I have entirely too much to do this week. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining at all. I really don’t mind so much. The only challenge for me at times is – deadlines. We all have them, call them what you will – goals / objectives / workloads / deadlines – they must be kept! And if you’re anything like me, you’ve just waited until the eleventh hour and this blog is now due.
Sometimes we all hit a brick wall. We can sit before our blank canvases, white screens or hopelessly empty notebooks waiting desperately for creativity to manifest itself. I’ve spent hours upon hours coming back to the same blank sheet of paper, always expecting something to be there each time I return. Is this blog written yet? Poof! Unfortunately we can’t wave a magic wand, wiggle our nose or blink and nod with folded arms to make our art complete. Art in all its forms takes patience, motivation, inspiration and dedication. And sometimes we just can’t break down those walls.
Fear not! Better days will come!
Don’t let a shortness of enthusiasm or impetus rule your art! These uncreative moments often yield greater insight because they are born from frustration. “Angst makes for great art” (or so I’ve been told) I know plenty of artists who swim in anguish to create truly intense compositions. It’s most certainly true that some art can spawn from sorrow and unrest; however I personally prefer peaceful creativity over anxious inspiration. But we all know how hard that can sometimes be to come by.
Our busy lives are filled with deadlines, appointments and rushing about. An overabundance of activities and thoughts can often crowd our creativity. Occasionally just by “doing” our inspiration comes. Any art form requires at least starting somewhere until creativity takes hold. (By the way, not everything will be a masterpiece and some things may in fact be quite… well there sometimes aren’t any words to describe it!) But that’s okay, because we can learn from mistakes. Instead of staring at that empty screen, I’ll type words in random order. I find that if I write thoughts, ideas and pointless phrases down, they evolve into prose, instruction or personal masterpieces. I only get there by actually “doing” – once I’ve procrastinated to the eleventh hour plus fifty-nine minutes, of course.
And so by simply taking action, I am able to paint symphonies with words that were tossed together from a once hopeless void. I can then imagine the coarse wind on my face as bitter tasting silence falls from me. I can remember words I’ve written before to reuse, revive, renew and reinvent my inspiration. And that’s when I become my own muse. That’s when my inspiration flows through my own blood and my art emerges.
So if you’ve hit the proverbial brick wall, go ahead and pull a David Copperfield and walk on straight through. The other side is not far off, even though it may be difficult to see.
Remember: grow; learn; conserve; preserve; create; question; educate; change; and free your mind.
About: Kelli Klymenko is an artist, a faculty member and the Marketing & Events Coordinator at Sedona Arts Center: a gathering place where artists can learn, teach, and exhibit their works at the center’s School of the Arts and Fine Art Gallery in uptown Sedona.
