Spark

January 10, 2011
Over the past 10 years, numerous artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers have sat down with host Kurt Anderson in his acclaimed public radio show, Studio 360, to reflect on the power of art and the nature of creativity. Pulling from those interviews, Burstein, the show's producer, gathers a diverse cast of characters (Chuck Close, Richard Ford, Isabel Allende, and Patti Lupone among them) who share their thoughts about the sources of their creativity: the influence of their parents, of place, or of a shattering event, or the stimulation of working with a creative partner. Rosanne Cash tells about the moment that liberated her from anger at her father, Johnny Cash. Poet Stanley Kunitz draws his deepest inspiration from the bounty of a garden he created out of a sand dune. The photographer William Christenberry draws sustenance and inspiration from his home county in Alabama, returning there every year to photograph farms, churches, and roadside cafes. Through enlightening conversations, these creative individuals demonstrate how they lift raw materials out of familiar contexts and create art that changes how we perceive the world.