Experimenting with a New Series: Creative Triggers

This is the first of a series of posts on personal creative triggers: places, people or things from which I draw creative or artistic inspiration. These triggers may have spurred a burst of overall creative energy with no particular rhyme or reason, inspired a certain look & feel for a specific painting or sparked an interest to further unfurl my creative wings. I'm leaving it open.

My experiment will initially consist of four Creative Trigger posts during the month of March - one each week. You might not find anything new or maybe you will. You might find something familiar, but with a different twist, or maybe you'll find a timely reminder. As always I encourage you to take what you like and leave the rest.

Let's begin.

Creativity Trigger #1: Documentaries

I am a self-confessed documentary geek (nerd? junkie?). I rarely leave the library without picking one up. Whether they're about artists, chickens or muscle cars, documentaries have the potential to inspire in many ways:

• how they're filmed - the cinematography, the chosen slant or the narrative style (for example, à la Ken Burns) may help shape our next painting, story or blog post;
• biographies about leaders and other independent spirits can inspire us to be resourceful, fearless and persistent in our own creative endeavours;
• biographies about artists, writers or photographers may prompt us to play with new tools, techniques or creative processes (don't forget to check out the special features for insights into the documentary maker's own creative process);
• exposure to different subjects and ideas can trigger even more ideas by combining them with the ones we already have;
• travel documentaries may plant a seed to explore region-specific art or architecture, or maybe even plan a trip to capture an area's beauty in person through words, a lens or on canvas; and
  
• how-to documentaries teach us, well, how to do stuff.

Some of my favourite documentary discoveries include:

• In the Realms of the Unreal (Explores the life and work of Henry Darger. I was inspired by Darger's resourcefulness and his mind-blowing creativity, plus the project planner in me loved how he backed up his stories with meticulous documentation.)
• Eloquent Nude, The Love and Legacy of Edward Weston and Charis Wilson (This made me want to set off on a road trip with D. and document it - him with his camera, me with my laptop.)
• Man Ray, Prophet of the Avant-Garde (Before stumbling upon this documentary I'd never heard of Man Ray; now I have.)
• The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo (Frida! I can never get enough of Frida.)
• Chased by the Light - A Video Journey with Jim Brandenburg (Stunning images captured by National Geographic photographer Jim Brandenburg on his quest to re-claim his photographic centre by limiting himself to one click of the shutter a day for 90 days.)
• Riding the Rails (Explores the lives of teenage freight-train riders during the Great Depression. Something about the images and footage from the Depression era speaks to me.)

All of these were picked up on a whim at my local library for free - and I could list many more.

Tell me, what documentaries inspire you?