Artist block and unblocking.

I was asked when talking to a group of Artists and Crafts people, about what I thought about Artist block. I asked how many had experienced it or were experiencing it and I was also quite amazed at how many Artists said they were going through it, some saying for years.

I must admit that during my years of painting full time I never suffered from Artist block to any major degree, mine was more like I didn't feel like painting, so I found excuse to do other stuff, maybe I was just being lazy, probably closer to the truth.

It is true that there are days when you do not feel like painting and I believe that is quite normal, in every type of work there can be those days but you just push on and work, or in our case paint.

Artist block is real for many and I remember a wonderful woman painter who suffered from this and was able to get through it and build a successful Art career.

She was a very spiritual woman, not organised religion or any religion in particular, but she had a presence about her that touched many, she did not preach or push any kind of philosophy, it was just her.

We talked about many different and varied subjects and one day it was about her way of dealing with Artist block, it was interesting and different, so I will tell you about it and hope it will be a help to some.

She always talked about getting away from all the “ noise and clutter ” and I asked her, how do you do that?

Her answer was simple but quite profound, she said if you want to get past the blockage you must get away from all the noise and clutter.

Turn off the noise…… people talking about what you should do or not do to get through the block..

Turn off the television……... the destroyer of original thought and creativity.

Turn off the radio.

Turn off the music.

Turn off the internet.

Turn off the noise…. All of it was noise and clutter to her.

And get back to the place where Artists need to be… within your own creative self….Quiet.

Now for many people, no noise, quiet, is a difficult place to be, they are not used to it and many are scared of quiet, no noise.

Quiet is that place where you will find the guidance you need to help you get past the blockage.

We live in a world where the noise is constantly with us. I watch people walking around the street, earphones in their ears and noise being pumped into their minds.

Television is always on, from the moment they wake up until they go to sleep, the music is always on and our minds just soaking it all up, then when we come to paint it is difficult to think of anything original to paint.

Most people today do not have an original thought and all their information which they believe is correct, comes directly from a very biased media and we the Artists are also influenced by all of this.

Please Artists turn off the noise and sit down quietly and think.

Not about your problems, not about the very scary world out there but just think about painting, not any painting in particular but just let the paintings ideas and ideas for paintings flow through your mind.

Also your self talk can be a big problem for you, often your greatest critic is yourself and how you talk to yourself. In these quiet times you will hear your own voice and you will need to control the negative things you are saying to yourself. Often we do not even realise we are doing this because of all the noise we are always listening to drowning out everything and we do not even realise how negative our self talk is.

Self talk will make you or break you.

It is really true, as a person thinks in there heart, so they become.

What you think about most of the time, most of the time you become.

Often we have no idea how powerful our self talk is, I remember one time in my Art career, I was going to do a new series of paintings very different to what I had been doing for years, the hardest job I had was convincing myself it was a good idea. Every time I would think about starting to make the change that voice inside my head would say, “ but you are known for the way you paint, it is you. You cannot turn away from what you have been doing for years, it is you.”

It was crazy I had this battle going on inside my mind that bought me to a stand still. I would sit and think about the new series and always these thoughts would come and tell me that I will wreck my career, no one will buy them, stay with what you know, sounds quite silly now but it was a real struggle, it was only when I listened to my friend and got into that quiet place was I able to control these thoughts and become positive about what I was going to do.

The good news is I did the series called, “ Rabbit proof fence” and they were all acquired, so my inner negative voice was wrong, but what a struggle.

Turn off the “ noise ” Artist, get into that quiet place and search your own heart, for out of that comes all your own creativity, painting is so personal, a place only you can find and you can access, but it is you..

You have been given the wonderful gift to create works of Art, think about that, see how wonderful that is, how fortunate you are to be able to do that.

This Painter friend believed that painting was a very spiritual process, her inner creative self connecting to a Universal force or energy, that empowered her and out of that came her paintings, individual, personal and original, totally herself on canvas.

Friend if you are facing an Artist block, why not take the advice that this special woman painter gave and turn off the “noise and clutter” and quieten that negative self talk, and go into that very positive place inside you and release the original creative force that is within you and paint again.

Get rid of the negative self talk, there is enough people out there to criticise you without you doing it also.

So friends, find that quiet place, within and without……... quiet.

Fix the negative self talk.

And think.

Allow the creative forces within you to flow, they will, they just want you to get past all the negativity, the noise and clutter.

Turn off all the noise friends and find a quiet place.

Mark Shellshear.