Active Inspiration

The crumpled aluminum fuselage of a WWII era submarine bomber impaled the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts’ courtyard. The fifteen-story red brick school, a block from the gothic spires of City Hall, looked down upon the staged tragedy, but not with the horror one would assume.

A scattering of students ate breakfasts, drank coffee, and chatted on benches and planters surrounding this installation entitled Grumman Greenhouse by Jordan Griska, an actual greenhouse managed within the fuselage. Griska’s thought-provoking piece began a fascinating and inspiring tour of the academy with art student and long-time friend Aubrey Brown.

Aubrey led me through studios devoted to woodworking, metal casting, graphic arts, illustration, painting– an unending variety of mediums. Between the studios, works by students and faculty lined hallways and filled display cases. Elevator landings with large picture windows illuminated sculptures and provided spaces for students to display translucent works of glass and oiled paper dangling in purples, greens, and yellows. The windows offered sweeping views of center city’s mix of stocky stone buildings, masonry window arches, church steeples, and glass towers.

The central part of my visit featured a show Aubrey had curated based upon the theme “Little Red Riding Hood.” Contributors visualized scenes– whimsical to the horrific– from this ubiquitous fairy tale. Fairy tales like this one can be quite dark when examined closely, little girls and wolves and dark woods kinds of stuff. One of the most striking works of the collection showed a meek ink-silhouette of Riding Hood viewed from within a wolf’s fanged mouth.

We made our ways to the roof where I snapped a number of photos of the Philadelphia cityscape from a terrace serving as an open-air studio. Paint-spattered easels lined the roof’s ledge. Aubrey described throughout the morning how and where artists found inspiration, and the open-air classroom was a popular location.

Unique surroundings and interacting with talented people, like Aubrey, kindle creative urges within me, and the way I’m inspired, passively or actively, determines usually what comes next.

My visit with Aubrey led me to think more about active versus passive inspiration. Entering Aubrey’s world for a few hours prompted me to photograph buildings I had thought to be inspiring on previous visits to Philadelphia, yet had not taken the time to photograph or describe through words. Watching students in the process of creating art, discussing art, and being around the fruits of creative thinking drove me to want to create, as well. This active inspiration carried through the day, and I free-wrote and scribbled notes from the time we parted company until I arrived at the Paoli SEPTA station.

Passive inspiration involves observation and, usually, little else. I can walk by a random painting of a sunset and it awakens a moment of “that is beautiful.” There is little participation in the event and the inspiration usually passes. The strength of my urge to act upon inspiration, to create or reflect, seems to be relative to the effort and activity invested into the moment of being inspired. Hiking to an overlook to watch a sunset or seeing it during a picnic with friends inspires me to a greater degree than viewing a painting of a sunset. If I am active at the time of the event, the inspiration results in vivid and lasting memories and desires to do something with the inspiration, to write about the hike and sunset or to photograph it preserving the moment.

My time with Aubrey helped me to realize inspiration is something to be sought as much as to be found. Simple things like taking a walk after sitting at my computer for a long time, going for a spin on my bike, or just changing venue to a coffee shop or trail bench can sometimes keep creative momentum going. Even if it doesn’t help me in the moment, I can at least claim I wasn’t an afternoon couch potato.