Creative Block – Let Inspiration find you

I’m not complaining, but it’s been a struggle to get creative lately; I have lists and post-its full of ideas, but just don’t feel like making them happen. Well, that’s not entirely true… I lack the motivation to make them happen. Instead, I find myself filling the creative emptiness with TV, retail therapy, reading (sadly, not about art), worrying about where I’m going to land as a teacher this upcoming year, and not enjoying the time off I currently am blessed to have (but my wife doesn’t have off: ie: I’ve got some guilts).

Wow, I’m really not in the moment, am I?!? It’s a rhetorical question I know the answer to.

I still pour through tons of awesome art on social media, occasionally interacting with the artists, but not really trying to engage anyone in conversation. Maybe, I’m letting myself feel unworthy, because I’m not producing any work. Let’s all cheer for negative mind-crap! Ok, so it’s all in my head and I’m reminding myself that I’ve published over 2000 artworks to date. I know I need to carve out some quiet reflective time and a voice from the bottom of my mind spoke out this morning… it reminded me that every new creative Spring, after every winter of creative blocks has started with relearning to look, to see, to observe, and to accept my instincts on what I find interesting, beautiful, and curious. It reminded me to use my camera and this morning it shouted up from the depths and told me to take a photo of my pile of gym socks! (Insert a pregnant pause here)

I’ll let that sink in a bit… my creative block could potentially be broken by socks!

Of course, it isn’t the socks that are breaking the block, it’s allowing myself to be intrigued by what I see; allowing myself to look and let my imagination free to see whatever feels interesting to me. It’s allowing for the possibility that some of my audience could be curious about this image. It’s allowing myself to be less serious for a moment and just enjoy it.

I’d really love to hear what you feel about this silly photo. What does it make you feel?

Stay tuned… more to come…