Happiness with Creativity - Blog No.2

How to weather the off-season of Creativity

Just as planet earth is dictated by the seasons, so too is creativity. Any person who loves to create will know that creativity is not always like a constant gush of water coming from a turned on tap. Creativity has an ebb and flow that needs to be recognised and respected. You can connect the climatic seasons with the creative intensity a person feels in life. While the sunny weather of summer gives people energy and motivation, conversely winter makes us hunker down and lowers our mood. Granted that our global seasons are restricted to three monthly intervals and creative seasons don’t follow a regimented duration, there is still a pattern that connects the two. Learning how to survival the off season of your creativity will avoid panic and result in peace and happiness.  

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Let’s break down those steps to survive your down season.

How to survive the off-season of Creativity

1.         Recognise the stages of creative seasons

2.         Acknowledge the process of creating art

3.         What to do when you are in a slump

4.         How to fill the gaps of creativity

1.  Recognise the stages of creative seasons

The undulation of weather seasons and your levels of creative seasons are connected. An artist needs to understand that inspiration and creating art has varied levels of intensity at different times.  Imagine the main characteristics of our global seasons and see how they can be related to your height of inspiration at particular periods. Everyone has heard of the “creative block”; the place where no creative person likes to be. There is a parallel between the cold, blustery conditions of winter and when you are void of any creative bones in your body. You feel you will never get inspiration back.  Conversely you can compare the opposing season of summer and how the sunshine weather brings everyone outdoors to soak up nature to the summer of your creativity. This season of creativity is at a peak of inspiration and imagination. The polar opposites of winter and summer furthermore are accompanied by the milder versions being spring and autumn.

To summarise the Seasons of Creativity:

Spring season- Mildly creative

Summer season – A peak of creativity, where there is an abundance of ideas.

Autumn season- coming off the height of creativity and having a slight lull

Winter season- Not a creative bone in your body and feeling a creative slump

Additionally to recognising your seasons of creativity, it is important to acknowledge the process of creating art, on a micro level.  Surviving a creative block or down time means thinking about the natural progression of your creative skill.

2.  Acknowledge the process of creating art

Not only are there levels but there is a process. It is very rare that an artist will dive into a piece of art with guns blazing without much thought before and during with a successful outcome. Inspiration for my retro cat, plant series was through observing my surroundings in Covid 19 home isolation. There was more time to take stock and just live in the moment. I noticed that my cat would seamless blend in with our home décor. At times, the cat almost seemed like he was a statue contributing to our home decoration. However at the same time he emitted an air of ownership of the house. My art process for this series originated from wanting to illustrate my cat on its own, then developing and expanding the concept to convey an air of the cat’s righteousness. Please click here to view the series of my virtuous cat.    There are many theories about the art process steps. From personal experience there are four steps to my creative process:

1. The spark of an idea.

2. Expanding and experimenting the idea.

3. Committing to the concept.

4. And extending and elaborating to the finalised piece of art.

3.  What to do when you are in a slump

Usually panic sets in when you are void of creativity. Your creative winter season results in a mounting distress and pressure to come up with something vaguely artistic. Impostor syndrome rears its ugly head and you have thoughts that you will never paint or draw again.  This creative depressive state feeds off itself and it continues to fester. Try and go with the flow as this is an entirely natural stage of creativity. Some would say embrace this stage and take a break. As John Lennon said “life is what happens when you are busy making other plans”. Here are some strategies to put into practise, to avoid a lengthy creative off-season. 

4.  How to fill the gaps of creativity

Strategies to survive your creative winter:

1.         Keep a word inspiration journal – write down whatever comes into your mind and expand on these ideas and words. This will serve as a future pool of inspiration.

2.         Keep an ugly and good sketch book – by having a sketch book without constraint (that you don’t have to show anyone), you will be able to explore drawing and painting without pressure. With the good sketch book you can generate more refined pieces that developed from your ugly sketch book. These pieces will in turn lead to finalised art.

3.         Take many photographs – you may be inspired by nature, children or pets. Photographs act as a visual journal that may spark inspiration.

4.         Write down your dreams – they are exceptionally inspiring and can lead to worthy subjects for creation.

If you would like some more hints on being creative, read my blog; “Three simple ways to be more creative in your busy life. “No one can create all the time, it is emotionally draining and unsustainable. Make sure that your creative practise is balanced, so there is time for journaling, sketch book work etc., as well as tertiary creating. As ‘solopreneur’, I am responsible for all aspects of my business. Out sourcing areas of my business is not an option at this stage. So as well as balancing all the above facets, I need to incorporate the business side of Blue Green Girl Creations. This involves such things as; product development, marketing, social networking, accounting and shipping to name some. (If you would like to learn more about myself, please go to my about page).  By having a back log of these journals and sketch books, you will have a plethora of inspirational subjects to draw from.  

Every person is different in their likes, approaches to life and creativity is no different. I live in the southern hemisphere and I actually look forward to winter.  If I was to look at this metaphorically, I value my winter non-creative period.  At the same time of appreciating my creative hiatus, I look forward to coming out of my slump and emerging into a bloom of the creative spring.  To condense the answer of  ‘how to weather the creative off-season’ it is about recognising the seasons of creativity, acknowledging the stages of your creativity, embracing your down time and recording all your inspiration for future art works. Gaining a good understanding of these processes and accepting that there are ebb and flow to any art practise will put you in good stead for your creative journey. This makes me think of an inspiring, famous Albert Einstein quote, “Creativity is contagious, pass it on”.  Have a creative day.