What to do when inspiration doesn't strike
Hello? are you up there? why aren't you working today what the hell man?
What do I do when I find myself staring at a newly primed canvas, knowing that somewhere in my brain there are ideas but my brain isn't cooperating today?
I WALK THE HECK AWAY.
I'm a very busy person with a pretty tight schedule. I work full time, which at my place of employment usually means 50+ hours a week, to pay those pesky bills that keep showing up in my mailbox every month even though I cant seem to remember spending all that freaking money WHERE DOES IT ALL GO??? I also entertain my boyfriend, who I love dearly. I talk to my mom as often as I can (we have lunch time phone dates, how cute are we?) i paint my ass off anytime i can and i spend an inordinate amount time updating my website/blog/etsy store/pinterest/instagram/facebook and freaking twitter accounts.
My time is precious, and so is yours. if you're anything like me, your entrepreneurial spirit and ADD brain will seldom allow you to just sit down for a full 25 minutes to watch an entire episode of Archer. Really brain, is that so much to ask? We don't have time to sit and stare.
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1. outside
I like to go on hikes. Not in an I'm-super-into-exercise-and-health kind of way. Just in a nature-is-beautiful-duh kind of way. So i grab my headphones, put on some serious metal music, and wonder around on someone else's property that i'm probably not supposed to be on but which is the only amount of peace and quiet i can find in this overpopulated shit show i call home. ahhh Connecticut. Sometimes i take pictures of interesting tree roots, or a puddle of water with leaves resting peacefully at the bottom. I once found someones discarded beer bottle that nature turned into a terrarium. it was pretty dope. i don't say dope.... it was awesome. there, that's better. awesome!
2. shower
i'll admit, sometimes i get so wrapped up in creating awesome paintings (i'm over compensating here for being wildly insecure about the quality of my work) that i forget to shower. Don't sit there and act like you've never done it. so yeah, if the big ideas just aren't coming to me, and i realize that its one of those moments that i can smell myself, i figure creativity can smell me too and keeps its distance. maybe its just that i'm too distracted by the flies to really concentrate. but i choose to believe that if i shower and feel better about myself then all those creative juices will start flowing, and guess what. it works! Thinking about what inspires me to paint is my second favorite thing to do in the shower. what's my first favorite thing you ask? having fake arguments in my head that i always win obviously. why isnt that your favorite?
3. paint....
something else. anything else. paint your nails. paint your dogs nails. put pretty designs on your dogs nails. i paint rocks. i know its not original, like everybody and their brothers girlfriends cat paints rocks, but its fun. and that's the thing. its FUN. no pressure of what your twitter followers are gonna think or how many likes you'll get on instagram. no pressure of OMG is this shit, i'm shit, no one is gonna buy this shit. so if you're feeling stumped, go spend some time doing something else that is also creative, but that is silly and inconsequential and take the pressure off your creative spirit for a while. it gets tired just like you do.
4.bake
i don't cook. i don't really bake either, bit its more fun. well, except for the time i caught the oven on fire. that was decidedly NOT fun. cooking and baking are a lot like painting. I like to bake apple pies, but like serious apple pies. i found a picture on instagram one time of an apple pie and the crust was davey jones from POTC. so of course i had to make one just like it, with the tentacles and everything. it turned out pretty dope. damn it we decided i don't say dope what is wrong with me?? it was AWESOME. and the best part was that when i was finished, there was a tangible end product to all of my efforts. Just like a painting, except i wouldn't recommend eating the paint. glue maybe.. no don't do that either.
5. paint anyways
the hard truth is that inspiration isn't always going to smack you in the face. its not always some big out of body ethereal psychedelic experience. Some of the best paintings i have ever done have been born out of making myself sit my ass down and put the brush on the canvas. i'll set a time limit when i'm not feeling it. today i will paint for 1 hour. i don't care how it looks i just have to do it. if its not working at the end of that 1 hour then i will go do something else, but damn it sometimes you gotta just get in there and freaking do it already, stop sitting around whining that you don't know what to do. sometimes its hard and sometimes it doesn't work, and you will have those days. but its ok, its not the end of the world, you will survive and go on to do amazing things. at least that's what i tell myself in the mirror.
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so in conclusion, when inspiration goes missing i don't play hide and seek with it. sometimes i think inspiration is like that bitchy beautiful girl we all know, who will ignore you when you pay attention to her, but as soon as you turn your attention elsewhere BAM she wants you back and you've got the upper hand! make the most of it when you have it, and be patient when you don't. be patient with inspiration that is, tell that girl to piss off.