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99 pages

English

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A guide to staying creatively curious in your own life, written by Brandon Stosuy (cofounder of The Creative Independent), with quotes and advice from artists across disciplines The second in a series of three guides dedicated to the practical and emotional sides of living a creative life, Stay Inspired explores how to grow an idea into a project and how to keep the spark of creativity present in your daily life. This guide poses a series of questions on themes of tapping into your own story and circumstances of inspiration, identifying your influences, finding inspiring communities, and initiating partnerships and collaborations. Working artists from all walks of life-musicians, authors, filmmakers, dancers, designers, and visual artists-offer their responses to the questions posed throughout the book, providing an inspirational framework for discovering new ideas, channeling your influences, and making work in conversation with others. Part memoir, part zine, part "how-to," and oral history, in Stay Inspired, author and curator Brandon Stosuy taps into an incredible network of talent to provide diverse (and diverging) perspectives on how creativity can be inspired and channeled into your independent work, collaborations, and communities. Includes quotes by: Hanif Abdurraqib, Carly Ayres, Matthew Barney, Kevin Beasley, Heather Benjamin, Michael Berdan, Matt Berninger, Annie Bielski, Beth Campbell, Vernon Chatman, George Clarke, Dennis Cooper, Patty Yumi Cottrell, Drew Daniel, Nika Roza Danilova, Meg Duffy, Sadie Dupuis, Dominick Fernow, Roxane Gay, Sarah Gerard, Ioanna Gika, Richard Hell, Hermione Hoby, Matthew Day Jackson, Sarah Kinlaw, Christopher Y. Lew, Ling Ma, Melissa Auf der Maur, Shanekia McIntosh, Eileen Myles, Aparna Nancherla, Maggie Nelson, Clementine Nixon, Valentine Nixon, Sara Quin, JD Samson, Lavender Suarez, Darcie Wilder, Jess Williamson, Shawna X

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Publié par	ABRAMS BOOKS
Date de parution	25 mai 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781647003777
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	3 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0777€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Editor: Hayley Salmon
Freelance Editor: Karrie Witkin
Designers: Kristian Henson and Jenice Kim
Production Manager: Larry Pekarek
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020944921
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4652-9
eISBN: 978-1-64700-377-7
Text 2021 Brandon Stosuy
Cover 2021 Abrams
Published in 2021 by Abrams Image, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.
Abrams Image books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact specialsales@abramsbooks.com or the address below.
Abrams Image is a registered trademark of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
ABRAMS The Art of Books 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007 abramsbooks.com
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Background and Beginnings
Chapter 2: Idols and Influences
Chapter 3: Curiosity and Research
Chapter 4: Community and Collaboration
Acknowledgments
Introduction
There s a mythological artist that I sometimes wonder about-someone who goes in and knows exactly what the work is and follows the formula and has it all figured out. That mythological life seems easier. It s also antithetical to all of my interests-the creative process itself, play, discovery, and push/pull around the idea of too much.
Annie Bielski (Visual artist, writer)

