Inspiration: a functional approach to creative practice.

PhD thesis in Art, Design & Media, by Gil Dekel.

17. Appendices (pt 3 of 4) – Content analysis of interviews

The analysis is organised into three tables: poets, painters, and installation artists:

Poets:

	Maggie Sawkins	Anne Stevenson	Sylvia Paskin	Myra Schneider	Clive Wilmer	Alan Corkish
Audience			What you write is very specific to you, but on the other hand, why do people enjoy reading poetry? They want to read a poem because it speaks to them. [7]		[Donald Davie:] Poetry is not about addressing the audience, but about addressing the subject. [55]	…the impact of this [life] beautiful … is private and personal … no point in trying to explain it to you or to anyone else. [36]
			On the one hand the emotion in the poem is private. On the other hand it is something that anyone can read and understand. [19]		The reader should be moved by the poem just as the poet was moved by the experience… something intrinsic in the experience that is going to get to the reader. [55]
			There is a lot self-identification in poetry, and it is important for people to say that this is their work. [28]
			With a poem it is very easy with just a few lines to reveal yourself, unlike a book which is made of thousands of lines. [29]
Authority			It is always the author of the poem who speaks. Even if you write about a forest, it is you who speaks from your poem. The forest is not coming your way… [28]
Beauty						… while walking I concentrated on the sheer beauty of ‘now’… [24]
						… I’m an anti-theist… But, life is so beautiful… [28]
						…the impact of this [life] beautiful… [36]
Collaboration		… there are connections between you, or what you call you, and your experience, and your feelings about things and words, and so forth, that no analytical psychologist can explain. [9]	And around this set of feelings you find yourself writing about it. [2]	[writing poem] is a mix of imagination, flow-writing, association and… logic. [20]	[Donald Davie:] Poetry is not about addressing the audience, but about addressing the subject. [55]	A poem needs crafting… [8]
		[group work in workshop]… lost their individuality. A gifted poet has to find his or her own way… [14]	…you can’t understand how it got from a lot of different feelings, different emotions, to a finished poem. [2]	Writing… helps … sort out ideas… crystallising thoughts and emotions… outside you… you can understand it much better. You have partly separated yourself. [24]	… poet had a duty to what exists, to the nature of reality… [57]	… true poet uses wit, experience, passion, intellect, even genius to sculpt it into shape. [14]
			Joseph Brodsky…said: ‘It is not poets who create language; it is language which creates poets.’ [13]			Creativity is capable of altering the inner state… [32]
			You have to trust yourself that what you write has inner integrity – this is the only way a poem can work. [26]			… I believe in nothing except me… maybe… I actually communicate … with the person inside whom we repress for most of our lives … [37]
			If you mess about it trying to be clever the poem will show this… poems that work best have integrity, just like a person. [26]
			A poem is quite immediate, and it feels powerful for the writer. Very rarely do people write poems together. [29]
Collective archetype	[poetry is] Range of emotions…[15]	[for communicating in poetry] communion is needed … working with language, old and new… [15]	[Shakespeare] …says is a universal truth… [7]	Writing… helps … sort out ideas… crystallising thoughts and emotions… outside you… you can understand it much better. You have partly separated yourself. [24]	…language … is not something that we have invented out of nothing; it is something that we share with other people… words have a substantial presence, just as a painter’s materials do for him. [16]
	You could dream similar dreams to someone who lives in Africa. [15]	…poetry is literally untranslatable. However… you can transfer the spirit of it from one language to another. [27]	…a poem can’t just be emotional. If it were just emotional there would be no boundaries…emotion has to be filtered in a way that it has structure and clarity. [9]		Language … belongs to the race; it is not a private thing. Language already includes meanings. [20]
					… language is already an art, a communal, collaborative one. [20]
contrasts	…different processes for different poems. Sometimes it is two things that seem opposites… [2]	… a balance of knowing and not knowing. [8]	What you write is very specific to you, but on the other hand, why do people enjoy reading poetry? They want to read a poem because it speaks to them. [7]	[writing poem] is a mix of imagination, flow-writing, association and… logic. [20]		The difference between such moments and viewing the ‘daily activities’ of life lies within. Exactly the same moment at another time or on another day might pass me by entirely… [29]
	…it is two contrasts that make a good poem. [23]	True poetry is usually ambiguous… rarely anything definite or finite about what it means… A poem should be clear and ambiguous as well. If the poem is … completely ambiguous you get no pleasure … But if it’s completely clear, you might … say [it] … in prose. [48]	These are tremendous [language] decisions to make. And then you need somehow to bring in the emotions, the feelings, the experiences. [14]	Writing… is a way of release. [24]
	Emotion… linked with an object; something visual. [23]		I thought to myself, ‘Can I write this poem? Can I actually say what I want to say?’ Because what I wanted to say was shocking. [19]
Emotion	Emotion… linked with an object; something visual. [23]		[words] Often they come as a burst of emotion. [2]
Emotion			… we start with emotion, and there is a process where you have to leave emotions, put them aside, and deal with the language that needs to be adequate… it isn’t enough just to write what you feel. A level of understanding has to come in… [14]
Image	… poetry does use images to try to convey abstract thoughts and feelings in interesting poetic ways. Poetry is concrete. [17]		A poem is on the page, it has to have a look [14].			… photographs often capture unexpected pointers or markers to other things. [23]
			[poem writing] Yes, it is architectural. [16]
			…Hanging Poems. These were poems embroidered in silk and hung in the streets. [17]
Individuality/personality		[group work in workshop]… lost their individuality. A gifted poet has to find his or her own way… [14]	It is always the author of the poem who speaks. Even if you write about a forest, it is you who speaks from your poem. The forest is not coming your way… [28]
