Patti Smith Inverview - The Creative Process

I have just read a great interview with Patti Smith I wanted to share, a wonderful description of the creative process. I didn't realize until recently Patti Smith is a celebrated photographer.

Ok. So tell me what you think about—and this is totally off the wall—what do you think about the element of magic in a work of art. I mention it because I think it’s definitely there in some of your music and some of your…

Well, there’s definitely a shamanistic aspect to creation because, you know, a lot of creation is partially one’s own ability and intelligence, one’s sense of vision. Another aspect is the channeling aspect. That’s where mysticism comes in to play--channeling what people call God, or nature; or if you’re performing, channeling people in the audience. Or you might be channeling Michelangelo, or Walt Whitman or Jesus Christ. Many of the artists and the people we believe in have even offered this. Christ said, “Lo, I am with you always even until the end of the world.” Walt Whitman said, “Young poet, two hundred years from now, I am with you.” In terms of creating, the word magic is a beautiful word, and certainly I’m aware of that all of the time. But I don’t rely on it because sometimes we’re on our own. I can look at the photographs I take and some seem like they have an extra thing that makes them special. Even recording, when I recorded “Horses” I can tell you that in “Birdland,” specifically, I felt entered by this thing--it doesn’t mean that the other songs are lesser, it just means that “Birdland” was the song I was performing when I felt entered by this specific energy.

So it was a doorway?


Yes, a certain portal. So absolutely, it’s not even something to believe or disbelieve in, it just exists as a kind of alchemy where you transform nothing into something. Or, as a performer, it’s when you transport people’s energy into something else. There are times when I’m performing when I want them to give me some of their energy, not to control them, but I so can transform it and give it back to them. It’s like the figure eight, the infinity symbol, the pouring in and the pouring out. It’s the part of the alchemical process that is also part of the performing process and the creative process.