So artist’s block. That’s a thing. It’s been talked about endlessly since whenever we realised that it is a thing. Online there is a bunch of resources about how to fix it, how to dig yourself out of the rut, how to unlock the artist within. But do they ever really work? Personally, I’ve struggled a lot with The Block (I’m calling it that now so get used to it) and I’ve “fixed” it a few times only for it to reappear again a few months or even weeks later, just like that bit of mould in the upper right corner of your ceiling. You clean it off, enjoy the fresh feeling, then before you know it it’s returned with vengeance.
Now I’m not claiming to have found the cure for this, and to be fair my outlook may be a little pessimistic. But from my own experience, I will unleash a truth bomb upon you, it may come as no surprise and go off like a fun snap (you know those little paper things you threw on the ground as a kid that made a loud snap, I don’t know their actual name but the box I still own was called Fun Snaps so I assume that’s what they were dubbed). Or it could go off and hit you in the face like a wet fish. I don’t know and honestly, that’s not my problem. Take this as you will and don’t shoot the messenger.
For those of you who are still reading, or skipped ahead to get past my rambling warning, here is my answer. Yep, you guessed it, there is no cure for The Block. It’s something that as a creative person you will have to live with. Like a snail has to live with the fact that it carries around a shell, it would probably like to put it down and become a slug. A nice, shell-free slug. But it can’t, it has all its internal gubbins and gunk in there. And like the snail, as an artist, or a writer or whatever, you have to carry the block.
That’s not to say that you can’t lighten the load at all. For me, The Block is just a form of boredom. I’m bored of drawing this way, or not succeeding in drawing how I want so now my brain is constipated for ideas. Some might call it an avoidance strategy, but my technique is just to go onto Pinterest and find some pretty things that I want to be able to make. My art will then be dedicated to learning how to do that thing until I get bored and the cycle begins again. As I’m getting older I realise that this is happening quicker and quicker, and I can’t seem to finish anything that I start. I don’t know if this is a different form of The Block but it’s annoying either way.
I guess if you came here looking for advice, I should at least give some to you. While it won’t get rid of The Block permanently it will ease the pain for a bit. All you have to do is find why you want to make stuff again. Chances are your tastes have changed recently and now you might like a different aesthetic. Look at other people’s work and see what you like in it. For me, the recent change was that I realised that I love impressionism. As a teen doing my GCSEs and A-levels, I hated it. I liked art that was photo-realistic (mainly because that’s what I had to make to get a good grade, but that’s another blog entirely) so I poo-pooed the idea of it from the get-go. But I found out that lending myself to impressionism is the way for my artistic voice to shout in my work. Sure I can copy a photo pretty easily, but I often wonder can people tell that I’m the person who drew this? All of my art changes from piece to piece and it’s almost like I’m an actor, always changing my accent to fit into the role, and now I don’t know what my own voice sounds like.
I think I’m starting to lose the point of this blog now, so that’s probably a sign to wrap this up now. I see that people are starting to read my blogs now and it’s nice to know that people are actually taking the time to read what I say, so thanks for reading 🙂
Katie Joice 