Inspiration from inside	[contrast] come from inside. [25]	… there are connections between you, or what you call you, and your experience, and your feelings about things and words, and so forth, that no analytical psychologist can explain. [9]	[words] Often they come as a burst of emotion. [2]	I kind of heard an [inner] sound… of my father… I was shocked… because my father was dead… So, I wrote a poem about this. [10]		Youpresume I’m inspired? … If you sit around all day waiting for inspiration you’ll not write much of anything. [7]
	Emotion… linked with an object; something visual. [23]	[inspiration comes from] Listening. And reading aloud a lot. [19]	The poem speaks from a place that you might not have such an easy access to. [6]	Let go of consciousness [by taking] a starting point, a sentence… See what words are coming… from the unconscious and flowing to the surface. [17]		Sometimes I sit and just tell myself to write a poem … At other times something moves me deeply… [15]
						… Shakespeare was so prolific that it’s hard not to believe that much of his work was so inspired. [18]
						The difference between such moments and viewing the ‘daily activities’ of life lies within. Exactly the same moment at another time or on another day might pass me by entirely… [29]
						Creativity is capable of altering the inner state… [32]
						… I believe in nothing except me… maybe… I actually communicate … with the person inside whom we repress for most of our lives … [37]
Inspiration from outside	Emotion… linked with an object; something visual. [23]	Simply seeing or finding something sets lines going. [2]	Sometimes I hear or read something, or something happens to me. [2]
		… there are connections between you, or what you call you, and your experience, and your feelings about things and words, and so forth, that no analytical psychologist can explain. [9]
		[inspiration comes from] Listening. And reading aloud a lot. [19]
logic	Poetry uses images to … convey abstract thoughts. [17]	…I have is a sense of lines occurring, and … I mess them around. [8]	…you can’t understand how it got from a lot of different feelings, different emotions, to a finished poem. [2]	I realised it wasn’t by chance that I had the image of a cave [in image exploration technique] [10]	Very often I know that a particular body of subject matter is going to produce a poem. At other times it would be a word or a phrase or a line or even a rhythm… [16]	… a word, a letter, an image are all simply things viewed which convey information. [4]
	[writing a poem] is not… a struggle, trying to write. [25]	I have is a sense of lines occurring, … I mess them around, a bit like a crossword. At that stage you bring the conscious mind. [8]	With any poem, even if you think you finished it, you have to let it. [3]	[writing]… was a way of looking at these feelings. [12]	So I spent a lot of time reflecting on that analogy, and then quite out of the blue some lines came to me. [16]	… true poet uses wit, experience, passion, intellect, even genius to sculpt it into shape. [14]
		… knowing when to stop forcing it… [8]	…a poem can’t just be emotional. If it were just emotional there would be no boundaries…emotion has to be filtered in a way that it has structure and clarity. [9]	Flow writing… what comes… without planning. [17]	Often you write your best poems when you feel least engaged by the matter… [40]	… I’m an anti-theist… But, life is so beautiful… most of the time we take it for granted until zap, something seems to hit us in the solar plexus… emotional tsunami. Then, for a split second, I could almost believe in a God and was saddened because my brain won’t allow me to. [28]
		Where would it come from? I don’t know. [8]	… we start with emotion, and there is a process where you have to leave emotions, put them aside, and deal with the language that needs to be adequate… it isn’t enough just to write what you feel. A level of understanding has to come in… [14]	Let go of consciousness [by taking] a starting point, a sentence… See what words are coming… from the unconscious and flowing to the surface. [17]	… in order for a poem to happen, we need to put a part of ourselves asleep. [40]
		… a balance of knowing and not knowing. [8]	… some poets will tell you that when you do have a very strict form [like Haiku] it makes it easier because there is so much you push away and so you get to find the point. [16] … a process of refinement to get to what he wanted to say… [17]	Logic copes with one layer of meaning at a time. [19]	… rhyme does the job of occupying the mind… [40]
		…recognise when a line is right and when it’s wrong. [9]	If you mess about it trying to be clever the poem will show this… poems that work best have integrity, just like a person. [26]	Writing… helps … sort out ideas… crystallising thoughts and emotions… outside you… you can understand it much better. You have partly separated yourself. [24]	… you name the emotion, but it is unlikely that you are going to generate it in the reader’s mind. That’s the problem with abstraction. [52]
		… there are connections between you, or what you call you, and your experience, and your feelings about things and words, and so forth, that no analytical psychologist can explain. [9]			Writing is at such a deep level of your personality that I think you can’t really know what it is that makes you write. [40]
		True poetry is usually ambiguous… rarely anything definite or finite about what it means… A poem should be clear and ambiguous as well. If the poem is … completely ambiguous you get no pleasure … But if it’s completely clear, you might … say [it] … in prose. [48]
Object	Emotion… linked with an object; something visual. [23]
Place		I have written a poem at the hairdresser’s. Any time will do. [12]				… while walking I concentrated on the sheer beauty of ‘now’… [24]
Point of view						The difference between such moments and viewing the ‘daily activities’ of life lies within. Exactly the same moment at another time or on another day might pass me by entirely… [29]
Self discovery through art	…poem… reveals something about myself… [13]	Writing … is not so much a process as a way of feeling my way in the dark. [2]	You look and think to yourself, ‘That is how I actually feel!’ This can be very powerful. [5]	I needed to go [write]… myself, and find out what was going on. [10]
			… the poem helps you to understand things about your life. [6]	[writing]… was a way of looking at these feelings. [12]
			The poem has to be considered and worked out to make sense. But it is valuable to cope with difficult emotions, and poetry does that. [24]	Writing… helps … sort out ideas… crystallising thoughts and emotions… outside you… you can understand it much better. You have partly separated yourself. [24]
			With a poem it is very easy with just a few lines to reveal yourself, unlike a book which is made of thousands of lines. [29]
Senses						… I like the sound of the words… [2]
