Ask the Artist

In this feature, updated monthly, I share thoughts on creativity from a range of practitioners in the creative arts. Dancers, musicians, actors, painters, photographers, film makers, writers, poets, anyone in a creative field will be welcome to take part. The aim is to share a glimpse of why we do what we do and to explore why the arts are as relevant to us today as they were hudreds of years ago. If you would like to be included, please contact me via this site. I am curious as to what drives us in the creative arts to do what we do. We give many hours of our lives to our artform, whether it be in practice, teaching, writing, researching, or even simply contemplation.

For me, the way music can act as a reflection of ourselves, its impalpable and suggestive nature, and the endless nuance of interpretation have made it a life-long obsession and love. Music starts where words end, and is able to bring expression to thoughts and feelings I couldn’t otherwise share. It reminds me of the poem by Klaus Groth, Wie Melodien (Like Melodies), that Brahms set so beautifully, the final stanza of which reads: ‘Yet surely in rhyme / A fragrance lies hidden, / Summoned by moist eyes / From the silent seed’.

Frequently work in our creative field is competitive, and it can be challenging to earn a reliable income from performance work alone. And yet we continue to create, to compose, to paint, to perform, to choreograph, to act. What is it about the arts that is so captivating to us? There’s a wonderful song by Gillian Welch titled ‘Everything is free’, a song which is about what it is to choose a life in music. The following lines will resonate with many I’m sure: Someone hit the big score / And I figured it out / We’re gonna do it anyway / Even if it doesn’t pay.