Self-actualized Artist

What causes inspiration?

The easy answer is, from inside your imagination. Somewhere inside your head, something inside - a thought, a turn of phrase, an image - collides with something else, and you get Clockwork Nazis or Talking Gorilla Super-spies.

That’s the easy answer. And not completely accurate, either. Anyone who gives you that answer, I challenge, is someone who hasn’t really, truly, been in the depths of something truly inspiring. An idea that GRABS you and WON’T LET GO, EVER!!!, until you write it down or sketch it out or whatever your artistic outlet is, because all you can think of is this one concept, be it an image or a line of dialogue or a scene to be acted or a photo essay on the vampires of Montreal.

The ancient Greeks believed two things of the Muses: that they were goddesses, and that they were demons. The Muses were goddesses that inspired artists and through them created great works of art. The Muses were demons that would not let the artist sleep, eat, live, until the work of art was completed, taking over his life and working him harder than the worst slave owner ever worked a slave.

That’s inspiration. That’s what I’m talking about. Where does that obsessiveness come from? Why does the artistic temperament submit to it so willingly? Why is it so elusive, only striking when least expected?

If it comes from within, why does it drive us to ignore our basic bodily needs - sleep, food, the elimination of wastes? As thinking, rationale humans, we should be able to ignore that drive long enough to remember to eat, to go to bed when we are tired, to go and take a damn piss for crying out loud.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs explains that human beings have five basic needs: Physiological, Safety, Love, Esteem, and Self-Actualization. I submit that artists in the thrall of their Muse are, in fact, reaching beyond mere physiological, safety, and love needs, and fulfilling their needs for esteem and self-actualization, although that requires a level of self-awareness few artists during the act of creation actually possess. They are fulfilling their esteem needs in that they are mastering their chosen craft - which constitutes self-esteem - and perhaps one day, once the artwork is revealed, will gain the esteem of others, in form of the admiration of their peers.

But self-actualization - becoming the person one truly is - is more elusive. It requires self-awareness of one’s actions and motivations. In the case of an artist, it means submitting completely to one’s Muse, in order to become the artist one truly is. That level of submission to one’s obsession is difficult at best, often impossible. It becomes an inner war, as the artist allows self-doubt in their abilities and their Muse to wrest control from the Muse, and thus lose the self-actualizing inspiration.

To be self-actualized as an artist, it is necessary to create, at all times, whenever possible... to give in to the Muse’s desire to create.