Get Inspired 2021
Do you ever feel completely uninspired and don’t know where to go from here?
Yeah, me too! In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s a side effect of being an artist. I try to work on my business every day, at the very least every workday, but some days I just don’t want to. I look at art as my business which means I have to wake up every day and work at it. I know, I know, I’ve heard it all before, “art needs to be inspired!” Sometimes you can’t just wake up every day and feel inspired. There are some mornings, I wake up, and honestly, I’m just not feeling it, I am totally, utterly uninspired. In fact, I find myself thinking up every reason after reason, on God’s green earth, to distract myself. Ten cups of coffee later, 15 Youtube videos, House cleaning (I am definitely uninspired if I’m cleaning.) I just Don’t want to do it! Here are some strategies I’ve come up with in my own life to keep myself, inspired.
Just start working, The number one thing I do to keep myself trucking is, keep moving forward. I know that if I want to be successful in my art business, I really need to work at it. So… like it or not, I put on my trusty overalls and a fun podcast, or audiobook and “just keep painting.” Usually, as I get started painting, guess what happens? Yep, you guessed it, I find myself actually getting inspired. Honestly, inspiration doesn’t just come knocking at my door, I have to go seek it out every single day.
Cleaning my studio. One tried and true strategy for getting inspired is to clean up my studio. I can not tell you how many times, I have walked into my place of bliss, to a total place of chaos. This only leaves me feeling deflated and wanting to turn on my heels walking right out the door. It seriously never fails, even 15 minutes of straightening up, really does clear my mind. This one thing gives me the desire to really dig into my next project. Even better than that, if I’m really stuck, is to rearrange my studio. It takes me really moving stuff around sometimes, to get just the perfect arrangement. In fact, I’m still trying to figure that one out.
Go on an artist date. Julia Cameron in her book “the artist’s way” talks about taking time to feed your creativity. One of my favorite artist dates is going to a local nursery. I love to take tons of pictures of flowers to bring back home to my studio. Anything that inspires you can be your next big adventure. Take a walk around your neighborhood, go buy flowers at the local florist, even going to coffee with a fellow artist, these things can really feed your imagination. Even taking a trip to a local museum can feed your soul for hours.
Explore other artists on Instagram and Pinterest. Now, this can definitely become a huge distraction so try to set a timer or limit how many pins you pin. When I am super uninspired, I pin 10 paintings that strike me for any reason at all, then I ask myself, “why do you like this? what makes it appealing to you?” this is a tried and true method to get the creative juices flowing. Another really important thing to keep in mind is that even though you are getting inspired, you never want to copy an artist. Take inspiration such as color, texture, and composition.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to just doing something to really put time into your creative business. I truly believe that 2020 is your year! Dream big, go out, and share your amazing gifts with the world! Let’s do this together. What do you do to get inspired? Share in the comments.
