Sean Rogers did a great
free-association-tinged interview with cartoonist and writer Lynda Barry in his
comics blog in “The Walrus” magazine about her book “What It Is.” The book is full of collages,
writing and art prompts, and all kinds of weird and wonderful stuff. Here's what she says about being creative:
“One
of the writers I heard the other day said he didn’t think there was any such
thing as artistic genius, which is exactly how I feel. And I do feel that art
is as integral to human experience as our autonomic nervous system. I think I
said, it’s like saying somebody has a talent for saliva production. You’re a
genius at producing saliva! Or man, can you grow hair! “He’s brilliant!” But I
do think the converse is true. I do think people can be talked out of it, or
shocked out of it. It’s amazing to me how frightened people are of making their
own art. Terrified.”
I also love the image of she has of the relationship between her conscious and unconscious mind:
“I have this image of a monkey that’s usually driving the car—I’m locked in the trunk and the monkey smoking the cigar is driving. That’s my unconscious.”
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