A thought:
What if much of our impulse to make art, photographs, etc is related to our hormones?
For example:
- The fear hormone (cortisol, etc) as an indicator that you want to photograph something [street photography], but you’re afraid of the negative consequences.
- The hormonal response to wanting to photograph a beautiful person or a model [what drives portrait photography, or even painting portraits?] The prolific artist as also a very sexually-charged or perceptive person?
- When I am intermittent fasting, perhaps my hormones for my ‘fasting glucose levels’ are steady, which gives me energy and motivation to make art?
Why do I feel more compelled to write and do creative stuff after lifting weights or sprinting?
When I was in high school, I played (American) football [linebacker]. And this is the interesting thing:
After an intense practice, I felt a huge hormonal rush, which gave birth to tons of creative ideas.
When I rushed home, I would then go on my computer and write out ideas and blog posts.
Therefore a theory:
Perhaps in order to induce ourselves to do creative work, we must first trigger a hormonal response associated with physical exercise, or muscular effort/exertion?
I have no motivation to make art after eating an all-you-can-eat buffet
Let us assume I had a carb and sugar-heavy all-you-can eat buffet of orange chicken (corn syrup + sugar), ice cream, cookies, white bread, Coca Cola, orange juice, etc.
After this, I would have a MASSIVE insulin spike, and then a crash (which causes me to fall into ‘food coma’ in which I just want to go home and take a nap).
Therefore, diet (and timing of when you eat your meals) does have a big effect and influence on your artistic production.