Artistic Inspiration: Initiation of an Artistic Communication

Abstract

The article is an attempt to answer the question: When and why is artistic communication initiated?
The analysis which leads to the final conclusion was conducted on the basis of an autoethnographic analysis of the process of creating Pomnik Początków Miasta Łodzi (Monument to the Beginnings of Łódź). Its main element was the search for the border between the pre-creative and the creative states during an artist’s work. The analysis indicated that: “Regardless of whether I am working on a sculpture which was commissioned or a sculpture for myself, the processes of triggering precreative and creative states are similar. I always begin work by collecting the material. I work as constructivists would like me to: I study the elements which refer to various differentiation systems. [...] I am aware of the fact that the expected transition from the pre-creative to the creative state can happen at any moment. Today, after many years, I already know that it is not worth evaluating the gathered material – the triggering of the creative state is going to happen either way.” The core of triggering the creative attitude is the development of the skills for observing the reality which surrounds an artist, and even more importantly: the development of the skills of extracting from it that which we are used to calling inspiration in the whole complex process. The line between the pre-creative and creative states emerges in the moment when an artist decides to transfer a fragment of the reality they noticed to the work of art they are creating. The evaluation of a work of art is a completely different issue, which was omitted in this article.