Art is in every heart. We are all artists, just as we are all poets and writers. Just as those who are not literate may have the heart of a poet, those without the means or time to paint or draw can live a life that is just as expressive. Pause and listen or see with your inner eye and you may discover the rhythm of the universe. In one way or the other we are all architects of the unseen, building worlds out of emotions, thoughts, and perspectives that many overlook. The others, however, could just as well turn out to be time travellers of imagination moving freely between past, present and future, creating visions that transcend time. Whatever the way, we are all whisperers of the inexpressible always yearning to give voice to feelings and ideas. We are all poets. We are all artists. We are all collectors of fleeting moments.
A few months back in late afternoon, the rays of the sun gifted the mute railing on the side setback of my house a shadow that played with my imagination. Shadows too bring with them a treasure of beauty, meaning, and emotion in ordinary life. Like the dense bloom of red bougainvillea that I noticed this afternoon. I clicked it without thinking. The camera too turns us all into creative artists. I remember clicking a picture where the light from the window slanted to create a translucent effect on the opaque wooden tulips that we had bought from Amsterdam. A sound that travels to us, a cursory touch that pops out of the archives of one’s memory, or a formless colour that flashes by… all can inspire art. Anything can catalyse the artist within – whether it’s the way light falls on a street corner, the fleeting expression on someone’s face, or the quiet simplicity of a morning routine. The ability to transform the ordinary into something extraordinary is one of the hallmarks of great art.
Art is not necessarily dependent on the medium an artist chooses, but the medium can shape how inspiration is expressed. A painter might capture a moment with brushstrokes, while a photographer freezes it in time, and a poet turns it into words. The essence of inspiration remains the same, but the form it takes depends on how the artist translates their vision.
Sometimes it is a series of unconnected things that happen to come together in a mysterious way to help us create something profound. Inspiration is little prompts that are not prisoners of any one person or moment. They go on from eon to eon, from one world to the other, and can travel on wings of time to be there at the right time for the right person to pick them up and awaken the artist within.
I have seen people getting restless and wondering why they are not able to write or to paint when they desperately want to. Patience, I tell them, is the mantra that needs to blend with deep observation. And, of course, the humility to challenge one’s own perspective. Every kind of artist will agree with Pablo Picasso when he remarked that ‘inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.’ If one is an artist, it is good to go on and play with colours every day… just as writers know that staring at a blank screen on the laptop or a blank sheet of paper on the typewriter or a notebook can be the signal to an inspired moment to come knocking. The truth is that each of us sees something in what others never see. We are all artists. We are all looking for that inspiration that turns us towards that masterpiece that makes us immortal in our own mind’s eyes.
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Arvind Passey
Written on 23 February 2025