Surrender			If you let it be it grows, and you find yourself having a poem. Sometimes you read what you have produced and you think, ‘How did all this come?’ You don’t even know what was inside… [2]
Symbol	[poetry is] symbols… [15]		Such a word [love] carries with it feelings. But … a table, which may not have a feeling in itself but has a meaning to you. [11]	A metaphor… takes you beyond logic. [19]	The words are the wrapping within which the message comes. [54]	… a word, a letter, an image are all simply things viewed which convey information. [4]
Symbol						… photographs often capture unexpected pointers or markers to other things. [23]
Transcendental reality (independent of artist)		…realised that the poem wanted to go in a different direction. [2]
		Where would it come from? I don’t know. [8]
		… the deeper creative process is very mysterious. [9]
		… you have to recognize that a lot is going on in your head and in the world which is much more mysterious than we normally imagine. [9]
Transcendental reality (independent, and communicated through physical)					I am interested in the way that the spirit communicates through things… the spiritual… seems to me to be in things. [10]
Transcendental reality (which connects through artist)		Lines come to mind. [2]	[words] Often they come as a burst of emotion. [2]	Flow writing… what comes… without planning. [17]	Very often I know that a particular body of subject matter is going to produce a poem. At other times it would be a word or a phrase or a line or even a rhythm… [16]	…life is so beautiful… most of the time we take it for granted until zap, something seems to hit us in the solar plexus… emotional tsunami. Then, for a split second, I could almost believe in a God and was saddened because my brain won’t allow me to. [28]
		[Poem] came to me long before I knew its subject. [2]	If you let it be it grows, and you find yourself having a poem. Sometimes you read what you have produced and you think, ‘How did all this come?’ You don’t even know what was inside… [2]	Inspiration comes as you work through. [20]	So I spent a lot of time reflecting on that analogy, and then quite out of the blue some lines came to me. [16]
		…I have is a sense of lines occurring, and … I mess them around. [8]	Sometimes the word just comes to you, and it is just ‘the’ word. [4]		You say things which you didn’t necessarily mean to say, because the words say them. [20]
			The poem speaks from a place that you might not have such an easy access to. [6]		The reader should be moved by the poem just as the poet was moved by the experience… something intrinsic in the experience that is going to get to the reader. [55]
			Joseph Brodsky…said: ‘It is not poets who create language; it is language which creates poets.’ [13]
			You have to trust yourself that what you write has inner integrity – this is the only way a poem can work. [26]
Transcendental reality (which the artist connects to )					… you also have to be in love with what is beyond language. [35]
					Writing is at such a deep level of your personality that I think you can’t really know what it is that makes you write. [40]
					… poet had a duty to what exists, to the nature of reality… [57]
Unconscious		A poet has to keep a door open to the unconscious almost all the time. [6]	The poem speaks from a place that you might not have such an easy access to. [6]	Let go of consciousness [by taking] a starting point, a sentence… See what words are coming… from the unconscious and flowing to the surface. [17]
Urge to create	It makes me feel good if I have written a good poem. [27]		[words] Often they come as a burst of emotion. [2]			… I have no control over my inner state… [34]
word			[words] Often they come as a burst of emotion. [2]		…language … is not something that we have invented out of nothing; it is something that we share with other people… words have a substantial presence, just as a painter’s materials do for him. [16]	Language is complex… [2]
						… I like the sound of the words… [2]
						…the impact of this [life] beautiful … is private and personal … no point in trying to explain it to you or to anyone else. I may write a poem about it, but … it doesn’t come close to the ‘experience’. [36]
Words/image relation	Poetry… is a condensed use of language… the shape across the page. [11]		Over time… [the poem] begins to make a kind of a shape or a form. [2]	Image exploration… technique … you make [say] a suggestion and people … fill in their own ideas… [9]	Poems are in language so they exist in time… But a poem is also a thing, it is a kind of monument. It has a shape on the page. [38]	… a word, a letter, an image are all simply things viewed which convey information. [4]
	Poetry uses images to try to convey abstract thoughts. [17]		A poem is on the page, it has to have a look… [14]	I realised it wasn’t by chance that I had the image of a cave [in image exploration technique] [10]	Language … belongs to the race; it is not a private thing. Language already includes meanings. [20]
			Such a word [love] carries with it feelings. But … a table, which may not have a feeling in itself but has a meaning to you. [11]		The words are the wrapping within which the message comes. [54]
			… we start with emotion, and there is a process where you have to leave emotions, put them aside, and deal with the language that needs to be adequate… it isn’t enough just to write what you feel. A level of understanding has to come in… [14]
			Poetry is about the beauty of the words… [26]
			With a poem it is very easy with just a few lines to reveal yourself, unlike a book which is made of thousands of lines. [29]

Painters:

	Natalie Dekel	Paul Hartal	Felice Varini	Barry Stevens	Melanie Chan
Audience	…I see you now, but … other information about you which is not from now is coming from the past… and I want to depict it. Perhaps it will be a message for you about what carries on within you. [25]		Once the painting is done it starts an independent life, having a relationship with the space, which has nothing to do with me or the viewer. [7]
Audience			[painting] is not born to create specific shapes that need to satisfy the viewer. [12]
Authority		… art is completely concrete, and therefore a significant source of authentic empirical knowledge. [46]
Beauty	Each time I see a person I can see something which is … exploration of another aspect that I do not have, do not know about, and is beautiful. [21]				I see the beauty of nature in flowers, and I am amazed by their perfection and their symmetry. [2]
Beauty					… impermanence of the flower is… beautiful… [6]
