I really felt devoid of inspiration the other day. I looked through my notebooks, usually full of little ideas that get my brain started - nothing 'caught'. It was like fishing a trout stream with nothing biting, no matter how many times I cast my line.
So instead, I looked through a directory of images I've accumulated over time. Many are landscapes; some are architectural shots; but the ones I was looking for were those showing small moments of narrative.
Two men are talking on a quay; behind them, a huge crane.
A woman comes into a room; her shirt is open.
A huge apartment. A bed, unmade. Clothes on the floor. (True, no people in this one.)
A student climbing a massive gilded statue. What's she going to do when she gets to the top? Unfurl a banner? Get her photo taken? Why is she climbing?
Sometimes art history gets in the way. I don't really want to know the story behind the painting; I have to reinterpret it myself. I don't want Diana and Actaeon to be about a man turned into a deer and ripped to shreds by his own hounds for daring to look at the goddess; I want it to be about... I don't know, maybe myths of Cernunnos the Lord of Beasts, something about "beastliness" in a positive sense; perhaps I want Actaeon to have just realised Diana is more interested in the nymphs than she is in him...
Every writer should have a notebook. But every writer should have a scrapbook, too.
So instead, I looked through a directory of images I've accumulated over time. Many are landscapes; some are architectural shots; but the ones I was looking for were those showing small moments of narrative.
Two men are talking on a quay; behind them, a huge crane.
A woman comes into a room; her shirt is open.
A huge apartment. A bed, unmade. Clothes on the floor. (True, no people in this one.)
A student climbing a massive gilded statue. What's she going to do when she gets to the top? Unfurl a banner? Get her photo taken? Why is she climbing?
Sometimes art history gets in the way. I don't really want to know the story behind the painting; I have to reinterpret it myself. I don't want Diana and Actaeon to be about a man turned into a deer and ripped to shreds by his own hounds for daring to look at the goddess; I want it to be about... I don't know, maybe myths of Cernunnos the Lord of Beasts, something about "beastliness" in a positive sense; perhaps I want Actaeon to have just realised Diana is more interested in the nymphs than she is in him...
Every writer should have a notebook. But every writer should have a scrapbook, too.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment