Waiting for Lightening

You can’t wait for inspiration. Sometimes you have to go after it with a club.” ~ Jack London (from Skinnyartist.com)

Do you have those days where you are just unable to get started?  The motivation just isn’t there.  Or maybe you stand in front of a blank canvas and can’t pick up the brush.  You want to work but lack the push.  Ahh, yes, happens to us all!  What can you do when those times come?

The number one key is to do something, anything.  As the blog Dubspot states, “The main thing is to turn up!”  Make the effort to get to your workspace and not give in to the doldrums.  And make it a regular thing as if you are punching a time clock.  Dubspot states Mark Twain was once asked if he had to wait for inspiration to come before writing.  “Yes, I do,” he replied, ‘but inspiration always comes at 9 am sharp, every weekday!”

Seattle artist, Alicia Tormey, states much the same thing when in her blog, she writes the most important thing for an artist to do is show up in the studio.  Tormey says to go to the studio even it is only to organize the brushes.  Again, the point is to make the effort even if you don’t feel like it.

Things seem to shift when you focus the energy on the work.  Eventually, it moves and inspiration flows.  Sometimes the best things happen when you feel the least like creating.  That happened for me recently when I had to make the effort for a project with a timeline.  I just didn’t feel like it.  I ended up talking on the phone while painting and letting it flow without thinking about what I was doing.  A shift in the painting occurred!  Maybe I should talk on the phone while working more often instead of waiting for inspiration to strike.

For more on finding inspiration visit The Empty Easel

Author: MaryGwyn

Artist-Art Educator-Art in Healthcare View all posts by MaryGwyn