What do you do when you are stuck?
Here is a list of my tried and true. Please comment to add to it.
1. work small and play with ideas, don't give thought to outcome
2. pick one idea play with it ...sort of like a series, but different.
3. change surface
17 comments:
Sometimes when I get stuck, I walk away. I literally go for a walk and when I come back I seem to have new ideas or a new approach.
Change medium, or just sketch for a while works for me. Love the colours in this one, Loriann.
Go to the eye doctor. Seriously. Get a tune-up.
Hi Liz, Yes walks work for me too-on as a daily studio work practice. This stuckness is bigger. I will keep walking. Thanks for commenting.
Hi Maggie, thanks for your input. Maybe i will do more sketching. Thanks about the colors.
Hi Sam, So you think I need an eye exam? What kind of tune- up do you recommend?
I love the warm and bright colors in this painting because here is very cold and frosty :). When I stuck everything what was mentioned here helps. At first I am trying a different media, working small or trying a different motives out of my zone comfort (f.e.portrait) or go away from painting for couple of days...to think ideas only in my head or go out to make some photos...
I draw with no outcome in mind and in the loosest sense of the word, walk at the beach and draw, listen to the waves and draw, look for shells and pebbles and draw and draw and draw.....somewhere along the way magic starts to happen. Sometimes I take one object and draw it in as many different ways in as many different mediums and styles as I can. It might start as a line drawing and turn into a collage then a monoprint then a watercolour etc... each time the starting point from the drawing is the previous piece. The object gets lost and it becomes colour, texture and shape. Somehow I forget I am stuck as the work develops a mind of it's own dictates the next step.
...works for me. I hope your 'stuckness' has disappeared by the time that you read this. I would prescribe walking away from the project and making yourself a couple of days to play.
Hi Marcela,
Thanks for your comment. I think like you and have been working small for the past 2 months...now I want to move forward from these and am not sure what to do. egad!I will keep trying.
Hi Lisa and thank you for your comment. With no outcome in mind is a big piece of the recovery. I think what made me so stuck in the beginning was trying to do a large commission and then of course NOTHING works!I have place the commission in another room and am trying to move forward.
Maybe I should play with mono prints again... Thank you again.
I change my venue. If I'm stuck at my home studio I go to a life drawing class. Somehow for me working in a group is a very powerful motivator to become unstuck!
Although I don't feel stuck right now (but I do get stuck) I am in a serious drawing stretch. I spent a day organizing tools and sharpening charcoals. I'm looking at drawing books, and imagining or remembering scenes I see when I go out on the X-C skis.
Stuck. . .
I see everything as an artistic expression waiting to happen and getting "stuck" is all part of this equation. For in my mind, immobility (if we place a word such as stuck for translation purposes) is thought acting physically, therefore, I chose (without expectations of outcome) to be physically challenged.
Pick a favorite form of movement
Immerse yourself
Listen to your breath
Remember, that we are, after all, change waiting to happen.
Micros
Hi Rachel,
Thanks for your comment. A life drawing class was an idea I wouldn't have thought of. I will add it to the list.
Hi Casey and thanks for your input. The studio could use some organization. And I definitely agree with you about movement.
Hi Micros and thank you for your comment.I really like that,"we after all are change waiting to happen." It's so true. I do tell myself that this is good. When stuckness happens a good change is coming. I will make certain to move and breathe in the meantime.
There is a list of instruction somewhere from the Dali Lama. One of the things on it is: "Spend some time alone every day". I love driving for this reason! If I were really stuck big time...I'd take a road trip.
Someone once told me that painters are always painting...even when they are not painting. If you are thinking about painting, that's a gestation time and qualifies as painting/working. We must honor those quiet times and understand that they are just as important as the more outwardly active times.
Your paintings in this post are beautiful. Thanks for the thought provoking question!
Hi Celeste, you are so right driving and walking are sometimes the only alone times we can get.Painters are always painting, wondering, planning, noticing. Honoring all those times is important. Thanks for dropping by and offering words of wisdom!
Fantastic! I've been so attracted to warm colors lately, your oranges are perfect.
Warm colors...hmmm maybe it's the winter cold. Thanks for your comment Sarah!
Sorry to be so late.
When I advised you before to see the eye doctor, I did because I'm a little obsessed by having to share my view with a cataract.
I take it back -- you should not see an eye doctor. You shouldn't let anything come between you and the work you've been doing lately. You may have been stuck, but now you're on a roll. Sounds like that road trip Celeste was talking about.
Thanks so much Sam. Sorry to hear about having to share your view. I hope you can get some help to remedy the cataract. Take care.
Post a Comment