How to overcome "Artist Block"

by admin | May 14, 2015 | Artist Resource, Creative Process, Inspiration, Uncategorized

The other day one of my students asked me what I do when I get “Artist Block”. I quickly responded “Artist Block? It doesn’t exist!”. This student disagreed as well as other students in the area who were listening to the conversation. “Yes it does.” One would say “I never know what to draw!” said another.

I listened to their arguments and though about it for a little. I realized that what my students were thinking was that you need to have some grand idea before you can get to work making art. And in my experience it is quite the opposite. Ideas rarely come from sitting there trying to think of ideas. Ideas come while you are hard at work.
I responded to my students “I never experience artist block because I am willing to get to work without any ideas.” Some my respond to this with “But what if what we draw looks stupid?” To that I say who cares? As an artist you need to be willing to create and it is possible you will make stupid looking drawings. You won’t learn otherwise. Everyone needs to start somewhere. And I will let you in on a little secret. The better you get the more you realize how much you have to learn. Something I love about art is I feel like I can sculpt my whole life and still have more to learn.
The conversation when on, but the gist of it was that if you are waiting for something brilliant to draw before you start drawing you will always have artist block. If you are willing to draw anything at anytime no matter what it is going to look like you will feel that artist block doesn’t exist. And it won’t! Not for you anyway.
This seems like common knowledge to me but the more I teach the more I realize this is a foreign concept to many people including may artists. However I know that I am right on this topic and I have a few very well know artists backing me up so I am also in good company.
Pablo Picasso said “Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working.” Doesn’t that sound a lot like what I was just telling my students? Artist Chuck Close put it another way, he said, “Inspiration is highly overrated. If you sit around and wait for the clouds to part, it’s not liable to ever happen. More often than not, work is salvation.” He also said, “I don’t work with inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs. I just get to work.”
There is a story one of my artist friends likes to tell me. He was once in Jackson Hole Wyoming visiting an art show. At this particular show Artists were participating in an event called a quick draw. Basically artists are given 3 hours to draw or paint whatever they want. People walk around and see the artwork being made and in the end they auction off all the artwork. Toward the end my friend was walking around seeing a bunch of wonderful artwork being made. He came across an artist who had painted a canvas with a few dots and was now sitting on the ground cross legged and meditating to get inspiration on what she should do next on her painting. That’s it! After three hours all she had was a few dots! Now who do you think were the artists receiving inspiration that day? The artists who got to work, or the ones who sat on the ground waiting for inspiration? Now I’m not saying that meditation is a bad thing. On the contrary it can be a great way to clear your mind and get you ready to work. But that is just it. It has to be followed by work.
I try to teach my students that when they are working on one project they should be coming up with Ideas for their next project. This is the way I work and I have more ideas than I know what to do with. In fact, I get so excited about my ideas that often start another project before I am done with one. I currently have six sculptures that I have started but aren’t finished, and that doesn’t include a few paintings I have also started. Will I finish them? Sure I will! I enjoy having multiple things to work on so I can switch back and forth whenever I choose. Some of my students catch on to this and end up doing the same. One of my students who will be graduating on Tuesday once said to me “it’s funny but all of my best ideas come to me when I am working on another project.” and likewise she has so many ideas she barely has time to finish them.

So now the question is, what do I mean when I say to draw anything? I mean anything. I often will pull up figure drawing videos and draw from those. You can read a post about this here. I also show my students creativity building activities like doing a squiggle drawing or a back and forth drawing. Draw your hand, draw your shoe, draw the items in your pocket.
Too many people shoot their ideas down before they have had time to develop them. Here is a quote from me that I often tell my students:
“There are no bad ideas in art. Just ideas that you have not spent time developing”
-Daniel Borup
I like this quote and I think it is true. All to often when a student says “I have no ideas” what they are really saying is “none of my ideas are very good.” Good ideas rarely come in an instant. They start small and you build upon them. Overtime if you develop it in the right way it might become something that will affect the emotions and lives of many. If not that is okay because there are an infinite amount of ideas to come and take its place. The point is the time and effort you put into your ideas. In one blog post I detailed some of my creative process of a sculpture I am still working on, which you can find here.
I will leave you with one more quote from Andy Warhol.
“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide whether it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”
-Andy Warhol
What do you think? Have you ever had “Artist Block”? What are some ways you have overcome a creative block? Let me know. I appreciate your comments.