Joe Hoover

The Discipline of Inspiration

Arts & Literature

“Carey Wallace has subverted the (misbegotten) notion that ‘inspiration’ is too fickle and, perhaps, ‘spiritualized’ a tool for the artist to rely on. By wedding the practice of faith to the practice of artmaking, Wallace is helping reclaim the seemingly archaic notion of the Creator as the ultimate source of all creation. Drawing on classic spiritual disciplines like manual labor and poverty and fasting, Wallace offers surprising ways for contemporary art-makers to fashion lives devoted to their craft. She makes her case without antagonism or Christian triumphalism, but with the quiet certainty of one who has her spiritual game together. Her insights are clearly hard won, and her prose is as inspired as her subject.”