Collaboration	As I drew I had to ask him… I would ask the question, and would be given an image… [32]		The painting exists as a whole, with its complete shape as well as the fragments… [12]	… recognition that a greater or higher power is working through one and that one does not actually exist independent of the whole… there is no longer an “I” or “you”… [6]	Once I start painting my mind starts to become calmer, as if the flower is encouraging me to be in the moment. [2]
	If I have a feeling it may be like asking oneself, ‘Remember omelette?’… [34]		When two people are in love they do not love the same person but each other…yet they are perfectly able to understand and share that love. [14]	I don’t do anything special as an artist to experience it… [12]	I prefer to be quiet when painting; it is in the silence… that the communion with the flowers can take place. [14]
			What is the next step in the history of art after Mondrian … My answer is to work on the three-dimensional reality instead of the canvas. [31]	Art is part of the process as is everything else. [37]	…necessary … to pay attention to nature and it is then that I get … urge to express that relationship. [19]
			… once I choose a space I start a new thinking process with it. [32]		I am looking intently yet … gently at the flowers … and it draws me into a non-verbal communication experience. This is why I prefer to be quiet when painting. [28]
Collective archetype	… feeling for the person drawn. [9]	… all art disciplines share common traits… in different forms… specific set of symbols. [5]		… recognizing that there is no alternative! … you know that you are a part of an infinite matrix… [9]
	You become this beautiful meditation, a part of the scene… [10]	…intuitions, imagination, emotions, ideas, memories, thoughts and dreams are not independent events of an autonomous brain and nervous… They take place in a body that interacts with the biosphere. [8]		… awareness of being beyond time and space. [10]
	Each time I see a person I can see something which is … exploration of another aspect that I do not have, do not know about, and is beautiful. [21]			External and internal are for me like a spectrum or a continuum. [33]
	[translating feelings to colours] …is perhaps a thought, a word, a feeling, or just an urge… an unexplainable feeling for a particular taste?… [35]
contrasts	… there is no such thing as one definition of art… [12]	Creativity is a cognitive process that results in new outcomes. It generates original ideas. [2]	When two people are in love they do not love the same person but each other…yet they are perfectly able to understand and share that love. [14]	External and internal are for me like a spectrum or a continuum. [33]
Colour	Colour builds up emotional layers. [2]
Colour	[translating feelings to colours] …is perhaps a thought, a word, a feeling, or just an urge… an unexplainable feeling for a particular taste?… [35]
Creativity		Creativity is a cognitive process that results in new outcomes. It generates original ideas. [2]
Emotion	… feeling for the person drawn. [9]		When two people are in love they do not love the same person but each other…yet they are perfectly able to understand and share that love. [14]	Inspiration flows through me as a sense of connection and flow; a sense of well-being and feeling in tune with life… inner peace… discovery… [28]	When I am painting … I … forget my emotions and lose myself in the moment… [14]
Expression	What attracts me is the expression. [9]				Artistic expression … exceed the conceptual boundaries of language… [26]
Image		A painting is a frozen picture in time… [32]			… the flower’s natural perfection cannot be recreated entirely. There is a loss somehow in the translation process into a painted representation. [6]
Image		Poetry pleases, moves and elevates by word choice and word form, the interaction of style, pattern, sound, image and idea. Great poetry expresses heightened thought, intensified emotion, concentrated observation and soaring imagination. [24]			… painting results in an image, which lasts longer than the flower itself… [6]
Individuality/personality	… it depends on the personality, not on the work. What I see is what interests me as a person. [12]			… recognition that a greater or higher power is working through one and that one does not actually exist independent of the whole… there is no longer an “I” or “you”… [6]	Creativity is life… painting is a part of who I am…it is an expression of life and intrinsic to life, like breathing or eating. [24]
Inspiration from inside	As I drew I had to ask him… I would ask the question, and would be given an image… [32]		It is not a source of inspiration ‘falling’ on you… Painting is about choices, attitudes…a desire to discover something new. [49]	I feel inspiration flowing through me. [26]	I tend to get a feeling that draws me… impulse to create, is inner one based on a mood or memory. At other times it might be external… a scene which might draw my attention. [17]
	If I have a feeling it may be like asking oneself, ‘Remember omelette?’… [34]			Inspiration flows through me as a sense of connection and flow; a sense of well-being and feeling in tune with life… inner peace… discovery… [28]	… inspiration is there most of the time, but usually my mind is elsewhere… [19]
				External and internal are for me like a spectrum or a continuum. [33]	Inspiration is the creative force of life… [21]
Inspiration from outside			I do not believe in inspiration… Instead, I explore the space… look through … make decisions, and then it all clicks right into place. It is like writing… it happens. [47]	External and internal are for me like a spectrum or a continuum. [33]	I see the beauty of nature in flowers, and I am amazed by their perfection and their symmetry. [2]
					I tend to get a feeling that draws me… impulse to create, is inner one based on a mood or memory. At other times it might be external… a scene which might draw my attention. [17]
					Inspiration is the creative force of life… [21]
Intuition		Intuition and imagination play a … role in both art and science. Transcending the state of existing conditions necessitates innovative leaps into uncharted areas. [24]
Line	Line is … a thought personified and the evolution of it. [2]
Line	You need to learn the topography of the face, and the lines of emotions… become a psychologist of the person. [40]
logic	Line is … a thought personified and the evolution of it. Colour builds up emotional layers. [2]	Creativity is a cognitive process that results in new outcomes. It generates original ideas. [2]	When two people are in love they do not love the same person but each other…yet they are perfectly able to understand and share that love. [14]		Once I start painting my mind starts to become calmer, as if the flower is encouraging me to be in the moment. [2]
	Sometimes you let go and let your hand choose for you. You don’t think. [37]	… creativity originates in the irrational… [4]	… once I choose a space I start a new thinking process with it. [32]		… inspiration is there most of the time, but usually my mind is elsewhere… [19]
