The Muse Of The Physical

An essential part of my approach is a moment of complete relaxation each time before I mark. This allows me to be sure the automatic movement that comes is authentic, that it is not an imitation of an idea of the movement. I sometimes forget this in my eagerness to do the work, but when I make sure I take a moment of rest in front of the art, I am again surprised by the vehemence and suddenness of the onset of the spontaneous movement.

Although I have been doing this for years, I recently made the association of that moment of emptiness being very similar to when a composer or writer purposefully releases all thought to allow more quiet and hopefully more profound voices to come through. This quiet passive listening is a technique surely used over the ages. It is a way to cultivate inspiration and connection to “The Muses”, an anthropomorphization of that shrouded internal space from whence ideas emerge.

Most artists have done this in finding intriguing images, words, musical passages. as have I. In this case what emerges are ideas and mental images. It is a mental notion of which the artist will take note, transcribe and emulate as best they can. However for me what emerges is not mental, it is physical.

This seems an obvious association but perhaps why the thought has not been so prominent with me is the concept that the body and mind are so divergent. And the judgement that we can safely be witnesses to the free flowing movement of the mind, where as spontaneous movements within our body represents a suspicious loss of control. However this flowing movement of the mind we can also observe as spontaneous and really beyond our knowing input, hence the concept of “The Muses” as an outside influence.

It seems a radical interpretation, but describing my spontaneous movements as physical inspiration may more be about challenging the concept of the separation of mind and body. Outside of this concept, the association seems apparent, and I believe in many cultures such a demonstration of physical inspiration would not be in question.

I am thinking this could be a very suitable description of what I do, and the association of psychological inspiration to physical inspiration at the creative level seems very clear to follow. Although I do not interpret mental imagery or work from any such emulation, physical inspiration is the muse from which comes the imagery I make.