Autumn Cleaning: On Creative Burn-out
Friday, October 14, 2011
"When I am between ideas I clean my studio: I am still in the space, fulfilling my time, and surrounded by my tools and, since making art is more pleasant than cleaning up, it usually isn't long before an idea will appear that demands to be executed." - Brigitte Nowak
I do this too, when I'm between writing/editing/art projects: sweeping out the dust of old ideas, making a clear, ordered, inviting space for new ones to arrive. But a Ritual Cleaning is also helpful during times like the one I'm experiencing now: when the Big Hairy Monsters of Difficult Life Stuff have made tatters of my work schedule, stomped muddy feet over all my deadlines and plans, and taken up residence not only in my brain but in my workspace as well...while the Spark of Inspiration is hiding behind the sofa with her hands over her head.
So in this case, it's not just dust I'm sweeping out the studio door, it's also those Big Hairy Beasts clamoring for attention. Out, I say, out! Be off with you! I'll deal with you in the times and places that are appropriate -- not here! This place is for words and paint and books and dreaming and making and myth and magic. This place is sacred. This place is mine. Out! Out! Out!
"Blocks are simply part of an artist's natural cycle, and mine come whenever I reach a plateau in my work. I'll feel bottled up with negativism, but when I blast through all the garbage, I find I've emerged in a new place as a better artist." - Nick Payne
I don't often get blocked creatively, but when I do, the Big Hairy Monsters of Difficult Life Stuff are most often the cause. And yes, once you blast through blocks and Beasts, it is usually (maybe always) to an interesting, new, better place as an artist. So I'm sweeping and cleaning, reclaiming my space, and waiting for that moment of...renewal.
"Sometimes, if you just wait it out, and go on about your business without trying to force a solution, it comes - almost as if the old artist has to die before the new one can be born." - Jane Champagne
Yes, I find that's true.
"Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer." - Barbara Kingsolver
Indeed. Sometimes you must shut the door, both literally and metaphorically. Draw the curtains. Go off-line. Switch off the phone, the radio, the stereo. In stillness, in silence, your own voice emerges, saying things you never dreamed you had it in you to say.
"There's one thing your writing must have to be any good at all. It must have you. Your soul, your self, your heart, your guts, your voice -- you must be on that page. In the end, you can't make the magic happen for your reader. You can only allow the miracle of 'being one with' to take place. So dare to be yourself. Dare to reveal yourself. Be honest, be open, be true...If you are, everything else will fall into place." - Elizabeth Ayres
I know this to be true. Yet it's a lesson I seem to have to re-learn with each and every project.
"You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget that errand." - Woodrow Wilson
Note to self: Never forget this.
Having cleaned out my workspace, I'm now off on a few quiet, much-needed days of "studio retreat." Have a good weekend, everyone.
Oh, some very quick recommendations before I go: Don't miss the usual Friday posts on John Barleycorn and Seven Miles of Steel Thistles; or the trees, dreams, and raven calls at Ravenwood Forest; or the stitches and secrets at Spirit Cloth. There are some useful reflections on the Creative Blues at I Saw the Angel, and a brand new post at Rima's The Hermitage (always a cause for celebration). For an extra lift, E.'s photos on the Mystic Vixen blog never fail to make me smile...and I love her dogs.
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* Updated to add the following links: