The Maker of Miniatures

After work the other day I sat down to enjoy my lunch while listening to a podcast. I selected the most recent podcast of New Yorker: Fiction, one of my favorite fiction casts in which a different New Yorker writer reads the work of a favorite famous author. On December 18, Cynthia Ozick read Steven Millhauser's short story, "In the reign of Harad IV."

I won't give away the story, because I hope that you will listen to the story yourself. But I will say that Millhauser leaves his reader (or in my case, listener) to ponder the qualifications for art: Is a work for the artist herself or the audience? If only the artist perceives the beauty and meaning of a piece, does the beauty truly exist?

These questions have been very much on my mind as I look across hundreds of unfinished, only-launched projects saved on my computer. I don't know the answer to Millhauser's query. I do know that for someone who loves–and lives–to create, it is tormenting to produce art that is not shared, or worse, not appreciated. In a videocast that I will share later, the artist says that to work is to express one's soul. If this expression has no audience or is so convoluted that it cannot be understood or is unappreciated by those with whom it is shared, the artist endures ultimate loneliness. Alternately, if the artist is able to share her art with an appreciative audience, she experiences ultimate exuberance. And if her sharing inspires an just one observer to express his or her soul through art, she has cause for the greatest elation.

And so, in this blog, I will share the "sweet things" sprinkled through my days: art (both my own and others'), business ideas, inspiration, musings, language, poetry, prose, stories, and more.

Here is Millhauser's short story, "In the reign of Harad IV". Tell me, do the creations of the Maker of Miniatures really exist? Is he wrong to keep the product of his inspirations to himself? Where does inspiration come from, ultimately? Is someone who receives inspiration ethically bound to find a way to express that inspiration?

A photo series by Slinkachu to help you consider art