Pixiq

Deciding to become an artist for a living is, at best, risky. As far as get-rich-quick schemes go, it’s a pretty lousy one. Those of us who optimistically (and perhaps a bit foolishly) decide to pursue such a plan most likely do so because we’re blessed/cursed with overactive imaginations and a healthy dose of creativity, and furthermore suck at keeping regular schedules or following orders. Something needs to be done, so you decide to go to art school and hope for the best. Then you graduate and realize being an artist is problematic in a number of ways. One of these problems is the fact that creativity isn’t a 9-5 sort of thing. It’s not even an every day sort of thing. Unless you’re very lucky from the get-go, you’ll probably have to balance things out with a plan B that pays the bills while you’re going through the struggling artist phase. (This is why I spend half my time knitting sweaters for people.)

Despite all this, I’ve stubbornly stuck to my basic plan of being an artist, because it’s what I love and want to do, and once in a while I’ll reap some reward or other from my hard work, which makes it all worthwhile. Every several months, though, I’ll hit a wall. My mind goes completely blank. I have no ideas, good or bad, and find myself thinking, “Ok, I guess that’s it then. Maybe I should have stuck to biochemistry after all."** I’ll mope around for a bit, look at some of the stuff I’ve made in the past and think, “How’d I come up with that? That’s actually pretty clever. Where did my cleverness go? Wtf??”

Thankfully this usually passes by itself and I’ll be blindsided by inspiration again when I least expect it. There are, however, many ways to actively pull yourself out of a creative slump. The following is a list of strategies I’ve found to be very effective in this regard.  While these are written from a photographer's perspective, they might be useful to others as well.

Change your MO.
If you’re a creature of habit, try doing the opposite of what you’re used to:

a) If you normally carry your camera with you at all times, try ignoring it completely for a week. Instead of snapping madly away at everything you encounter, open your eyes and your mind and just look. Carry a small notebook and write down or sketch what you see or any ideas you may get. It’s not unlikely that you’ll start seeing things in a new light, and once you and your camera are reunited, you’ll be energized to try some new things with it. 

b) If you never carry around your camera but rather tend to wait around for inspiration to hit (like me), start carrying it with you at all times and take pictures of whatever. At the very least, force yourself to make at least one picture a day for a couple of weeks. You can tell yourself the pictures don’t have to be good, to take the pressure off, but you may surprise yourself by coming up with something great anyway.

Get out of your comfort zone!
We all have our comfort zones. Habits we’ve settled into, results we’re confident we’ll be able to achieve because we’ve done it before. Our individual comfort zones will vary greatly depending on our personality. For instance, I’m quite comfortable with the idea of going out alone in the middle of the night, submerging myself in freezing water or posing naked if a particular photo calls for it. Whereas the idea of walking around on a busy city street and asking people if I can take their picture absolutely makes me cringe. Forcing yourself to do things that make you feel awkward or physically uncomfortable is an excellent way to get out of a creative slump.

For example: A few years back I was supposed to make some sort of series of photos for a school project. While napping after school, I dreamed that I was telling my best friend I was working on a series on Icelandic drummers. When I woke up I realized this was actually a pretty good idea, but the prospect of contacting a bunch of drummers and convincing them to pose for me made me incredibly uncomfortable. I’m just not a people person. I managed to find eight willing subjects in the limited time I had. Since I’m a control freak by nature and tend to want everything planned in advance, I decided I’d meet up with these guys at a location they chose, and let them do whatever they felt like.  

I showed up at each photoshoot with sweaty palms and feeling slightly queasy, but ended up with some great portraits that were nothing like the pictures I was used to making. Instead of conveniently shooting digital, I did the series on b&w 400 asa film,  that I pushed two stops to 1600 for a grungier look, which in turn made the film developing process extra tedious. And finally, I enlarged the final images on really annoying fiber paper which needs to be ironed in a heat press after printing. Basically, I did everything the hard way. I’m not saying everyone should always do things the hard way, but once in a while it can be incredibly rewarding.  


Another example: I once spent three days folding paper planes, with a certain image in mind. 

Once I had my planes, it occurred to me that the idea wouldn’t really work unless I shot it in a real office, which I didn’t have at my disposal. Discussing this with my family over dinner, my dad came up with the (seemingly) ridiculous idea of calling the office of Iceland's Minister of Education and asking to borrow her office for the photoshoot. When I realized he was actually serious

— and my son adds “Yeah, Mom, I dare you do to it”

— I became really excited about the idea and at the same time a little terrified, and knew I’d be totally annoyed at myself unless I at least gave it a shot. To make a long story short, I did in fact end up shooting the image in the private office of Iceland’s Minister of Education, which she graciously loaned me for a full hour during her lunch break, and it turned out so much better than if I’d stuck to my original, much lamer plan of using an empty room at my school to fake an office, which would have been well within my comfort zone.

Don’t think; just do.
I’ve always had a problem with overthinking everything. I’ll typically get an idea that strikes me as absolutely brilliant, and instead of just getting to work on making it happen, I’ll think about it from every possible angle, for weeks, or months even. More often than not, I’ll eventually get around to creating something from the idea, because I’ll have become so annoyed at myself for procrastinating so long, it’s either do something or go nuts. But other times I’ve all but convinced myself that I’ll never be able to transfer the idea into an image the way I want it, and might as well not bother even trying. At the moment I have at least seven such ideas loitering around like smartass punks in the darker alleys of my brain, daring me to make something of them. This sort of overthinking is just generally unhelpful and rather pointless. It doesn’t really matter if the picture you end up with is anything like the original idea, the process of creating it may in itself spark new ideas, and very often the end result may actually be better than you’d imagined. If it’s not, you can always just tuck it away and not show it to anyone, but keep it as a reminder and encouragement to do better later. Or slap a silly title on it and show it off anyway, as an even more effective reminder to do better later.

Sleep on it.
Keep a dream diary within reach of your bed. I love this idea even though I’ve never actually gotten the hang of doing it on a regular basis. Dreams are awesome and completely free of the boring restraints of logical thinking, and therefore a great place to get ideas for cool pictures. So try and pay attention to the nonsense your subconscious throws at you while you’re sleeping, or on the verge of falling alseep/waking up, and write it down before you forget. Because you WILL forget, even if you think you won't. If nothing else, this will make for some entertaining reading at some point later on.

Go for a run!
When the creative part of your brain is being uncooperative, preoccupy yourself with a physically demanding activity you enjoy. I do some of my best brainstorming when I’m out running, lifting weights, or doing yoga. If your body is busy with something that needs very little thought, your brain will have no choice but to entertain itself.  Aside from that, the resulting endorphins will cheer you up, so it’s definitely a win/win sort of thing. 

**Yes, I did in fact spend two months studying university-level biochemistry before realizing this was not what I’d always dreamed of doing, practical or not, and quit. And became a waitress for three years. THEN I went to art school.