March 2009

“I must despise the world which does not feel that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.”—Ludwig van Beethoven, who died on this day in 1827.

Musicians, Visual Artists Collaborate
to Offer Peek at Creative Process

Earlier this month at the opening of its “Seeing Sounds” installation at Gallery S.P.A.C.E. in Savannah, the Creative Force Artist Collective—a newly formed group of about 20 diverse local artists—pulled back the curtain on the seldom-seen creative process, revealing what is for many a mysterious enterprise. Read more…

For anyone who toils in the creative realm, surrounding oneself with sources of inspiration is vital to survival.

While the muse often manifests in the strangest places at the most unexpected times, she’s notoriously fickle, often ignoring even the most desperate distress calls. Mystifying and unreliable is the muse, and creators cannot idly wait for some outside force to trigger the cogs of the imagination.

Art begets art.

Yet, the creative process inherently demands recurrent sparks of inspiration. The presence of art, in its multitudinous incarnations, emits such an energy to kindle the nerve endings of the mind’s eye. Personal libraries—of books, of music, of movies, of art and other creations—offer a milieu conducive to creative work, filling a space with spirits that urge us to imagine and re-imagine, to continually seek new knowledge, to see the possibilities in and of our artistic endeavors. Art begets art, creativity breeds creativity.

Jay Walker knows this.

For more than 30 years, throughout his adult life, Walker has been amassing a large collection of books; for the last 20 years, he has added countless artifacts, along with rare books and manuscripts, to his treasury. Without a dedicated room to house his growing collection, books and other items spread throughout his home, occupying any suitable space in various rooms. But Walker had an idea—one that would not only solve the practical issue of storage but also bring together the pieces of his vast, unique collection in inspiring yet functional fashion.

“I’m an inventor by trade,” said Walker, founder of Priceline.com and Walker Digital chairman/lead inventor, during our conversation last week. “Why not build a library of human imagination?” Read more…