Artist Block: Advice from artists on how to overcome creative block, handle criticism, and nurture your sense of self-worth

Advice from Artists on How to Overcome Creative Block, Handle Criticism, and Nurture Your Sense of Self-Worth

This article presents artists’ opinions on overcoming artist block. Interesting points are below:

It is easier said than done to continue working, because many creative individuals do get stuck or plateau. But it is hard to separate yourself from the work that you create because you invest so much of your time in to it, so part of you is in your work.

Ben Skinner:

‘I know that forcing something is not going to create anything beyond mediocre, so I step aside and work on a different project until it hits me.’

Amanda Happe:

‘It’s one of the most beautiful things about doing this – you don’t have to care. No one gets to have their say and have it stick. No one can wrestle the pencil out of your hand. You get to keep going in absolute defiance.’

Ashley Percival:

‘You can’t please everyone – people will have art that they like and dislike – the main thing is that you as an artist are happy with your work.’

Artist Block: 7 types of creative block (and what to do about them)

7 Types of Creative Block (and What to Do About Them)

This article presents the main types of creative blocks and potential solutions. I have summarised my findings below.

• A creative block is not only annoying, but potentially career damaging for the creative individual.

Mental block

• Trapped in own thinking that limits approach to work.
• Solution – question yourself and talk to other who will disagree!

Emotional barrier

• Resistance can manifest itself in fear of the unknown, you may be apprehensive as to what you will reveal about yourself with your creative pursuit. Procrastination is often a result of this.
• Solution – confront your fears!

Work habits that don’t work

• Working in a way that opposes your creative process.
• Solution – analyse the way in which you are working are try to change the unhelpful areas.

Personal problems

• Cannot concentrate on creativity while simultaneously dealing with personal problems (e.g. divorce, addiction, relationship failure).
• Solution – either resolve problem or cope until it passes.

Poverty

• Financial, poor time, lack of knowledge, limited networking etc. can impact workflow.
• Solution – either save resources, or try to achieve as much as you can with what you have available.

Overwhelm

• Too much commitment, too many ideas, etc. may lead to overwhelm and paralysis by options or simply tired form working too hard for too long.
• Solution – cut down and allocate downtime.

Communication breakdown

• It can be difficult to produce best work when working with a team.
• Solution – accept that you cannot please everyone all the time and recognise the importance of networking.

Artist Block: How great artists have fought creative blocks

BBC: How great artists have fought creative block

This article discusses artists that have experienced creative block. The main points that I found interesting are provided below (see the link above for more details):

• ‘Many artists fear that their creativity will dry up, and often it does.’
• Rachmaninoff (composer) – continuous criticism led to creative block and depression. He even stopped composing, saying that his confidence had diminished. Hypnotherapy increased his self-confidence and he managed to compose one of the best-known concertos following his dark period.
• ‘Self-doubt haunts many creative minds…feeling that their work was unworthy.’
• Writer’s block is a ‘periodic lack of inspiration that can descend on the most experienced of writers and that results in an almost pathological inability to put pen to paper’.
• Peter Warlock (composer) produced less music and suffered severe depression. He felt his muse has vanished. He was found gassed in his flat, likely to have commit suicide.
• Creative block is not limited to only writers; it also afflicts painters, poets, and scientists. They can all experience a prolonged period of being unable to produce good work.
• Many studies show that creative individuals are more likely to commit suicide.
• Creative individuals often engage in substance abuse in order to combat creative blocks (but this can sometimes back fire and contribute to their death, e.g. Beethoven).
• Medically, creative block cannot be cured, but maybe self-confidence and self-worth can be treated to overcome the block.

It is reassuring that some of the feelings that I have experienced recently have also be experienced by other prolific artists.

Educating Art (2014)

In an attempt to overcome my artist block, I decided to look back to work from the first term because it was work that I was happy with. A satirisation of art education was what I exhibited for the Autumn exhibition and this worked well.

Till Now.

At this point, I was extremely unhappy with my art practice. Those who told me to create work were not happy with it, and I was definitely not happy or enjoying the work that I created. Then, I tried to create work that I was happy with but this did not please others. It was a lose-lose situation.

I was trying to understand what was wrong, because it was not intentional apathy that was causing lack of work, because when I tried to create work, it was still unsuccessful. I felt a lack of inspiration, but had no motivation to challenge this.

Simply put, I realised that I was struggling to produce ideas – a fundamental aspect of creating art. This was when I realised that I was experiencing some form of artist block.