Need

What inspires an artists to paint something? What inspires a script writer to write a story? What inspires a dansuese to choregraph a dance? What inspires a poet to pen some limerics? What inspires a musician to compose a piece of music?

I dont know about the others, but atleast about music I can say that it is 'need'. Somehow people think of this creativity as a more romantic notion, of being inspired by somebody or some emotion. People like to think of something rather grand when we hear Bethoven's Fur Elise or see Leonardo's Painting of the Last Supper.

No I dont want to take away the grandeur of these excellent pieces of works by two all time great artistes. But I wanted to analyse this 'need' in a more scientific way, rather than having romanticised view of it. Lets see how much I can do it.

Need to create I think is as primal as Hunger or thirst or sex. Everybody creates new things everyday, everybody frames new sentences, everybody thinks of new things to do, everybody gets bored of doing the samething everyday, day in after day, everyone has the urge to break free. Its a need that one has for throwing down the norms of daily life and do away with the mundane things in life.

People express these in different ways. Many people do it repeatedly, some in a destrcutive manner and some in a constructive sense. Those in the destructive category, drouse themselves in liquor or drugs, resort to doing somethings publicly unaccepeted or something considered as morally or socially inappropriate. Its the 'need' to do something outrageous and something not conforming to the norms that makes these people do such things.

Diametrically opposite are the people who channelize this 'need' to do something constructive, and bring out the talent hidden in them. For this form of expressing one's 'need', one has to develop certain skills and talents so that the output is something really beautiful and something appeciated by the world.

However we can find a few intances of people who get mixed up in these paths, drug addicts who are great musicians or some fabulous painters addicted to smoking joints. But according to me the driving force or 'need' for either way of living one's life is the same.