Tozak Filming

There’s a quote from Julia Cameron’s, The Artist’s Way, that I think about a lot when I see my work being influenced by other art. The quote itself is not from Cameron, it’s from Aaron Copland and it is mentioned at the beginning of the book. It goes…

“Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness–I wouldn’t know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness.” 

I love the term ‘superconsciousness’. It perfectly evokes what I feel when I use other art as inspiration for my own. And I think the quote hints at something important for artists to think about when it comes to the creative process.

The source of art, I believe, is a universal source that is connected to everyone to some degree or another. The cultivation of our connection to this creative valley is what I am most fascinated with. I imagine the spirits in the creative world using a sort of morse code to communicate ideas for art to us artists. Almost like little puzzle pieces in the form of ideas we get over time, which create the final puzzle of the art we are making.

When we have a strong reaction or resonance to a particular piece of art – whether it be a scene in a film, a line in a book, a shadow in a painting – it feels as if there is something more happening. You know what I’m talking about. It’s when you watch a scene in a film and you can’t stop thinking about it. You keep rewatching it. You ponder the enigma of it. It touched your soul and left an eternal imprint on it.

It’s almost as if the artist was tapping into the language of a collective consciousness and your heart clearly understood that.

This would be the superconsciousness. 

I believe that our connections to particular pieces of art can teach us a lot about who we are as individual artists and where our role is in the superconsciousness of art.

There’s a reason why that song strikes a cosmic chord within you. There’s a reason why you can’t stop thinking about the ending to that book. You can’t really explain it but you can feel it so vividly. 

My girlfriend, Luiza, put it so brilliantly when talking about the piano piece Clair de Lune (which just came up on shuffle – hence why I thought to mention this).

She said that the combination of notes and pacing and every little detail is a mystery, but it makes sense to her soul. 

That’s what it is. It makes sense to our soul even if we can’t detect the reasons with our senses. And our soul has the answers within for explaining this connection. We can explore this mysterious enigmatic relationship between art and our innermost being.

I have talked quite a bit about inspiration on my Instagram pages. In one video, I talked about picking a moment in music that speaks to you. Maybe a small moment in a song that stands out as pure beauty. Journal about it to explore that connection. Understand why it inspires your inner artist and what that connection says about you. Why do you feel so strongly for that moment? How could it help you create art that resonates with you? 

I am a huge champion of creating mood boards. These will help you organize specific inspirations for your art. Create a visual montage of images from art that is similar to the piece of art you’re making. It could be similar in style, tone, story, etc. Simply look at this mood board while you listen to music that evokes what you are trying to create. Let the sparks fly and write down any ideas to come. This has been an effective way for me to attract creative ideas.

I truly do believe it is extremely important for artists to be conscious about all the art that inspires you.

• What are the posters you hang up?
• What are your favorite songs?
• What movies do you have stills of in your photo album? 

You know these answers. The art that makes you think, “Wow, how are humans capable of creating something so beautiful?”

What does the fact that this art speaks to you so deeply say about who you are? Why do you believe you connect so deeply with this specific art? What does it say about your artistic mission? What does it say about your inner artist? What about your inner child?

You know all of the answers to these questions as well. They are somewhere within.

There is a great power that lies in consciously using other art as inspiration for your own art. You are connecting to the superconsciousness. You are playing your part to the fullest in this universal game of art. 

You can see clear references in some art to other pieces of art and there’s a reason for this. Some part of the artist resonated with that other art so deeply that it had to appear in their own art. There is of course a balance between copying and referencing art. But don’t get caught up in worrying about your art copying something else. I believe it’s more important to create what you naturally want to create than to be overthinking about whether you’re just writing Pulp Fiction in your handwriting. 

You know how the marvel cinematic universe movies overlap all the characters in the avengers movies? We see all the individual movies of different characters but they’re all in the same universe within the world of the film. I think about this with all movies. I see every movie I watch as in the same universe (maybe a different dimension or timeline haha).

Each artist, writer, director, is here on Earth creating their films.

They are in the same universe as every other human director creating their film. In this way, for me, every movie is connected in some way or another. Like every human is connected here on Earth. And this extends to all art of course. Each character stems from some archetype floating around in the universal superconsciousness. 

Being aware of your role in this superconsciousness can help you understand more about yourself and the deeper truths of the art you create. 

That lovely feeling you get from that art you experience is possible for you to recreate through your own art. What will it be?