Friday, February 12, 2010

Icicles Arising in the Forests of the North



So I saw this image over at The Rejectionist's blog. Over there, it was a tribute to the designer, Alexander McQueen, who just passed away (I think - my fashion knowledge is, um, limited. "Is that from the GAP?" Ink asked). Here, though, I have a different reason to post it up (since you don't want to hear me commenting on fashion... really, you don't).

I saw this picture and had an instant reaction, a creative reaction, a sudden sense of a world opening up as if a deep mist had been peeled away. And yet the mist, the mystery, lingers in the picture itself.

And this is one of the oddities of writing, isn't it? The puzzling randomness of inspiration, the way an image, a sound, a thought, is pulled into the mind and set suddenly to rattling and humming about, a firefly alit and trembling with energy. So bright, so incandescent, that it lights other thoughts and worlds, even sets a strange fire to them.

This, to me, is the electric nature of creativity. The flash and heat of it. All that heat from such a cool picture, with the chill mist of the veil, the ruffled snow of lace, the antlers plucked neatly from the heart of some vast primordial icicle. What a strange antlered goddess, and to so suddenly thrust her divinity into my brain... a thing of myth, almost. A little captured something... a something I want to release with words, to explore, to discover. Stories seem to abound and shimmer around this image, haunting the edges.

And yet how mercurial. A blog post, a memorial to a fashion designer I'd never heard of... a firefly in a bottle, translucent light shining through upon a new world or perhaps upon an old world, a world of ice and snow and fog-drenched forests, a world of weary men gathered around a fire and singing of the antlered goddess as stars flicker to cold life in a far black sky...

7 comments:

Unknown said...

There have only been a few times as of late where that flash hit me, but it is incredible to say the least. I really enjoyed this post. It reminded me of one of the many things I love about writing.

Bryan Russell said...

I do love those little eureka moments...

Christi Goddard said...

It is a very amazing picture. I, too, stared at it for a long while when I saw it posted this morning. To think of the white queen of the forest trudging ethereally through the snow, followed by the white fox and caribou...

QuiteLight said...

That is why McQueen was such a genius. He could create these incredibly visceral reactions with CLOTHES. He was a true artist, in an unusual medium for such beings.

J.B. Chicoine said...

Your writing is as evocative as the dress...

...looks like a combination of Chantilly and Alençon lace...and some fine silk tulle...

Susan Kaye Quinn said...

Oh, Canada! You have made the world proud with your lovely feast for the eyes in the opening ceremonies! Olympic sized visual inspiration, indeed. Bravo.

p.s. the dress above is mighty pretty, too.

dolorah said...

It was awe inspiring. You never know what will resonate with your audience, or just what heights they will take their own flights of fancy.

Thanks for sharing your own creative vision.


.........dhole