Did you ever have a period of time in your creative mind where it all comes to a screeching halt? One goes along merrily creating, being in the groove and there doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to get all of your projects completed, and then--------WHAM---it comes to a stop. Just as if a huge stop sign popped up on the road when you are driving, and it demands you to lean on the brakes. What causes that? Are other influences in one's life dictating this change? Have you already "used up" all the creativity that you have? Are you just tired?
It seems when one gets stubborn and says to themselves, 'I will just work through it' whatever you work on just doesn't turn out the way you would have liked it to. So, you look at the piece you have just finished and ask yourself, 'now why did I even bother to try to do this?'
Perhaps when that happens, the best thing to do is just put it gently away for awhile. Maybe read a book, have coffee with friends, visit a gallery, or something else that might have been nagging at you in the back of your mind for some time now and you have been ignoring it. A little R&R seems to be in order here. Although, to me R&R means rest and rejuvenation, I would hate to think that this would be the end of the creative life.
Somehow, I don't believe that would ever end in someone who lives, breaths and sleeps the process.
What do you do when that happens to you? I know that every time I talk with another artist or go to an Art Boutique (and by the way if you hare looking for inspiration, I know a perfect spot called Seranya Studios Art Boutique in Plymouth, WI. There are over twenty artist featured there and one can feel the vibes of creativity) one's attitude shifts and you can feel the stirrings of the next adventure into the art world.
Share with us what you do to get through that phase of emptiness.
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More often than not, for me, that "stop sign" probably has something to do with what I ate the night before (or drank). Too much starch turning to sugar, to much protein weighing in on the processing scale, or anything else that taxes my physical energy that also puts out the anchor on my creativity run. My best time is early in the morning before breakfast, 3 cups of tea later, and watch out: I'm off! When the "big stall" or as we say in a sailor's world, "I am in irons" (the wind is coming straight directly on to your bow and you are going no where!), I will lay out the lounge chair in the yard in nice weather and pull out my Kindle 1 to read whatever couple of books I have going. In the cold weather it is really the same thing but my Kindle 2 in the basement bedroom looking out on the back yard.
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