A line gets framed somehow, and whether I m watching a movie or outside or just woke up, I have to immediately write it down. Sometimes I can tell when I m going to write a poem, like I m in a state. But the only ritual for poetry is a kind of attentiveness, being aware of myself and not letting a line dissipate.
Eileen Myles (Poet, writer, author of Chelsea Girls, Cool for You )
There s a stereotypical notion of inspiration. In that scenario you may see a flash of light or some kind of mystical visitation; you re struck by an idea and creativity flows from you, uncontrollably, as if you re possessed. This has never happened to me. Inspiration is more complex and complicated than that, and usually not quite so dramatic. Which isn t to say it s less magical: Finding an idea you want to keep and continue to grow is exciting.
The thunderbolt notion of inspiration, while poetically appealing, is a bit passive. The process of inspiration, which takes time and trial and error, is active. So let s begin by removing the idea of inspiration as something happening to you and reframe it as something you can make happen .
Real-life inspiration involves problem-solving, playing, researching, reworking, and engaging in a variety of ways. Consider it a kind of curiosity: Something piques your interest and you feel compelled to pursue it further, to understand it better. You try to be attentive to the everyday. You think about your past. You talk to friends. Sometimes, inspiration emerges via another person or many other people. When everything s working, it s a state of creative flow or imaginative play.
When talking with writer Maggie Nelson for my website, The Creative Independent, she said to me: It s key to keep finding new things that inspire and not just melting into some broken record of how things went for you. * She s right.
Something I ve learned from personal experience is that when you do find your central concerns-the things that inspire you-you return to them over and over. But try not to get mired in them: Inspiration provides the fuel for pushing forward and finding newer pockets and outlets for your interests and concerns. Use the things that speak to you as signposts to help you figure out where to go next in life. If you keep following them, you ll discover a larger world of like-minded people and creative possibilities beyond your imagination.
As a teenager, living in a small farming town in New Jersey, I felt isolated from any kind of creative outlet until I discovered punk. Even after finding it, I was removed from a scene. Then I spotted some graffiti on the side of a small building in my hometown: It was the mascot of the punk band the Misfits, and it became a sign and invocation to keep exploring punk and to find others who were into it, too. I started seeking out punk bands in the area and putting together shows in the field behind my house. I embarked on the kind of work that I continue to do in the present.
Thirty years later, while working on this book, I learned that Melissa Auf der Maur-one of my long-standing collaborators-had also been deeply inspired by the Misfits. Melissa and I have been producing a music and arts festival, Basilica Soundscape, together since 2011. Melissa played bass for Hole and Smashing Pumpkins, and at one point worked on a duet with Glenn Danzig, the Misfits lead singer. Somehow, I never knew about that. Learning this helped explain our immediate connection back when we first met. As kids, we d been attracted to a similar mythology and music, and I like to think that by following some of the same signs, our paths brought us to working together.
I ve spent the majority of my adult life in cities, but while writing this book, I ended up relocating to a farm in rural Pennsylvania for a few months. Watching my kids, who ve lived their entire young lives in Brooklyn, get a version of my childhood experience was inspiring. It reopened a lot of things I d forgotten about and had me digging deep into my knowledge base for things I never had to teach them in Brooklyn: identifying poison ivy, the proper way to pick blueberries, how to remove a tick, why you shouldn t pick up a snapping turtle, and how to shoot a BB gun. It s been eye-opening to see that the kind of environment I d found stifling as a kid has been so enriching for them.
It s also been a reminder not to dismiss our own experiences, as small or boring as they may seem, and to also slow down and appreciate what you have on hand, right there around you. What may seem obvious or quotidian to you is new and unfamiliar to someone else.
A Kind of Motivation
Stay Inspired offers a series of strategies for unblocking mental barriers and finding new ways to approach your creative work. When I m inspired, I feel a genuine connection to something. I want to explore it more. It s an instinctively generative feeling. I think of being inspired as a sense of momentum, of moving forward and building on experiences, and forging my own path in life. It goes beyond making art.
What is your own relationship to inspiration right now? Maybe you have too many ideas and are having trouble following through on any of them. Maybe you haven t experienced a state of creative flow in a while and worry that you re running out of ideas. Are you bored? Unchallenged? Or is this a particularly challenging time? If you ve been disrupted or need to make a change, being inspired is the perfect state of mind for problem-solving and figuring out where to go next.
Before we go further, let s begin with a few questions to define your entry point in this process:
Do you want to generate new ideas or are you juggling too many? Are you unsure about how to begin a creative project or where to take it next?
Describe how you feel when you are genuinely engaged and inspired (or the last time you felt that way). What is the situation and what are you doing?
Why is it important to you to stay inspired?

Stay Inspired is the second volume in a three-part series that is designed to demystify the creative process and guide people through different aspects of a creative life. I divided this book into four chapters, each one representing a different path for coming up with ideas and building on them: Background and Beginnings, Idols and Influences, Curiosity and Research, and Community and Collaboration.
In each section, I offer my own stories, while weaving in advice, revelations, and experiences of different types of working artists, including musicians, authors, filmmakers, dancers, designers, and visual artists. There are a number of different voices here, suggesting a wide variety of approaches to getting inspired. As I did with the first book in the series, Make Time for Creativity , I approached friends and people I ve collaborated with at one time or another with the aim of making the book feel like a community gathering.
Their thoughts led me to create prompts to help you meditate, and act upon, staying inspired. That s a huge part of this: Nobody s approach will be exactly the same as yours, and it shouldn t be. What s important to keep in mind as you read Stay Inspired , is that you are finding ways to unlock your own creative flow. For most artists that I know, this is an ongoing and cyclical process.
There won t be lightning bolts, but l hope you experience more than a few flashes of insight.
Let s begin.
* Stosuy, Brandon, Interview: Maggie Nelson, The Creative Independent, December 29, 2016.
Chapter 1 : Background and Beginnings
I want to stay excited in my writing and artmaking, and I always want to be a beginner in some way. I must be curious to find out what I can and can t do. And I guess I must have some kind of deep confidence in my talent, or maybe, I mean, in the power of my interest to make something.
Dennis Cooper (Writer, author of The George Miles Cycle, The Sluts, My Loose Thread )

In this chapter, we ll look closely at ourselves as a resource for creative inspiration. We ll look at our origins, the specifics of where we came from, and the things around us that first grabbed our attention.
We re beginning here, with our enthusiasms and limitations, and we ll use both to define a point of view that s 100 percent our own. You might feel some resistance to this kind of self-focus, and that s totally normal. Perhaps you re thinking there s nothin