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I have always loved reading about people and their lives. Fiction is a nice escape from reality, however, rather than diving into an imaginary world, I enjoy learning about how people with an imagination operate. I’m nosy like that . . . biographies, autobiographies, memoirs really float my boat.
In downtown Thomasville, there is a quaint little bookstore called The Bookshelf. It is a small gem I frequent when I am looking for a new cookbook. I appreciate its eclectic aesthetic and its damn near extinct idea of a place to buy actual, tangible books. With a kind and more than helpful staff, this little bookstore is definitely a field trip I look forward to taking.
Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey caught my eye a few days ago. It got me thinking about my own daily ritual. What do I do to inspire myself to create? What time of the day fuels my energy to create?
For the longest time, I had a hard time calling myself an artist because I wasn’t certain that I could wear that label. After much thought, I realized that being an artist wasn’t about creating for the sake of receiving kudos. It is more than that. It’s about living a beautiful life. It’s about being awake WITHIN your skill. Anyone can learn an artistry whether it be in the realm of painting, cooking, playing music, writing, science . . . you cannot live the beauty of creating unless you are awake within your artistry.
Daily Rituals is full of small tidbits of ways authors, artists, photographers, filmmakers, and scientists created their art. Patricia Highsmith, author of The Talented Mr. Ripley, ate American bacon and eggs at odd times of the day, chain-smoked, and had a shot of whiskey to calm her manic energy before writing. Thomas Wolfe would fondle his genitals to stoke up his creative energies. Some woke early and worked best before lunch, while others fared better into the late hours.
My ritual as an artist when I am here in Georgia? I wake, don’t get out of bed until I play a level of Bejeweled, have coffee, brainstorm, cook, write, nap, cook again, and then I dream. I am awake in what I do. What do you do?
