I work with clients who are professional artists, adolescent musicians who compete in international competitions, etc. Presenting problems sometimes include a lack of inspiration or crippling anxiety that blocks the ability to perform or audition. My sense is that these problems are partly due to a disconnection from the individual's core soul source - as well as a loss of serving as a channel for spiritual expression.
I am inviting folks to share how they stay connected to their creative source, to their artist soul.
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The art and psi article is the pdf attached to the preceding post.
p.s. I'm interested in what your rituals involve and your Muse culture.
In my 20s, after the BFA, I realized that the most important skill I needed to learn for making art was how to shift my attention from my job, chores, errands, whatever, into creative flow for art making. At that time, I used music with a consistent flow (which I'd now call trance inducing) and slow modern dance stretches. Required about 30 minutes initially. If I danced too much, I would use up the imperative, the drive in the dance and not have it for the painting. Once I had learned how to make the transition, after I had several sessions of painting, then it was easy to just slip into that creative place and roll.
@Denita,
Your comment above prompts me to ask if there are some identifiable differences between an artist who is extroverted and one who is introverted. For example, an extroverted artist may produce their art as a means of outer communication whereas an introverted artist is producing for the inner audience. Thoughts?
Interesting question. There may be a tendency one way or the other. Would be an interesting research study. Certainly, many, not all, actors are more extroverted than, for example, visual artists.
Beyond the extrovert/introvert dichotomy, I could say that there is a difference in what kind of environmental or emotional "press" an artist is responding to - something outside of the self and/or something from within the self.
The artist is usually the first member of the audience to see the artist's work, of course.
I see many artists who might initially create from inner necessity, responding to inner sources of inspiration, who then are very interested in also sharing their work with a wider audience. To do both requires an ability to function, at least adequately, as an introvert and as an extrovert.
I guess I need to point to an "elephant in the room." Isn't it possible that an artist may be an artist for awhile but not for a life? Do we assume that an artist is a core identity or can it be a personal myth that changes over time. Is it ever a true revelation that a person's artistic identity and production has an end for another personal myth to develop?
This is a very good point, Ed.
I believe that what an artist is, is possible of continuing evolution and definition.
When I first began to make art that went out into the world, I thought of myself as a "painter." That evolved as I later moved into sculpture, dance, performance, writing, etc. Instead of defining my work by one medium, which would have limited my work, it became more so, what "creative project" I was immersed in and by how my inspiration manifested. I am still a painter, but also a sculptor, writer, dancer, etc. And, for what it is worth, after an illness, I re-engaged my creativity by learning how to cook Thai food and thought that was a perfect focus for both healing and for my creativity (although, it was a return to a "personal realm" in creativity and I did not take that out into the world professionally, it was none-the-less delicious, healthy, and creative).
I like the idea that the "work" is "to create" - which is also a very innate calling for all human beings.
(However, an artist can mistakenly get stuck on a pedestal --one defined by the "art world," by an artist's own self-definition, or by where an artist may have attracted acclaim, respect, money, etc.-- that tries to hold us to a repeating pattern of a body of work that has already been completed.)
Therefore, perhaps, the "idea" of the "artist" can become like being a dead butterfly pinned to the wall. What we want to do is fly, procreate, create, transform.
I tend to believe, however, like the author of this conversation, that one emerges more in culture as an "artist" when his or her work moves through and deeper through the territory of the "personal" and accesses that place that is "universal" in nature. That is the point where culture is fed by the work, whether one is an architect, a scientist, an artist, a leader, etc.
How long must I wait? Roberta wrote.
There are many possible responses: As long as you need to. Until you are ready. You don't have to wait - you can go after it - as in finding inspiration is not a passive activity - one can go inwards or outwards to discover sources of inspiration.
Where should I start? Anywhere!?! I like the idea of Robert renewing and reentering creativity through learning how to cook Thai food. That creativity can be manifest in any activity (parenting, gardening, interior decor, painted cars, mail art).
