How do you tap into inspiration on deadline?
You'd think Benjamin Ball might have the sublime answer--the key that would solve creative problems painlessly, in one beautiful flash.
Ball's work, via Ball-Nogues Studio, entwines aspects of art, architecture and industrial design in such compelling ways that the studio's pieces have been exhibited by MOMA, LACMA and the Guggenheim.
So here's his trick to dealing with inspiration problems at deadline.
"I figure out how to get on the phone and make an excuse--get an extension."
Ball's thoughts came care of a February 3 panel in Los Angeles on inspiration. Convened by FORUM magazine, the group featured architects Lorcan O'Herlihy, Mehrdad Yazdani, and Annie Chu along with Ball, and was moderated by writer Michael Webb.
But it was Ball's quip that immediately signaled--it wasn't going to be an erudite discussion. After the laughter chilled, he got direct and serious. And if the group didn't have magical a answer, there was comfort in knowing, ditch-digging was the key. Here are the notes I left with:
"We always start somewhere, do something," said Ball.
O'Herlihy: "You're not looking for that creative moment before you start. You start."
"I think the moment is overrated," observed Mehrdad Yazdani who heads Yazdani Studio of Canon Design. If there is an "ah ha moment," it happens in the midst of, and after, a lot of had work.
Ball: "We may study something for six months... and then there will be some idea that will merge. And, I guess that's the ah ha moment. It takes going through the process of being frustrated and just starting."
Yazdani: "How often do you walk through a museum and hear someone say 'Oh, I can do that!'" What stops them, from 'doing that' is... the blank page. Give them a blank page, and they wouldn't have the fortitude to begin. A process that artists, in all fields, develop the discipline for.
Annie Chu also pointed out the value of interspersing the concentrated focus on projects with a refreshing of the tumblers. Input as well as output.
"For me the teaching part is very important. It is the constant break from projects," said Chu, who intermingles her practice with teaching efforts such as her current post as a lecturer at USC noted.