What to do when inspiration fails in the artist's life?

This story might help you to overcome writers block.

Recently I was walking with my girlfriend Anita. We were talking about our lives. And she said she feels lack of inspiration to create new artwork.

Having known her for the last three years, I know about some of the changes that she's been through recently. She switched jobs. Her two sons moved out to live on their own. I moved in with her, just to name some of the changes. I would have thought "how much more inspiration does one need?"

We were talking a bit more about what inspiration means. Then i suggested that she uses this lack of inspiration as a source for her work. My thoughts went along these lines: artwork is an expression of a person with the intention of finding out about feelings inside that need to come out before the person can relate to them.

Anita said the feelings inside relate to desire. She imagined when these desires were satisfied, soon after there would be new desires, and a new cycle would begin.

I asked her if the desire to end desire might also be a desire. She nodded, and then i suggested that she could end her desire to end desire by ending her desiring to end desire. I call this "saying yes", and my quote that goes with it is "I want whatever I get".

Of course she knows all this, we've had these conversations many times. Still, every moment is new, and so we co-create a mutual understanding by not knowing if what we say holds truth for us, the two people that are new to each other and to themselves each and every second.

Dear reader, would you accept the suggestion that resistance is the food for change? Seeking ways out, avoiding to paying attention, resisting change. Is this really possible?

Anita's position is paradoxical. She believes her inspiration fails. But when she uses this lack of inspiration as a source for her artwork, then what is inspiration?

Best regards, Ron

Experiencing the three dimensions of persistence

This article expands on one of my previous articles, Movements in bilocality

The basic word in persistence is : sistence

Three dimensions of sistence are :

1. 
   The first dimension is the mind. Mind can only see borders. These are experienced as apparently opposites: parts of a whole that the mind can never experience.
   The opposites are : "in" and "ex".
   So there is in-sistence and ex-sistence.
   
   Note that the etymology of the word existent (without the extra 's') is from Latin exsistent-, exsistens, present participle of exsistere
   
   
   
2. 
   The second dimension is the body. Body can not see (= create) form, instead it can only feel content. This content is felt as one whole. The body can never experience the parts of this whole.
   The whole is : "re".
   So there is re-sistence experienced from the body, which is the swing of "in-sistence" and "ex-sistence" as experienced by the mind.
   
   From the mind perspective, re-sistence is the pause at the end of each part of the swing. Breathing in and out (= ex), the buddhists contemplate this pause in this swing as the entrance / exit to another dimension.
   
   To fully understand the relativity of perspective, consider mind and body as bilocality : two apparently opposite perspectives on one and the same area.
   To insist is the opposite movement from exsist
   Insistence plus existence are together the feeling of resistence
   Insistence / resistence / existence / resistence = the four seasons, the full cycle of breathing
   
   
3. 
   The third dimension is that which mind and body co-create. It is a feeling of growth, of "moving forward", an experience of something that "shines through" the outer appearance. Like annual rings on a tree, the tree's recordings of its "ex/re/in/re" cycles
   This forward thing is "per"
   So we have per-sistence as the third dimension
   
   

Now you try, using these three dimensions, with other basic (movement) words like

• press: in-press, ex-press, re-press, per-press.
  
• tend: in-tend, ex-tend, re-tend, per-tend.
  
• cite: in-cite, ex-cite, re-cite, per-cite.
  

You will find that some words are yet non-existing.
Perhaps you find other things, that you would like to share ?

Best regards, Ron
woepwoep@gmail.com