Actually, I've found having someone do collage is very effective. To have a stack of books or magazines and flip through quickly, taking out any pix that catches one's interest/attention - don't have to know why - and make collages out of them. I saw a student make an incredible folding book that was a series of collages. Collages can be a quick way "in". Bypasses possible anxieties about not drawing or painting or dancing well. I have several "games" or "exercises" that use various "bypasses" - and get amazing, even funny, results. Some of it is metaphorical, written, or cartoons.
Yes - Ed - I do think that making art can be a phase or period in someone's life and that interests can move into other arenas that might or might not be related to (fine) art.
Yes - Roberta - making secret or private work can be important. Detouring around public performance or exhibit pressures, to make whatever one wants, intuits, is guided to, on whatever compelling tangent arises. That is another good avenue to follow.
Yes - artists can get caught in repeating previously successful ways of working, copying one's self, repeated refinements of what was once fresh - it happens - a lot!
Roberta - and Ed - you are going through processes of defining what an "artist" is - evolving, process not product, creating without end goal of popular/material success, for inner needs. These are valid ideas. Yet, there are also artists for whom creating is a job for which they produce a dependable, predictable product. Some artists are okay with this, relish it, feel successful (murals for a children's hospital) while another artist feels frustrated and unfulfilled. Individual differences. No one correct path.
Your comment about relating to the block reminds me of the classic "empty chair" technique of exteriorizing the "problem" and having a conversation with THE BLOCK. Also curious as to whether there are some changes within the artist's psyche that change the direction of the work. Its frustrating having to learn a new language to express the changes and can shut a person down while developing the new language or focus of language for expression. I guess having acquired some recognition and affirmation related to the old language would make an artist resistant/fearful of moving into a new language of expression - in addition to all the comments about the mechanistic materialistic culture included.
Do your artists isolate themselves from other artists during this time or do they tend to seek out other artists in an informal or formal support group fashion? I hover at the outskirts of art but I do remember an artist friend who went through a blue funk but then collaborated with another artist of a different media (she was a pianist, he was a choreographer) and regained her creative juices.
Hi, Ed.
I suppose there could be similarities to the empty chair technique you describe, and certainly I've known artists who benefited from putting an empty chair outside their studio door, inviting their inner critique to have a seat and get comfortable, thank the inner critic for being concerned about protecting the artist, assure the inner critic that the artist could handle "it" (whatever the great "it" was that had come up as an issue), promise to check back with the inner critic in a few hours, and literally close the studio door, perhaps even turning the lock.
The difference between the empty chair you described and what I've done is this - instead of exteriorizing the problem and having a conversation with the block, the artist goes into the problem and merely observes, is present, sees, hears, feels, describes the block - without a goal. The goal is "merely" to be there. Without striving or drive. Sustained attention can result in an altered consciousness and a relationship with block that becomes acceptance, recognition, not fighting against it and not beating one's self up about it.
Yes, working is a different medium than usual can be freeing - can get around certain kinds of problems that have developed.
Artists vary as to whether more community or more solitude is right for where they are in the process. Sometimes socializing can be a form of avoidance. Sometimes socializing, "communitas", is the key that unlocks process.
There doesn't seem to be one quick fix or magic elixir that works for everyone. But, I will say this, slowing down and becoming more present and conscious can do wonders.
Although difficult, the idea of being -without needing action or direction or resolution- can eventually allow what needs to evolve, come through, occur, etc. to occur, inward and outward. The question though may also ask, "How long must I wait?" and that cannot be answered. (If, for example, the answer was, "For years" or "forever," what would that answer do to help?) (And I wonder how long a client would stay with a therapist who would answer so? I have heard some therapists just say: "when you decide you want to get up, you will" but I think it is more complicated than that, which implies will over, or mind over the complication of what is and needs to occur.)
But, in that pause or meditation, or not-doing space, what is behind the wall may get a chance, eventually, to speak.
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