Strangle the Struggle

The Struggle

So recently I have been experiencing a struggle of sorts with my work, a kind of metaphorical block with what I was creating, where I was going, where I wanted to go and how I was going to get there. It felt as if there was something coming in between me and my work, something holding me back but something totally unbeknownst to me; perhaps a lack of (hold your breath) 'inspiration', or motivation, or maybe even sleep?! But anyway, it was there, and I had to free myself from it.

The Solution

Last night I went to sleep feeling quite unsure and a bit lost, doubting myself and my work and unsure how to get out of this phase. Then I remembered something that I read somewhere, sometime in the past, about an artist who every morning just as he wakes up, he writes a page of stream of conscious writing to free his mind, to rid the angst of creation and the often intimidating blank page. He started every day with the creation of something relatively 'poor', so that for the rest of the day he was free from the pressures of making anything 'good'. With nowt to lose, I decided to try it the next morning.

The Result

Apprehensive and tired, I sat down before my breakfast to give this idea a shot. It wasn't easy to just not think at all and write; I found myself naturally forming sentences so that I had somewhere to go with it, and being nervous of drying up and not having any words to write. But I am happy to say, I think it worked. For whatever reason I felt a new lease of energy for creation, turning up to Uni raring to get work down on a page and to tick of my to-do list for today. Whether this was the result of the exercise, or said to-do list, or whether I had just simply had enough with feeling blocked to make work, something went right and I had an overall pretty productive day in the studio.

Plan of Action:

Due to the supposed success of this experiment, I am going to pick up a few habits for the future and lay down a plan of action to allow me to make progress with this struggle and the never-ending labour of love with creation.

• First thing every morning write a page of stream of conscious writing,
• Follow this page with 2 drawings; sloppy, terrible, ugly, incorrect, imperfect. The worse the better,
• Don't get caught up on 'perfection', or creating so-called 'good' work; just make sure every time it aims to be better than the last,
• Be conscious of what is being made, immerse in it, get lost in it, and get obsessed with it. Don't let anything get in the way of it. 
• The time is always now, never tomorrow. Don't put things off that can be done today.