WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU HAVE AN ARTIST'S BLOCK

Majority of us have experienced an Artist’s Block. It’s the worst feeling when you have absolutely no ideas or inspiration. It’s the lowest time of an artist’s career and life. The other day, my friend asked me what I do when I have no inspiration or clue of what to create. Here are some things to try out (what’ve you got to lose?):

- Check your sketchbooks. That’s the whole idea of them right? To write down ideas and things that inspire you so that you are always in the creating mood. Even if you don’t remember why you have a to-go menu of a pizza place you went to three years ago glued into your sketchbook, it has the possibility to spark something.

- Google things. Remember that one time you went to the MoMA and saw an exhibit on Futurism? It might not have been inspiring then, but it could be now!

- Go to a museum (even if it’s a local museum and not the Louvre). Take your time and really break down the paintings you are drawn to. Maybe the brushwork will stand out? Or the color palette? (If you don’t feel like leaving the house, check out Google Art Project)

- Try painting in the style you’ve always hated. If you HATE abstract, try it out. While you’re working or after when you look back, you’ll realize you actually can appreciate parts of it, or why you love painting in another style.

- Talk about it. Accept that you’re stuck and talk to you’re friends (especially you’re non-artist friends, cause they always give random and out of the box ideas of what to create). Go see what you’re artist friends are creating (but don’t get down on the fact that they’re creating and inspired and you’re not). Being in the studio whether it is your studio or someone else’s will start to get your creative juices flowing.

- Go back in time. Remember that crazy art history teacher you had? Remember how they were so boring and tedious about the work that you barely paid attention? But, you kept the books so later on if you felt like reading all about the Baroque period you could? Well hopefully that is true, because art history is the basis of all art. So go back to your roots and be in awe of that gorgeous Caravaggio painting you loved.

- Read any book. There are tons of random art books out there. Go buy WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution (edited by Cornelia Butler and Lisa Gabrielle Mark, Co-published by The MIT Press) or go buy a comic book for all it matters. You could be inspired by the style or the one pose the Black Widow is doing or the issues they bring up.

Whatever you do: don’t get down on yourself and start thinking that you can’t get any good ideas because you suck as an artist. Everyone has these moments of pause. Just take advantage of the quiet to really see art in a new way. I hope my ideas are helpful, and feel free to leave a comment of what helps you get through an artist’s block!!