How to Let Go and Just Make Your Art
Do you ever feel stuck ?Do you wish you could just make something?Do you find yourself aching to create, but every time you go to start work, something gets in the way and the paint or pencils stay untouched?If this is you, there are a couple of things I want you to know:
- You are not alone.
- You can get past it.
One of the most common issues experienced by artists who join the This Painting Life Facebook group is this feeling of being stuck. Either they can't create at all, or they can't make what they want to make.The good thing about this problem is that it doesn't actually exist.
It's All in Your Head
The problem is a figment of your mind. Have you ever seen a 5 year-old with a creative block? You hand him some pencils and a colouring book and he tries, but he just can't make a mark?Of course not.Have you ever had walker's block? You want to get up and walk, and you have no physical issues stopping you, but somehow you just can't put one foot in front of another?How about laugher's block? People tell you the funniest jokes and you open up your mouth to laugh but nothing comes out?No! These things come as naturally to you as breathing - or as art-making does to a 5 year-old.But the difference between you and a 5 year-old is that she has no standard in mind when she makes her art, and no goal in mind, and you do.You want to make a painting (or drawing or sculpture or whatever) and you want it to be a good one. But you're afraid it won't be up to scratch. That fear of what Ira Glass calls "the gap" is what stops you from trying.
All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you.
Or maybe you try for a little while and then the gap just becomes too annoying. ("I've made 5 drawings and they are all crap. I am no good at this. I don't have what it takes.") and so we give up.
OK, that sounds like me ... but how do I get past it?
Stop trying to be good.That's it.That's the whole game.Because the fact is you have to make shitty art in order to make good art. If you refuse to make the shitty art, the good stuff will never get made and that would be a crying shame.If you start showing up with no intention in mind but to play around and see what happens, you will have made the most important - the only - step towards making the art you're capable of making. You'll be doing your work.
There is a Path
It took me a long time to learn that there is one one artist's journey - one path that we are all on. It's the same path for all of us - Vincent Van Gogh and Tracey Emin and me and you ... we're all on that path. Some started with an advantage. Many have been travelling way longer than you have. Some are behind you because they started later or worked less often. But we're all on the same path and - if we keep going - we will all have the same experiences, and pass the same milestones.Once I realized this, I stopped being embarrassed about what I was doing, because I realized that the people ahead of me understood. They knew where I was, because they had been there themselves. And some of them - although not enough of them - were willing to offer a helping hand. And if there were people ahead of me, there were also people behind me, and I could help them by offering my hand.
So all You Need to Do is Get on the Path
Accept that your work probably won't be what you want it to be.Give yourself permission to make totally crappy art (if it's not crappy, let that be a nice surprise).Absorb yourself in what you're doing instead of worrying about how it's going to look or what someone else might say about it.Tell anyone who might offer an opinion not to bother because you're simply experimenting.If none of that works, decide that you are deliberately going to make the worst paintings you can make. Get some cheap paper and then just make a big old mess. Your JOB is to make bad art.That ought to do it!If you'd like to read more like this, sign up for my Sunday newsletter - I have been where you are and I'd love to help - and if you'd like to meet a group of supportive, kind artists who are all helping each other along the path, come and join our free Facebook group. We'd love to meet you!