Be A Willing Creator

We work in the dark – we do what we can – we give what we have.

Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is

the madness of art.

Henry James 1843-1916: ‘The Middle Years’ (1893)

The passionate task of art … which of us as artists wishes not to be a slave to his or her art form, we wrestle with it and try to throw it to the ground, we have all lost sleep trying to achieve the perfection of a given moment within, we beg to the Gods for a moment of clarity.

 

I myself have been driven mad with the desire to create … to give unto the world a birth of something of my soul, at times it comes unbidden, it seems to ooze out of every pore, it will interupt your life as if to say “Listen up you … I am here, present and ready … now get to work!”. But there are times … times of the screaming inside your head at the nature of this elusive beast, this fickle creature who plagues your existence with the lure of beauty to be held in your mind for one second and gone the next.

 

It is true, creating art is a labour, she is a hard task master … but the reward, ahhh the reward, whether it be paint or clay, stone or film, written word or twisted wire, the reward to the artist is the feeling of being at once parent and partner; in bringing the light of the world onto it, the full realization that you have given to the world your form of gift. For it is a gift you bear, and you have birthed into existence, for I don’t believe any artist would ever not agree … some pieces are as children being loosed in the world, and the chips fall as they may.

 

So now that I have given into that creature inside of me, now that I have allowed it its’ moment of rant … now I can go back to the process of waiting for the inspiration to knock on my minds door, and maybe, just maybe I will be given the release I seek, the joy of witness, the lusting complete.

 

Glenn David Clarke 03/29/11