Imagination Works

Last week I sat down in my studio and . . . nothing happened. My mind was racing with to-do items, preparations for my next show . .but not with a single creative idea for my work. When I checked in with myself, I found that I was tired and was rejecting ideas as quickly as I thought of them. Exhausted from a long run of retail art shows and evening-class teaching, I was out of creative energy. It was time to take a break, to re-charge creatively. Some artists with whom I am taking a class confessed that they, too, face creative burnout.

So what are some of the resources you use to recharge their creative batteries? Read what these people do, but please do post your own creative battery-charging ideas. I’d love to see what you do when the blahs hit.

Kathy Cano Murillo, who runs a website on Chicano pop art and is a reporter for The Arizona Republic, says that she courts creativity by always having a space stocked and set up, ready to go. When inspiration comes, she has a landing place for it. But what about when the ideas dry up?  She gets going on a new technique. “. . .it’s easy to get burned out on making the same things. But by taking on new materials and techniques, it always makes me feel refreshed and my work comes out more interesting.” She also refreshes her creative well by never letting it run dry. “I always look for new materials in unusual places—many times not from any store, but from places I travel or things that people normally throw out. That’s what drives my creativity!”

Tina Games-Evans, a freelance writer in Alexandria, Virginia, gets a creative boost “by taking time to connect with nature. Sitting with my journal perched high on the mountainside, I take in the beauty of nature while breathing clean, fresh air. My head clears and my anxiety disappears.”

Pam Burke, a fabric collage artist from Middletown, New Jersey, heads for the library—the children’s section. “I read the latest humorous children’s picture books - funny pictures and puns wake up the unconventional parts of my brain and the giggling wakes up my body.” It has to be great for the kids, too, to see her giggling and enjoying herself!

I also got an answer that confused me at first, but made sense on closer reflection. Rick Stansberger, a writing teacher from Silver City, New Mexico, told me that the poet William Stafford never had writer’s block. “When we block,” Stafford said, “it’s because our standards are too high. What you do then is lower your standards.” Rick adds, “It works. I’ve never had a single day of creativity block since then.” The idea is to keep creating. Not to stop, not to walk away from your studio, because each time we leave our studio unfulfilled or unhappy, we risk not returning. Doing some work, even if it isn’t our best, is better than quitting, Rick said. “I might not be creating on a given subject or in a given medium, but I can always create something.” And sometimes, when we create without pressure, without that high bar we so often set for ourselves, we can venture into a new area of creativity without fear. That leads to interesting results, as the next artist found out.

Nan Fischer from Taos, New Mexico, moves into a different field entirely. She took a break from her studio and did some tile work for a gardener.  She tackled the new task with no experience but with “some great instruction and support from a friend and the tile store. What a boost that was!” The benefits of taking on something unfamiliar? “It expanded my abilities, gave me something else to add to my portfolio and reaffirmed for me that the creative process is the same for all our creative endeavors. It also elevated my self-confidence that I can start and finish whatever I put my soul into.”

That’s the real secret to restoring your creativity: knowing that you can return to your work after a break with self-confidence.

Tip of the Moment: It’s easy to keep so busy you don’t realize the energy is running low until it’s gone. Plan some work breaks along the way. Call a friend and plan an outing to a museum, a gallery, or a lunch in a beautiful setting at least once a month. Particularly when you don’t have time. Once you are creatively run down, it’s harder to charge up. Setting dates with friends makes it more fun and less likely you won’t go.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 at 12:07 pm and is filed under creativity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.