		… we can gain deeper insights about the true nature of the universe through our senses than through our intellect. [14]	[art is about]… thinking and choosing. [53]		Artistic expression … exceed the conceptual boundaries of language… [26]
		While I paint or write I focus on the work itself and do not reflect on theory… [17]	… there are moments of ambiguity… uncertainty is necessary … it makes us … human beings. [55]
		Aesthetic philosophies depend on context and history… [30]	… the questions themselves keep evolving… [57]
		…science does not discover how real is real. Instead, it discovers what it can say about nature in human language (which includes mathematics). [43]
		… scientific creativity, similarly to artistic creativity, incorporates irrational components. [45]
		Intuition and imagination play a … role in both art and science. Transcending the state of existing conditions necessitates innovative leaps into uncharted areas. [24]
Place			… the reality itself to be the installation…and I am working with it…in order to reach for new forms, new lights and new colours. [35]		…necessary … to pay attention to nature and it is then that I get … urge to express that relationship. [19]
			My relationship with the space is trying to discover more things that we can not normally see. [37]
			I do not believe in inspiration… Instead, I explore the space… look through … make decisions, and then it all clicks right into place. It is like writing… it happens. [47]
Point of view	… there is no such thing as one definition of art… [12]		I start my works from one vantage point… simply the height of my own eye level. [6]
	… it depends on the personality, not on the work. What I see is what interests me as a person. [12]		The painting exists as a whole, with its complete shape as well as the fragments… [12]
			My concern is what happens outside the vantage point of view. [12]
			… once I choose a space I start a new thinking process with it. [32]
			[art is about]… thinking and choosing. [53]
Self discovery through art			Every day you can discover something new… [32]	Inspiration flows through me as a sense of connection and flow; a sense of well-being and feeling in tune with life… inner peace… discovery… [28]
			I discovered the world of painting … and … my desire to paint. It was a strong feeling; I would ‘burn’ in the middle of a painting. [46]	I had a strong feeling that a way to explore consciousness deeply was to turn within… a power pulling me inwards …art was … a way to facilitate that… [47]
			It is not a source of inspiration ‘falling’ on you… Painting is about choices, attitudes…a desire to discover something new. [49]
Senses	I saw a white outline, a symbol. [32]	… we can gain deeper insights about the true nature of the universe through our senses than through our intellect. [14]	My relationship with the space is trying to discover more things that we can not normally see. [37]		I prefer to be quiet when painting; it is in the silence… that the communion with the flowers can take place. [14]
	If I have a feeling it may be like asking oneself, ‘Remember omelette?’… [34]	… genuine knowledge can be only achieved by the experience of the senses… [46]			…necessary … to pay attention to nature and it is then that I get … urge to express that relationship. [19]
	[translating feelings to colours] …is perhaps a thought, a word, a feeling, or just an urge… an unexplainable feeling for a particular taste?… [35]				I am looking intently yet … gently at the flowers … and it draws me into a non-verbal communication experience. This is why I prefer to be quiet when painting. [28]
Surrender				For this to occur one has to surrender to the process [of creativity]. [4]
				Surrender involves the recognition that a greater or higher power is working through one and that one does not actually exist independent of the whole. [6]
				When I surrender into the centre there is the awareness of being beyond time and space. [10]
Symbol	I saw a white outline, a symbol. [32]	… all art disciplines share common traits… in different forms… specific set of symbols. [5]	… I move the concept, and can remake it… [22]
Symbol			… I began to think of painting without any representation. [46]
Transcendental reality (independent of artist)	I am trying to convey the soul and the emotion behind it; a soul which is contained in a bottle, a body. [46]	… the sources of creativity transcend the individual. [5]
Transcendental reality (independent of artist)		…the world as a mysterious place, full of magic and wonder. [19]
Transcendental reality (independent, and communicated through physical)	I am trying to convey the soul and the emotion behind it; a soul which is contained in a bottle, a body. [46]	…intuitions, imagination, emotions, ideas, memories, thoughts and dreams are not independent events of an autonomous brain and nervous… They take place in a body that interacts with the biosphere. [8]	[use of simple shapes:] A mountain side has curves that affect the circle, and change the circle’s geometry… The same goes for colours… reality exists with its own qualities, shapes, colours and light conditions. [18-20]
	The way you wear your body shows who you are. [50]	I envisage the existence of a universal field of consciousness which permeates the cosmos. Our own consciousness originates from this spectrum. [10]
Transcendental reality (which connects through artist)	I had a feeling that I am here on Earth by a mistake… [20]	… we can gain deeper insights about the true nature of the universe through our senses than through our intellect. [14]	Once the painting is done it starts an independent life, having a relationship with the space, which has nothing to do with me or the viewer. [7]	… recognition that a greater or higher power is working through one and that one does not actually exist independent of the whole… there is no longer an “I” or “you”… [6]	Once I start painting my mind starts to become calmer, as if the flower is encouraging me to be in the moment. [2]
	It is right behind you. This information ‘bombards’ me and I want to depict it. [25]		I do not believe in inspiration… Instead, I explore the space… look through … make decisions, and then it all clicks right into place. It is like writing… it happens. [47]
	Sometimes you let go and let your hand choose for you. You don’t think. [37]
	I am trying to convey the soul and the emotion behind it; a soul which is contained in a bottle, a body. [46]
Transcendental reality (which the artist connects to )	I just look … I have a feeling about it. I see them. [27]	Poetry extends beyond language. [26]		…the experience of having gone as far as one can go. Then one encounters infinity …which is consciousness or awareness unqualified by a perceiver. I call this Oneness. [52]	I see the beauty of nature in flowers, and I am amazed by their perfection and their symmetry. [2]
