Over the last two years, many of us who were fortunate enough to have somewhere clean and safe to live concluded that one of the great pleasures of life is making things: be it bread, furniture or clothing. We asked people across ages, genders, races and mediums to explain how they create and, as important, why they create. This issue is dedicated to living a creative life, which is something that all of us, whether self-proclaimed artists or not, have available to us.
It’s why, I often feel, artists find not only solace but hope in hearing about other artists’ processes instead - what do they do, these other people, to make art happen? How do they create? What might their struggles illuminate about our own?
What feels so clear can, once spoken, sound tinny or fragile or banal. Inspiration, the alchemy by which an idea makes it from the mind to the page (or canvas or potter’s wheel or dress form), is often inarticulable or somehow unsatisfying. Every creative person knows that inspiration is everywhere, and yet the question What inspires you? can be both dull and impossible to answer.
