Tips from artists to artists on moving through a block
by Maya Modelli
Artist’s block is a most unwelcome feeling. When exhaustion takes over when your mind goes blank and nothing can pull you back into the habit of creation. The familiar catharsis of making art seems distant, even impossible. There is no one-size-fits-all, magic-cure, one-step solution to recovering from a block, but in consulting with local hobby, professional, and student artists, here are a few tips for working through a block.
Take a walk.
No, seriously. It sounds so simple it’s almost annoying. Almost everyone interviewed said that sometimes stepping back is the best thing you can do. Taking a walk or whatever type of movement is best for you is helpful in giving yourself permission to reset. Taking time to observe the world around you can serve as a break and a source of inspiration.
Miles Sterner, a University of Minnesota student, walked me through what he does when he gets stuck while writing scripts. “When I get stuck but still want to write I just look at my notes and flesh those out or try to make them fit together,” Sterner said. “…If I’m trying to find some way to link scenes or tie things together I usually take a walk, and creativity in my pieces just kind of comes from nowhere.”
I can’t count all the times I have taken a walk out of frustration with a project and seen something, a setting, a person, a scene that I want to take photos of, that may not have been the very piece I was missing, but that got me one step closer.
Talk with your peers
“I struggled with art block for years and I overcame it most often when I connected it with something else I really enjoyed at the time,” Casey Larson, a visual artist, said. “I would also ask for suggestions from friends. Even if you don’t go with their exact idea, it can inspire something similar.”
Art is an intimate practice and sometimes sharing your work, or even the inspirations for your work can be daunting but talking with other artists can be just what you need to work through a funk, whether that’s explaining what you want to do, and figuring out how to achieve it, or looking to them for inspiration.
Try a new medium or prompt
I often feel the most stuck when I am so critical of my work that it stops being fun. Taking the time to learn a new medium, or do something you don’t typically do helps to re-ignite a playfulness in creating. Allowing yourself to be bad at something, and nurturing the curiosity that led you to try something new is one of my favorite ways to work through a block.
It sounds tacky, but looking at artist prompts that force you to make something following a certain story or theme can be helpful in just making yourself create, even if it’s silly. It is about giving yourself the permission to create even knowing it won’t be your best work.
At the end of the day, it’s about the little things. Anything you can do to nurture curiosity, to reignite that playfulness to guide and inspire creative action can help alleviate the anxiety and frustration that come with artist’s block.