Victor Hugo (1802-1885), the eminent French writer reflects on his life and works :

For half a century I have been writing thoughts in prose, verse, history, drama, romance, tradition, satire, ode and song…but I feel I have not said a thousandth part of that which is within me.

Language remains insufficient to convey the stream of thoughts or the flow of creative imagination. The richness of the inner experience is squeezed in a few words while the rest of the content is excluded. Victor Hugo’s insightful saying “ a writer is a world trapped in a person ”  is sublimely captured in Auguste Rodin’s (1840-1917) sculpture :

From writing, sculpture, and painting to dancing and music, artists and writers refer to “ inspiration”  being the supreme agent of creation.

Maurice Bejart ( 1927-2007), the outstanding choreographer and dancer, in his letter to a young dancer alludes to the inspirational source of the poetry, love and tenderness of dancing :

I could not believe that God would know how to dance.

Claude Monet (1840-1926), founder of French impressionism was inspired by the “ water landscapes” and gardens. He said in wonderment :

One instant, one aspect of nature contains it all.

Having dedicated more than thirty years of his life to painting waterlilies, he created his own tranquil landscape in Giverny, France for reflection and for mastering his art to perfection. He was seasonally remodeling the gardens surrounding his house to portray the subtle reflections of light on the face of the waters. He would say :

I’m good for nothing except for painting and gardening.  

Such was the source and breadth of his perpetual inspiration. His passion for both art and gardening cultivated the meaning of life for Monet.

Gina Gibney, the artistic director of New York based dance company genuinely expresses her inner state from where art flows:

I make art for a few reasons. In life, we experience so much fragmentation of thought and feeling. For me, creating art brings things back together.

In my own work, that is true throughout the process. At the beginning, developing the basic raw materials for the work is deeply reflective and informative. Later, bringing those materials together into a form—distilling and shaping movement, creating a context, working to something that feels cohesive and complete. That’s incredibly powerful for me—something that really keeps me going.

 

Dance is a powerful art form for the very reason that it doesn’t need to explain or comment on itself. One of the most amazing performances I have ever seen in my life was of a woman—a domestic violence survivor—dancing in a tiny conference room in a domestic violence shelter for other survivors. She was not a professional dancer. She was a woman who had faced unbelievable challenges and who was living with a great deal of sadness.  She created and performed an amazing solo—but to have described her performance as “sad” would have been to diminish what we experienced.

That’s the power of dance. You can feel something and empathize with it on a very deep level, and you don’t have to put words to it.

Ludwig van Beethoven’s answer to the question  “ Why make music ? ”  is surely among most sublime answers to the question of  why he makes this art:

“ Music is the mediator between the spiritual and sensual life. ”

Duygu Bruce
September 10, 2019