Oh no, artist block! (pt 2)

My first post on the subject of the cursed writer's block was mostly about recognizing it. But just as important is the matter of dealing with it.

I have a whole book on the topic. The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron was something I picked up from the library in 2010 and later purchased, because I felt like the author really spoke to the woe of being a 'blocked creative.' I liked her ideas—though they definitely swung to the spiritual side (it is subtitled A Spiritual Path to Creativity) of things, she also laid out some concrete suggestions.

To grossly paraphrase, her block-beating strategy consists of:

1) Write three journal pages ('morning pages') of brain-dump every morning.

2) Once a week, go on an "Artist Date" that entails doing something you really enjoy, alone, that appeals to your inner child.

I wrote morning pages with decent regularity for a year and half but stopped during our wedding-planning phase last year after it was suggested (rightly so) that journaling when I'm that stressed out just ends in spiraling. So I'll endorse morning pages with a 'maybe.' But the Artist Date—that one's a keeper. I'll bet a lot of creative types already have these once in a while—you know, the times you take a trip to an aquarium or an antique shop or a museum, shopping for inspiration. But once a week? That might seem excessive, but when it comes down to it...why not?

Today I decided it was time to give ye olde Artist Date a try and took a two-hour drive to the Maryhill Museum in Washington, where I'd never actually been before. I found it funny that instead of the 'fine art,' the things I found most interesting and inspiring were the antique chess sets and the Théâtre de la Mode exhibit.


I spent almost an hour sitting with the little mannequins and sketching my favorite couture. Will that lead for more art-ideas for me? I'm not sure. But I did shake that irritable feeling I'd been having all week. And on the drive home, I found myself with a lot of unrelated, but free-flowing ideas: Oh, here's an idea for a story. Here's an idea for structuring my days better! Hey—maybe I should try a 24 hour comic!

Seeking out inspiring places and objects is a no-brainer for getting a creative boost. But it's not always feasible at the drop of a hat. It took me about a week to make it happen (I'd been meaning to go to the Maryhill for a while, truth be told!). So I'll end with a look at some of the more "immediate" solutions I've been trying which have helped me keep my daily blog from fizzling out:

• Bribing myself: "You can go to the gluten-free bakery if you take your sketchbook and promise to work."
• Being a hardass with myself: "You sit in that chair ,and you don't get to go to the gym or eat or shower before you produce something that doesn't suck."
• Drinking coffee and/or alcohol in an attempt to improve my mood (*not necessarily recommended)
  
• Looking through out sketchbooks for inspiration. Both of these had a history in old sketchbook scribbles.
• Heavily relying on Photoshop, where I can erase and redraw that line 50 times if I really want to.
• Alternatively, denying myself references and non-permanent drawing tools. Drawing with Sharpies.
• Doing redraws of old, less-than-stellar pieces. This has the bonus effect of boosting my confidence because...well, compare:
  

But that's all I have on the treatment schedule, and, at the end of the day, there are only so many old ideas to find and recycle. It would be nicer to stumble upon a cure. So will my Artist Date help lift me out of the slump? Stay tuned, I guess. But I am feeling better already!