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Writers are always looking for things to enhance our creative output. We worry about whether we write best early in the morning or late at night; we fret about whether reading other novels while working on our own is inspiring or distracting; we deliberate over getting our admin out of the way first, or leaving it till afterwards... But what about location? Which is more inspiring - the city or the countryside?
© wOOkie
My writer friend loves the garret. She loves the idea of an eyrie high above the city, far enough away from the madding crowds that she feels slightly apart, yet aware that all of life is unfolding in the streets below. She feels it’s important to be able to observe things from a distance – to witness the rest of life passing by. My friend can’t imagine anything worse than writing in the countryside. Nothing happens there, she says. © Tony Atkin
But perhaps you just need to look a little closer. I spent some time writing from a clapped-out static caravan that was quietly disintegrating in a field of weeds. There was certainly a loneliness about it. But once the quiet descends it becomes apparent that life is ever-changing here, too. In my caravan there were spiders everywhere. The nettles grew tall, right up to the window sills, and the grass around the deck was chest-high and thrumming with insect life. At night I stood outside and saw a million stars in the huge sky and I began to be aware of life passing on both a very small and a very large scale. Perhaps both the city and the countryside can offer the same sort of inspiration - and the same opportunity to sit slightly apart from life a little, to observe it. Perhaps it’s this awareness of the impermanence of life that inspires us to want to capture some of it and keep it safe between the pages of a book, like a pressed flower.
This makes for quite an interesting voyage!
Working on fun things this week. Starting with a fun little spread about a family of birds. I love that I get to flex some background work in this one..I always loved working on buildings and such.
More work talk of work to come.
Until then Happy Week!
By: Mike Cressy,
on 1/29/2013
Blog:
Sugar Frosted Goodness
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"The Mayor of Simple Town"
Here's a very recent doodle. I seem to be drawing a lot of fantasy towns lately, I think it's all part of the way my mind works with escapism.
Strange to say, much as I love the natural world my imagination tends to be most energized when I'm in a crowded, urban city environment. I love the country, exploring forests and craggy landscapes, but if I spend too long away from the city my imagination is dulled. My mind perhaps feeds off the surroundings but rarely goes beyond, I become relaxed and inspired by oneness with nature, but that's as far as it goes.
In the city however I'm always mentally escaping, my imagination is constantly finding ways to soar beyond the concrete or seeking escapism within it. It's that switching-off from reality, a yearning to escape the shackles of the town that really motivates my fantasy vision.
It's a paradox that although my art is closely connected to the natural world I need the city for my creative vision to soar. In essence I need both - no trees: no vision, but no city: no escapism. The more concrete, the more inhuman the environment, the more I seek humanity in my art. Many of the greatest fantasy artists are often from very urban backgrounds, it can be said that city dwellers really appreciate the fantastic properties of the natural world because they yearned for these things when they grew up. Fantasy for them is a magical release from the humdrum.
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how cute!
What an extremely insightful observation. This wonderful Fantasy City has the makings of a story just waiting to come soaring from its center.
This makes a lot of sense. Something that your sketch reminds me of, too, is the beauty that results from the natural world reclaiming parts of cities: trees breaking through footpaths, vines smothering walls, birds and bats and wasps nesting under eaves.