A few days ago, I had a high school teacher visit my studio with one of her more promising art students. She was wanting to speak to some artists in Asheville’s River Arts district and see if we had any advice for how a young artist could get started. Is that cool or what? Kudos to you teachers out there! You are so, so important in the development of the next generation. Thank you!
One of the questions this teacher asked me was how I created paintings on days when I just didn’t feel at all like creating. I think this was referring to the painter’s equivalent of “writer’s block”, when you sit down to create and find nothing at all is there in your creative reserve to work with.
That question honestly surprised me. I really hadn’t thought about that before but felt like it was a great question. I took a long pause and did some quick “soul-searching” and realized I had absolutely no idea how to answer that question. I am old enough now to know that I can only speak for myself and I can’t speak for any other artists out there. I am just one guy and I may well be an outlier. But I’m okay with that, so I took a deep breath and explained that I don’t think I have never known a day when I didn’t want to create. I’ve never had “painter’s block”. To me, it’s not a matter of working myself up to creating something. For me, creative exercise is not something I work at doing at all. I feel like creativity is something that I have to let out, that’s all. Everyone is different and we all look at this in different ways, so I don’t see myself as a “standard” in any way, shape or form. I may well be really weird. True confessions.
I may well be really weird. True confessions.
I have always experienced creativity as like a spring of water coming out of the ground. Imagine a spring-fed pool, bubbling with water. What do you do to make that water come out? Nothing. It just does. Your task is to just not dam it up and to enjoy the water, right?Honestly, my spring has never, ever has dried up. I can’t conceive of that happening. I think when it does, I will be laid in the ground. This is not to say that I don’t get tired. I do, but I take breaks. I take “fun breaks” i.e. I play a lot. This is why I go hiking. This is why I love traveling. This is why I’m building a deck at my home with a slide on it (for me, not my grandchildren, although I’d let them play on it too). Playing is key because I think playing and exploring may have a big part of tapping into the eternal Source of creativity itself, akin to meditating and prayer. Especially when you earn your living in a creative field, I think you need to be really aware of what keeps that spring in healthy flowing order. For me, I play and pray. Doing that keeps my mind and heart inquisitive and humble, and I suspect that is important.
So if you’re reading this (especially if you’re creative), what do YOU do to keep that creative spring healthy? What do you do if you get tired of creating and have “writer’s block” or painter’s block or some other kind of creative block? I would seriously love to know.
