Who lights your creative kindling?
Different strokes for different folks!
I personally light up with creativity under the tutelage of Ken Gires pen. His marriage of words, his poetic perspective, and his substantive heart stirs the scribe within me. Ken’s craftsmanship encourages me to be more congruent, relevant, and timeless in my writerly scratches.
Randy Elrod’s approach to the beauty in this world stokes a bonfire of ideas in my head. He’s smart, edgy, innovative and investigative. With Randy’s perceptive eye and seeing heart he captures in his work both on canvas and written page what others of us miss. For me Randy’s watercolor pallet drips in artistic wonder, which stirs my desire to look more closely and feel more deeply the world around me.
And a few of my head-over-heels story tellers are Francine Rivers, Ian Cron, and Andy Andrews. I so appreciate their ability to not just write a story but to take me with them into the adventure. I like to feel a story and these masterminds know how to highlight their characters without being verbose or sappy. They are relevant story-ists designing friends to accompany us on our journey and at times to even help tote our luggage.
Place your mind in the company of stimulating writers, painters, photographers and allow them to stoke your thoughts and stir the embers of your artistic fervor.
Do you have a book on your shelf that never fails to ignite your creativity? Is it time to reread it?
Dr. Dan Allender is an AMAZING story-teller who moves me. I’m currently reading “Leading with A Limp,” which makes me feel like I’m schitzophernic. Crying one minute and laughing the next… kinda like YOU have the ability to do 😉
LOVED meeting you this weekend!
You, Patsy warm my heart. I love reading your work as much as listening to you talk as its seems one in the same. As I read your writings I can hear your voice. The linguistic way you put words together is just plain poetic. Thank you Patsy!!
Patsy, that’s great inspiration! Lots of things inspire me and get my creative juices going. I include the “mind of Christ” in everything, from conversations to what I see in the world and He provokes me to think and feel deeper. He’s my “Calgon that takes me away” to a quiet place of creative songwriting or any kind of writing when I am raptured with inspiration. Just noticing the finger print of God on creation stirs me… and sometimes makes me completely speechless that I can’t create anything until I’ve “digested” it, atleast until I find my words again.
Thanks for sharing Patsy.
I have to say, last tuesday night when we were all hanging out talking about your favorite authors, i walked away completely inspired. i need moments like that in my life… more times than i really think. Thanks Patsy for making such a huge impact on my life.
Your Friend, Spence:)
I have a book of watercolors of children, beaches, flowers, wooden A-frame houses, quaint pictures that I enjoy. It’s definitely that time.
My favorite book is The Shack…it has been on my mind lately. Maybe it is time for a re-read!
I also love Francine Rivers. I also am drawn into a story easily by Penelope Stokes as well as Karen Kingsbury. Nothing like a great story.
I always re-read your books!
Sweet. Thank you.
Yes, Patsy. First thanks so much for your complimentary words.
Second, the book that never fails to fire up my creativity is “Walking on Water” by Madeline L’Engle.
Randy
“Teaching A Stone To Talk” by Annie Dillard. Love her work and the way she weaves a story… it pulls you right inside and you suddenly feel as if you just might be a character too.
Andy Andrews and Jane Austen. Anything written by either of them is always a re-read for me. Takes me away to a calmer place where I can see and feel and breathe easier. The stories become movies in my mind and I can see them in great detail even when great detail is not written. That inspires my creativity. You, dear friend, bring lightness and laughter to my heart with your books. That inspires sunshine! And I love you for it!!!
p.s. I had a so much fun going to the theater with you and Diane in October!
Love this post!! And Love sweet friends like you and Randy you never fail to ignite that creativity!!
A book is a book right =)
and even though this is not “literature” There is a book by Richard Long “Heaven and Earth” That permanently stays on my coffee table.
Richard is an artist / photographer that I have loved since studying his work in college.
I saw an exhibit of his in London and It . was . breathtaking!
Every time I pick it up I feel inspired to look a little closer at the beauty that surrounds me!
Off to pick it up now. . . its been a lil too long!
Annie Dillard’s “Teaching a Stone to Talk”, Madeleine L’Engle’s “Walking on Water”, Anne Lamott’s “Bird by Bird” to start. Then I turn to the classics: Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Shakespeare, Louisa May Alcott, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Akhmatova. I also love music – Beethoven, Bach, Vivaldi, Beegle, Keaggy, Marsalis, Verdi, Puccini, Rachmaninoff, Copeland, Mozart. How can you not be inspired to be creative with all of this beauty to guide and encourage?