In 1973 the British rock group ‘Traffic’ released ‘Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory’. Forty something years later, I can’t sing any of the songs on that album except for one…
“Sometimes I feel so uninspired.
Sometimes I feel like giving up…”
Writers talk about ‘writer’s block’ – as visual artists, I guess we are subject to ‘block’ too. What do you do when you get blocked?
(All of a sudden I seem to be having WRITER’s block… Just kidding.)
I know that each of us will have to develop our own way to recover from a lack of creative juices, but here are some ideas that (sometimes) work for me.
Fire up Photoshop and re-work some older images (be sure and make a new copy – don’t mess with your good stuff when you’re trying something new). This has worked for me several times. I don’t always create something that I’ll keep, but sometimes it triggers a new way to think about an old idea…
Related to that is ‘Revisit some old places where you’ve had success before’ – again, this doesn’t always work, but I have a few favorite places that get me going (creatively) again. Don’t ask me why, but an old cemetery near my house works for me. A rather shabby, industrial, part of town does too. (Maybe I just need to go somewhere that is more depressing than I’m already feeling…)
Move in close. Sometimes I get on a ‘macro’ binge. I guess just looking at stuff up-close and personal makes your brain look at other stuff differently. It really works for me.
Listen to some old favorite music (like ‘Traffic’ from the late 60s, early 70s…)
List all of your camera equipment on Craigslist. (Just kidding.)
The point is that blocks happen. Don’t panic. It will pass. After all, how can you be an artist without some angst?
Happy shooting.