By Kevin Lee Associate Editor

What feeds your muse?

Where does the lightbulb spark and your insights emerge into something new? What swings wide the doors of perception?

For some creativity is fickle, for others beneficent.

But what stirs it in you?

What feeds your muse?

Zach de Polo, visual artist

Other artists feed it. Things that are parallel to it, other intuitive arts like jazz or jam bands. You know there are things to it like picking a key and going with it and going through with it.

And the process itself is inspiring, just the state of mind you get into is a big part of the creativity.

Nick Frey, visual artist

I try and work all the time because I get my ideas while I’m working on something, either aesthetic or utilitarian because whether I intend to show it or not, it sparks ideas for new media I might not have utilized before. I always have projects going regardless of whether I ever intend to show them.

Gideon C. Kennedy, writer/director

So, what feeds my muse is research. When I have an idea and I’ve carried it around long enough to really feel like it may be good enough to execute, the research I do is what gives me further inspiration and motivation.

A couple of recent examples:

I just got done with a rough cut of a short (7-8 minute) documentary about Nixon’s visit to Mobile. I was originally inspired by some public domain photos that I could use and was initially going to just write something silly and fictional to go along with them. But in the course of researching the topic, I found the truth to be much more interesting and found new connections between seemingly disparate ideas. These new connections, which I feel are the point of most creative works, were strung together as I dug further into the available information. That’s where the eureka moments are formed. The rest is usually just about how to best convey that to your audience so that they go through something similar.

Once I had to write an article and really had little to no interest in the subject matter at hand. At first, it was like pulling teeth and I was a petulant child staring at his unfinished homework. But in the research I did, I found motivation to complete the task at hand. I found small points of interest on which to concentrate. Blinding myself with pages upon pages of information gave me both the confidence to write with some sense of authority and the impetus to keep going until the end of the project.

Casey Downing, visual artist

Hard to boil it down to anything other than life itself. The journey of my life is my muse. It could be something I see in the street, my experiences or something I see in my head.

Joyce Sylvester, singer

Being outside surrounded by nature, especially hearing the sounds of birds, encourages creativity for me.

John Milham, musician

Different things with environment being the biggest factor. If I’m able to be in environment without chaos, I can get more done. A routine helps if I can get up everyday and have all my stuff set up and ready to go, I write more as the days progress.

Going out on the road makes it hard. Actually performing is good as its some kind of release, but it’s not the same as sitting down and writing a piece.

Better health helps, too. You’d be surprised at what the stuff you eat can do to you.

Simeon Coxe, producer/visual artist

The Cosmic Crawfish!

In addition to the otherworldly source of his creativity, Simeon Coxe discussed upcoming changes at Gulf ArtSpace, the Baldwin Bauhaus in Fairhope. Coxe, a founder of the gallery-turned-artistic force, will curate the next big show, Mysteries, premiering Sept. 29.

At the show’s close, Coxe will take a hiatus in Japan. “I’m changing gears a little bit,” he said recently, “changing focus to the producer thing again.”

Coxe was an innovator in avant-garde music development reaching back over the prior four decades with a project deemed Silver Apples. “Silver Apples will still exist,” said Coxe, “but this is something else.”

Coxe has been in the booth guiding a protégé, One Cut Kill’s Adam Daedalus. “We’ve got six songs on a British label,” said Coxe, “and they want us to get out and get some other things done. I think it will probably keep me fresh.”

Coxe said Gulf honcho Dr. Lynn Yonge and the Gulf boards are implementing mild restructuring to compensate for his absence, but nothing too pressing or major. “In the long run, this could be healthier for the organization,” said Coxe, “because you know Gulf isn’t supposed to be about me or Lynn, it’s supposed to be something bigger.”

Kevin Lee is Lagniappe associate editor. Contact him at klee@lagniappemobile.com.

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