Hi, everyone. Yes I know I promised, but I still haven’t managed to get the photos from the pistols and parasols ball at Genrecon onto the same computer so I can upload them. I will though – next week!
In the mean time, having been laterally inspired by the convention last weekend, I have been thinking about how different types of art can inspire each other.
The first time I saw an illustration inspired by one of my stories I could hardly describe the feeling – I think honoured would be the closest, probably followed by awed – that another creative person would be inspired enough by my own ramblings to produce another piece of art.
The first illustration in this vein was inspired by my story The Buggy Plague, which was an action/survival story set on Mars. It was a two-page sketch, with the central character Chas in her skin-tight biosuit in the Martian dust before the approaching bulk of an Assembly and Service Unit, whose rogue AI was directing a swarm of exploration buggies forward like its own personal army. For that I owe thanks to the editor of Orb, Sarah Henderson, who also commissioned artwork for my story The Cook (which surprisingly enough was about the escape from intergalactic slavery by a group of humans cherry-picked from Earth during different epochs – although the key character was actually a celebrity cook working for the alien slavemasters).
Art endlessly inspires itself – books to films, books to music, music and fine art back to fiction and poetry.
I remember reading the introduction in Duke Elric by Michael Moorcock. I was surprised to learn he was involved with music in the 1970s and how fiction inspired so much of what they did, particularly lyrically. It put me in mind of so much of the classic 70s rock – Rush, Led Zeppelin etc – that was often inspired by Fantasy fiction. The Battle of Evermore comes to mind.
What are your favourite Art Instersections? What other forms of art inspire you? Or better yet, how has your work inspired others?
Cross-posted at chrismcmahons blog.
Mad Genius Club 
Pictures inspire me, usually portraits that spark a new character. Sometimes music can make me wish I could convey the pace and power in words.
As much as I might want to be inspirational . . . the closest I’ve come is one of my kids thinking about writing a phone game based on one of my story ideas. :: sigh ::
Probably my main one is the flow back and forth between books and film. I will see a a film that will spin off and idea, or read a book and think – ‘How would you convey that on camera?’ or ‘How would that scene look?’
Music helps me, even if it does not provide an initial idea. Certain pieces help me visualize scenes or convey a mood. Well, with on exception. “Recuerdos de la Alhambra” and “El Concierto de Aranjuez” led directly to a story, set in the Alhambra and in the streets around Seville Cathedral.
Landscape photos and paintings have provided ideas for settings. Jewelry and costumes do even more for my imagination, by sparking questions (who would buy that necklace? Why would someone give a man that ring? What if that broach was more than just a piece of jewelry?) and characters, or even cultures. Chinese and Japanese art led to the development of several aspects of Azdhagi culture (talon calligraphy, architecture, garden design).
Interesting. I have never thought about what jewelry implied about relationships, as gifts.
I almost always write to music, but I don’t recall music actually inspiring ideas directly. Hey – those are classical guitar pieces aren’t they?
Yes, they are. YouTube has several good versions of the Concierto and of “Recuerdos.”. I find the second movement of the Concierto to be the most beautiful. (If you want to start a fight between classical guitar fans, ask them who did the best version of “Recuerdos:” John Williams, Andreas Segovia, or Julian Bream.)
Metallica’s Enter Sandman, inspired by Neil Gaiman’s Morpheus, Dream King.
Hi, Chris.
Ah. Now that is a classic song. I’m not a Metallica fan, but that song has always got me. Interesting.