Blowin’ Over Them Changes
Riffing On Creativity, And Jazz Metaphors
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I love how all creative pursuits are interrelated. How one medium of expression is related to others, all the others.
We all have our preferred method, and medium of expression. But if we are truthful, we are influenced and inspired by others. Inspired by artists working in a great range of media and styles.
The image above was inspired by a jazz saxophonist, blowing a solo over the changes of a blues tune.
I know this to be true, and I am certain many would agree. Creative ideas are free floating in the ethers. Just waiting for one of us to pluck one out of the sky and hold it dear for a moment.
To turn it over, and over in our hands. To hear it speak to us. To feel it warm our heart. To imagine it expressed through our own individual style and medium. To feel it expressed through the tools we have chosen to use.
How often can a song inspire a painting? How often can a perfectly drawn line inspire a photograph? How often can a saxophone solo inspire a film?
And that’s the thing. All of this creative expression is divinely connected and woven through, all of the creative expressions living next door. Or living half a world away.
The connections can be made in the blink of an eye. We just have to be open and receptive. We just have to know our precious creations are part of a much larger whole.
It is too often thought that artists live in a vacuum. Inspired only by themselves. Though this view is a reflection of ego. True artists know better.
Artists that perpetrate this view end up repeating themselves over and over. They live in a small world, their own tiny world, a world of their own making.
Why settle for a handful of crumbs, when the entire world is on offer?
