Artistic BLock

[Nikoya Mills]

How does one get over that Wall that can be around ones creative mind?  I do not know if it is because I am in a knitting frenzy or that I have hit a level of my art that I am now ready to step up from.  What do you do when you become blocked?

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Ah, then you will have a challenge here... not just me, but also 2 crazy cats that resist organisation, change, and really anything but being fed and having their coats brushed. Will send the tickey when I won the Euro-lottery...next Friday I hope;

Regards, Val

[Nikoya Mills]

Val if you pay for the plane ticket I'll come organize your work space ;) but just know that I can be slightly OCD and ruthless when it comes to getting a room ship shape; perhaps it is because I live with people who resist any sort of organization in our world.  :)

 

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Dear Nikoya, If you have finished clearing your work area, would you like to coma and clear mine, please, it might be a long project, so be prepared... Regards, Val

[Nancy Bell Scott]

"Play like a small child, collecting and arranging":  That sounds like perfect advice, Helen.

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Dear Nikoya,

Here are 2 suggestions for you:  i) go to Switzeland, and ii) go to a jungle in  Latin America.

What's behind both of these suggestions are 2 things I remember about 'creativity.'

First, Switzerland. "During the 2nd World War, Alberto Giacometti left occupied Paris, where he was having trouble working, and stayed in Switzerland, where his sculptures became progressively smaller -- so much so that when he returned to France in 1945, he was able to fir all of his work from the previous four years into six matchboxes." (You will need to get some matchboxes if you follow Alberto's route) .

Second, the jungle. I remember reading in a running magazine a while back that Nike's Creative Department (sic) once had difficulty thinking of what "next year's colour" would be. You might have thought that a dialogue could have gone along the lines of, 'Well, we did red last year, and mauve the year before that, so how about yellow for next year?', but Creative Design (sic again) isn't all that simple, so they took themselves off to a luxury camp in a jungle somewhere in Latin America, and after a couple of week's of messing about -- sorry I mean exploting and sharing their Creative Design (sic yet again) processes  -- came up with the answer...'Purple'.

[I have a third story, a more personal one involving my ex-wife giving birth to what we thought was a hamster, and how my subsequent creativity got me into serious trouble with my colleagues ina  Dutch University, but I will only tell you about that if there is sufficient demand (sic).]

Regards, Val

Regards, Val

[Nikoya Mills]

Thank You everyone for the great advice!  Today I am cleaning my work area and I think I'll try some of those quick collages!  Much appreciated!

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Yes, great realistic philosophy from you, Val. Like Lesley, cleaning up my studio, including sometimes rearranging things, gets things moving mentally. A few years ago, as posted elsewhere around here, I was badly blocked, and started doing small 3-scrap collages in sketchbooks: handpicked, blindly, 3 scraps out of a box or bin of them and made the best little piece possible out of the those 3 scraps (no trading) (also no fretting over them allowed).  It was a manageable-size thing to do, and I avoided the studio while doing them--did them while watching a movie or something--and those ended up shooting me out of the block like a cannonball.

[Lesley Magwood Fraser]

Great advice Val. I always start looking through old magazine and books, tidy my studio, go visit galleries, that usually helps! But don't stress about it, the inspirations always comes back!

[Ruud Janssen]

Best advice you can give Val.

See to it that you become active (or stay active) with whatever it is you like to do. Forcing things doesn't always work. Inspiration comes when the mind is already active and just starts to create sidelines of things to do. That is how it always works for me.

Ruud

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Bonjour!

I've suffered from both writer's and artist's blocks at various time. The worst thing to do, I have found, is to sit down with an empty pad or canvas and try and force creative inspiration. It won't work for me -- if an idea or inspiration ain't there, then it just ain't there.

So don't force it. Put the pen down, put the paintbrush away, and go and do something else.

The best thing I have found is just to wait for inspiration to come. Exercice helps me, and my best ideas often come when I'm walking or cycling. Sometimes they come when I'm in bed, and to make sure that I don't loose them I write them down on a little pad so that they ware there when I get up.

Also remember that you are an artist, not a worker in a factory or an office. You don't have to produce something today, tomorrow or the next day. in fact you don't have to produce anything at all. You have the freedom of the artist.

So just relax, and wait for the Big Artistic idea to come all by its own sweet self, all in its own sweet time.

Who knows -- it might be The Big Artistic Idea of your lifetime?

Hope this helps,

Regards, Val