“There is something very special in being able to sublimate your unconscious, and something very painful in the access to it…” ~ Louise Bourgeois
I romanticize that I’m tapping into something deep inside of me when I’m painting. I put on classical music and let the peace overcome my body. When I find I’m not inspired enough by violins or piano I throw on my hip hop and let the beats pound the canvas. I don’t know if I’ve reached any depths. I try but I suspect a dab of pretense in my quest. Am I going deep enough or am I still on the surface?
I’m going to experiment with silence this week although with the temperatures being far below zero I will need to keep that clangorous heater above my head in the “on” position. Real silence is rare to find. I did find it up north at Christmas while I visited my father. It was so quiet , so silent I thought I had gone deaf. I think that is where I will head this summer for my artist retreat if this silence experiment in the studio bears any fruit this week. What do you do, listen to or not listen to in order to reach that subconscious morsel of magic?
How do you know you’ve been there and come back?
Justy Dennis 
I have used many methods to get into that zone, tobacco, music, drugs etc. This is what I have discovered. Music helps block out the outside world but not music that particularly turns your crank. What works is some kind of ritual. (I used to make myself a cup of tea and smoke a cigar.) It doesn’t matter what the ritual is. And you don’t need inspiration. You need to work. It comes and then it leaves.
like an ebb and flow…I feel the same way about its presence David.