Of Art and Ideas

Or, Why Artists and Intellectuals are Made for Each Other.

It's conference season, which means this grad student needs to start preparing. Preparing to write, preparing to share ideas, preparing to be bombarded with fantastic new inspiration. Problem is, I cannot find the inspiration to write, I feel as though I have no ideas to share, and I need inspiration now, before I can even think of sharing new ideas.

It is in this context that I turn to blogging as an exercise in idea sharing and writer's block de-blocking. These days, the only thing inspiring me is a blossoming relationship with a certain artist, so that is what I will write about. The topic of this entry came to me while having a conversation with this person. It seems like artists and intellectuals go hand in hand throughout history, like art and the ideas behind them come from two different types of people with a common soul...

I find that teaching a course and attempting to write an article to be featured in a scholarly journal has provoked more angst and identity questionning than I had bargained for. This angst has been accentuated by recent developments in matters of the heart - first with a fellow intellectual and now with an artist. I won't spend much time on the first case, but let's just say that it has become clear that trying to keep up with a fellow attention-seeker is hard work and probably doomed to begin with.

This being said, I am re-discovering the joy that is getting to know a person with artistic tendencies. A long time ago, a lover told me I was a poet, regardless of my poem writing abilities. Like it was an innate characteristic, a personnality type, or something. This always stuck with me, mostly for its romantic appeal. But another part of it stuck as well: the part where I feel like I need to create something, with words. It is what I strive to do as an intellectual, help ideas come to life through writing, as opposed to expressing emotions or whatever poetry is supposed to do.

My point is that sometimes, being an intellectual is like being an artist; both need a spark of inspiration to activate their creativity. And both serve society-advancing functions like thought provocation. Also I think the artist, in a relationship setting, being more in tune with emotion, is like a safe haven where it is ok to "be emotional," something I have come to perceive as negative, "irrational" in academic contexts.

So what, then, can the intellectual offer the artist? A bit of structure, perhaps? A hint of reason to guide passions? Or simply an understanding ear, one that seeks to help grow, and not to judge?

To be continued...