					I prefer to be quiet when painting; it is in the silence… that the communion with the flowers can take place. [14]
					Painting… is … being open to … inspiration, and allowing it to flow through me and gain expression. [26]
					…paying attention and spending time looking at the flower… brings me to a state of relaxed awareness… entering into a sort of communion or shared experience with the creative impulse that forms each living thing… [28]
Unconscious		Another major source of creativity originates in the irrational realm of dreams and the unconscious. [4]
		Meaningful archetypal dreams surface through the personal unconscious, from the deepest layers of the psyche, what Jung calls the collective unconscious… [9]
		…nuclear physicist Amit Goswami has advanced his credo that the universe is an unconscious entity, which becomes aware of itself through human consciousness. [13]
Urge to create	It’s a compulsive urge… [15]	Art is an impulsive thrust, a spontaneous wave of excitation. [30]	I discovered the world of painting … and … my desire to paint. It was a strong feeling; I would ‘burn’ in the middle of a painting. [46]		I tend to get a feeling that draws me… impulse to create, is inner one based on a mood or memory. At other times it might be external… a scene which might draw my attention. [17]
	… past experiences that I feel compelled to express and show. [25]				…necessary … to pay attention to nature and it is then that I get … urge to express that relationship. [19]
	It is right behind you. This information ‘bombards’ me and I want to depict it. [25]
word		Poetry extends beyond language. [26]			…words conceptualise and divide the world into binary categories of subject and object. [26]
		Poetry… is a verbal composition, an emotional or mental event moving through linear time. [32]			Artistic expression … exceed the conceptual boundaries of language… [26]
		…science does not discover how real is real. Instead, it discovers what it can say about nature in human language (which includes mathematics). [43]			…academic words about art … are formal processes which are different from making art… [27]
Words/image relation		A painting is a frozen picture in time…Poetry on the other hand is a verbal composition, an emotional or mental event moving through linear time. [32]			I am looking intently yet … gently at the flowers … and it draws me into a non-verbal communication experience. This is why I prefer to be quiet when painting. [28]

Installation artists:

	Ken Devine	David Johnson	Katayoun Dowlatshahi	Roi Vaara	Russell Jenkins (chanting artist)
Audience				[use body so] …performances are meant to create a common ground with the audience. [4]
				…create an art experience where everyone could feel something… [9]
				I felt that performances would be much more direct… [17]
				My art is designed for the purpose of having a direct communication between one person and another… [29]
				I feel energized, happy and satisfied, and I wish I could trigger such experiences in other people as well. [31]
				I am looking for ways to share moments of life with other people, and to convey feelings of existence… [17]
				…it did not make much sense to try to catch those [nature] phenomena in paintings or in photos, because they were much richer in reality. [39]
Authority					…sound in my head… my aim is to replicate it. [3]
Collaboration	Meanings make our relationships with concepts and with objects. [21]	[inspiration is]… things will be randomly joining together at various points. Then an image would come to my head… combination of two ideas will produce the right thing. If you … think too theoretically … it ends up one-dimensional… [40]	I allow the process to slowly unfold, I don’t push it… You have to experience it first. [28]	A good art experience is for me like a powerful feeling of being alive. It is like being under a spell or a trance. [31]	…sound in my head… my aim is to replicate it. [3]
	All colours are in relations to other colours. They sit side by side… there is no ‘stopness’ about red. [27]		I had trust in the process. [29]		I was working… I was asking for help. [19]
	Grey… It is the only place that has no complementary colour. [31]		… allowing the internalisation and processing of those images to influence a work of art. [28]
			My … epiphany happen when I … a deeper connection with myself… don’t fully understand it but sense… [36]
			… my art is my life. [38]
Collective archetype	…you could ask anybody the question, ‘What is your favourite colour?’ [2]	The experience of the world is immediate. The mind in itself is part of the world… [25]	…many individual fragments … we reflect that one light source… [7]	…we are as much part of the biosphere as a sunset is, the complexity of life remains an inexhaustible source for art. From this point of view everybody is not an artist, as Joseph Beuys manifested, but rather everybody is art itself, I would say… [39]	Moments we were One. [10]
Collective archetype			… glimpse of other fragments reflecting light from the same light source as you. [36]
contrasts	Language has that ability because … People change continually. So, you have to think of all the gaps in between truth and untruth… [16]	… the human eye and the inner eye, the confusion about the two becoming the same thing. [36]	To appreciate and understand light you have to embrace its shadow. [6]	…contrast between the black and white… [10]
	Whether something is true or false, that is a matter of position, a point from which we see it. [24]		Though nature inspires me, it is the edge, the unknown that beckons. [40]
	Colour… is so concrete and yet totally abstract. [29]
Colour	…you could ask anybody the question, ‘What is your favourite colour?’ [2]			…colours carry different meanings within different cultures. [14]
	… people talk about colours in terms of emotion… object … event, or a person… there are those who have a very clear rational idea… [8]
	All colours are in relations to other colours. They sit side by side… there is no ‘stopness’ about red. [27]
	We tend to think of colours as existing on points, but a point has no dimension… [28]
	Colour… is so concrete and yet totally abstract. [29]
Emotion	… people talk about colours in terms of emotion… object … event, or a person… there are those who have a very clear rational idea… [8]	[in moments of inspiration] An intense feeling of living. It is as though there is an extra light in the mind that suddenly sparks in full capacity. [46]	…experience epiphany… analysis of it I would … see connections with thoughts and ideas, and be overwhelmed by strong emotions. [33]	I feel energized, happy and satisfied, and I wish I could trigger such experiences in other people as well. [31]	I have a hearing of an Aum… [2]I hear inside. [6]
	… profound responses from people who were honest, rather than trying to be profound… [9]		I would end up in tears … I as the conscious artist was not fully in control of my process. I was only able to bring my understanding to it after the work had been created. [33]	I am looking for ways to share moments of life with other people, and to convey feelings of existence… [17]	Chant… feels… expansion from the heart. [14]
	We represent things by creating things, and our creations can be concrete or abstract, or feelings. [17]			… I had a phase where I suddenly felt that I had done all I could do in art, and that there was nothing else for me to add. [24] …I had to accept the situation. This acceptance somehow solved the problem. It made me leave behind all that I had done before and so I became more open to embrace new ideas… [26]
				…it did not make much sense to try to catch those [nature] phenomena in paintings or in photos, because they were much richer in reality. [39]
Expression				I feel energized, happy and satisfied, and I wish I could trigger such experiences in other people as well. [31]
				…it did not make much sense to try to catch those [nature] phenomena in paintings or in photos, because they were much richer in reality. [39]
Image		… the idea of something that you could not see yet is the centre of the work… things you cannot see but know about, therefore affect the way you see: the non-visible. [18]	… allowing the internalisation and processing of those images to influence a work of art. [28]	I am an artist, originally a painter who now presents his visions in a live format. [2]
Image		[inspiration is]… things will be randomly joining together at various points. Then an image would come to my head… combination of two ideas will produce the right thing. If you … think too theoretically … it ends up one-dimensional… [40]	… allowing the internalisation and processing of those images to influence a work of art. [28]	Art can show us the image of ourselves in the changing world. [34]
Individuality/personality			I do not impose my personal identity on the work in question…I allow the context to influence the work. [15]
Individuality/personality			…it did not make much sense to try to catch those [nature] phenomena in paintings or in photos, because they were much richer in reality. [39]
Inspiration from inside	… there is inspiration in anything, not just in art. [35]	[inspiration is]… things will be randomly joining together at various points. Then an image would come to my head… combination of two ideas will produce the right thing. If you … think too theoretically … it ends up one-dimensional… [40]	… allowing the internalisation and processing of those images to influence a work of art. [28]		I have a hearing of an Aum… [2]I hear inside. [6]
Inspiration from inside	Inspiration, probably, is a uniqueness that comes out of parts of a person, which did not come together before… [35]				Chant… feels… expansion from the heart. [14]
Inspiration from outside	… there is inspiration in anything, not just in art. [35]	[inspiration is]… things will be randomly joining together at various points. Then an image would come to my head… combination of two ideas will produce the right thing. If you … think too theoretically … it ends up one-dimensional… [40]	I do not impose my personal identity on the work in question…I allow the context to influence the work. [15]	Practical things which belong to daily life take up most of my time, and they are the source from which the ideas for my performances are coming. [19]
Inspiration from outside			… allowing the internalisation and processing of those images to influence a work of art. [28]	It is inspiring to find new surprising ways about life…the everyday life and other cultural phenomena are the sources for inspiration. [37]
Intuition		… the idea of something that you could not see yet is the centre of the work… things you cannot see but know about, therefore affect the way you see: the non-visible. [18]	.. not to try to force yourself … but to allow your intuition to guide your process. [19]
logic	Someone can say something about red which is very similar to what someone else said about blue… it creates a new set of relationships that we may have not been aware of before. [10]	… the idea of something that you could not see yet is the centre of the work… things you cannot see but know about, therefore affect the way you see: the non-visible. [18]	…experience epiphany… analysis of it I would … see connections with thoughts and ideas, and be overwhelmed by strong emotions. [33]	… I had a phase where I suddenly felt that I had done all I could do in art, and that there was nothing else for me to add. [24] …I had to accept the situation. This acceptance somehow solved the problem. It made me leave behind all that I had done before and so I became more open to embrace new ideas… [26]	Repetitiveness takes your head out of thinking. [17]
	… logical argument … an absurd position, because you are limited to logic. [11]	… ambiguity is very important both in art and philosophy. [28]	My … epiphany happen when I … a deeper connection with myself… don’t fully understand it but sense… [36]	…it can be very satisfying to figure out things and create order using different elements. [37]	…communication… not so much about the … language… but rather about the energy. [27]
	… behind the ‘simple’ things that people say lie complex relations that they have with life, and they use language to convey that. Language is illogical… [13]	… the human eye and the inner eye, the confusion about the two becoming the same thing. [36]
	Thought … is saying something which is partly true and partly false. Rarely can you say a complete truth… [15]	Quite often it will be months or years after that I suddenly realise what the ideas deal with, and it never occurred to me before. [41]
	We represent things by creating things, and our creations can be concrete or abstract, or feelings. [17]
	Meanings make our relationships with concepts and with objects. [21]
	Rationality is … trying to … be replicated… [23]
Object	… people talk about colours in terms of emotion… object … event, or a person… there are those who have a very clear rational idea… [8]	… postmodernism … allows us to think we only have surfaces of things. [22]		[use body so] …performances are meant to create a common ground with the audience. [4]
	We represent things by creating things, and our creations can be concrete or abstract, or feelings. [17]			Usually I use the sound that the actions in the performance create… [7]
	[Middle Ages] ‘happy making’ technology… Objects are not the driving force in life. [19]
	Meanings make our relationships with concepts and with objects. [21]
Place			I do not impose my personal identity on the work in question…I allow the context to influence the work. [15]
Point of view	Someone can say something about red which is very similar to what someone else said about blue… it creates a new set of relationships that we may have not been aware of before. [10]		…many individual fragments … we reflect that one light source… [7]	…colours carry different meanings within different cultures. [14]	…say…and three people will pick it differently …depends on the way the person is feeling and receiving the message. [24]
	Language has that ability because … People change continually. So, you have to think of all the gaps in between truth and untruth… [16]		… the relationship people have with light is different around the world. [9]	…it is up to our personal beliefs alone how we see and understand things around us. [26]
	Whether something is true or false, that is a matter of position, a point from which we see it. [24]			When circumstances change, the ways we look at things change as well and new opportunities appear. [34]
	… meanings are created through… the way in which we frame what we see and thus frame what we decide to exclude. [25]
Self discovery through art		Quite often it will be months or years after that I suddenly realise what the ideas deal with, and it never occurred to me before. [41]
Senses	… having your eyes open…in every moment… [37]	… the idea of something that you could not see yet is the centre of the work… things you cannot see but know about, therefore affect the way you see: the non-visible. [18]	My … epiphany happen when I … a deeper connection with myself… don’t fully understand it but sense… [36]	Usually I use the sound that the actions in the performance create… [7]
		… the human eye and the inner eye, the confusion about the two becoming the same thing. [36]
		… when I think of an idea I may not be aware of all the implications … But I am aware of a sort of depth of possibilities … You can do that intuitively, have a feeling for that. Artists’ sensibility is very close to the spiritual attitude to life. [42]
Surrender	… having your eyes open…in every moment… [37]			… I had a phase where I suddenly felt that I had done all I could do in art, and that there was nothing else for me to add. [24] …I had to accept the situation. This acceptance somehow solved the problem. It made me leave behind all that I had done before and so I became more open to embrace new ideas… [26]
Surrender				A good art experience is for me like a powerful feeling of being alive. It is like being under a spell or a trance. [31]
Symbol	We represent things by creating things, and our creations can be concrete or abstract, or feelings. [17]
	Meanings make our relationships with concepts and with objects. [21]
	Colour… is so concrete and yet totally abstract. [29]
Transcendental reality (independent of artist)		… the idea of something that you could not see yet is the centre of the work… things you cannot see but know about, therefore affect the way you see: the non-visible. [18]	… unaware of our whole being… [36]		[the sound is]… far beyond from what I can produce. [2]
Transcendental reality (independent of artist)		Words are … sort of one removed from the world. [34]			The original sound is still in a process; it is still being produced. [7]
Transcendental reality (independent, and communicated through physical)			…draw something so intangible, like light? [2]	…it did not make much sense to try to catch those [nature] phenomena in paintings or in photos, because they were much richer in reality. [39]
				…life is art in itself. [19]
Transcendental reality (which connects through artist)	Inspiration, probably, is a uniqueness that comes out of parts of a person, which did not come together before…	Quite often it will be months or years after that I suddenly realise what the ideas deal with, and it never occurred to me before. [41]	…experience epiphany… analysis of it I would … see connections with thoughts and ideas, and be overwhelmed by strong emotions. [33]
Transcendental reality (which connects through artist)		… when I think of an idea I may not be aware of all the implications … But I am aware of a sort of depth of possibilities … You can do that intuitively, have a feeling for that. Artists’ sensibility is very close to the spiritual attitude to life. [42]	I would end up in tears … I as the conscious artist was not fully in control of my process. I was only able to bring my understanding to it after the work had been created. [33]
Transcendental reality (which the artist connects to )	…a moment of recognition… Of whatever it is that lit a fire in you. [35/37]	… find a way to experience the world in a spiritual way, while not believing in anything beyond this world. [23]		I create art in order to participate in the process of the continuous creation of the world. [32]
Unconscious			When I am in my creative process I have these moments… [of epiphany] [39]
Urge to create			… I am not a kind of a person who could spontaneously create… [27]	…art makes me live. [19]
				… I had a phase where I suddenly felt that I had done all I could do in art, and that there was nothing else for me to add. [24] …I had to accept the situation. This acceptance somehow solved the problem. It made me leave behind all that I had done before and so I became more open to embrace new ideas… [26]
				A good art experience is for me like a powerful feeling of being alive. It is like being under a spell or a trance. [31]
word	… behind the ‘simple’ things that people say lie complex relations that they have with life, and they use language to convey that. Language is illogical… [13]	If you try to formalise ideas then you fix them … justifying one path only… whatever I am saying, I am cutting out a whole lot of possibilities that should be left in. [32]	I am very careful not to use certain words to describe the nature of my work… but I do feel … spiritual without being religious. [5]		…communication… not so much about the … language… but rather about the energy. [27]
	Thought … is saying something which is partly true and partly false. Rarely can you say a complete truth… [15]	Words are … sort of one removed from the world. [34]	… difficult to articulate my spiritual values and beliefs. [25]
	Language has that ability because … People change continually. So, you have to think of all the gaps in between truth and untruth… [16]
Words/image relation					Poet Hafez: ‘…You can use my soft words as a cushion for your head.’ [21]

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Inspiration: a functional approach to creative practice.

17. Appendices (pt 3 of 4) – Content analysis of interviews

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