Rabelais Posted October 3, 2011 It has been over a month now since I have been into the studio to paint - stuck in a major creative funk. I've been in this situation before, I know it will pass...just starting to get to me. The amount of creative talent on here always surprises me, so how do some of you get the creative juices and mood flowing? Thoughts? inspirations?...a magic wand that will automatically raise levels of serotonin, dopamine and acetylcholine? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bℓσωηG Posted October 3, 2011 Hey Dale Coops, what drives your creativity? I used to be right into doin art, until i had kids and my life completely changed... my mind is the same but i believe in things that prevent me bothering to DO. Mostly '''whats the point'" maybe i have some sort of mental crisis going on ...i don't know... maybe one just gets old and the magic disappears , maybe you need a change of scenery , a culture shock ... nothing like immersing oneself into something completely alien to revitalize shit. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rabelais Posted October 3, 2011 Emm..I would say my creativity is driven by finding some visual cue which allows me to say as much as possible with minimal visual conversation. I think the ideas are there, but they are not coming out...like I say - constipated. I know what you mean about getting older and the magic not being there. When I was younger everything flowed much more easily, there was just a love being alone and getting things down on canvas without a care for any conceptual meaning or motive. I think art school destroyed some of that pure creative drive in favor of more conceptual focus. Nothing will destroy one's love of art more than art school. Mostly '''whats the point'" maybe i have some sort of mental crisis going on ...i don't know... What kind of work did you do in the past, bℓσωηG? I don't think I have seen any of your stuff on here? I think creativity/inspiration is like happiness/contentment - gotta take the lows to get to the highs. Rambling now... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rabaelthazar Posted October 3, 2011 There are certain ways to re-spark magic. This is the Corroboree. Need I say more? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Naboo Posted October 17, 2011 I stay pretty busy making pictures in my spare time and I find the best way to stay inspired is to look at lots of art. Get onto websites like first-stop or deviant art or even redbubble. Go to galleries or to artist markets. Look at styles that are different! Try new mediums, not to make art but just to have a play. This weekend I didn't make any woodcuts or linocuts or digital art. What I did do is get some polymer clay, look at some techniques on the net and have a play. Had a bit of fun and all of a sudden my brain clicked into the creative mode and I started doodling some ideas down. Well that's what works for me. Give it a try Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zen Peddler Posted October 28, 2011 Do the opposite of what you think will work. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
faustus Posted October 30, 2011 some have found low doses of LSD very effective to stimulate ideas. enough to alter your associative processes, but not enough to incapacitate you. but i tend to agree with zen peddler... the more detached you are from the outcome, the more likely you are to attain the goal, no? get caught up in the human experience for a while, and it'll come to you. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mutant Posted November 2, 2011 hey this is a fucking great avatar faustus! dale, I was showing your paintings to my girl just last night , she happens to be into painting and stuff [art school and the like] - of course she liked them a lot, as we have quite similar tastes. Man your work is really awesome. Reminds me of Kadinsky a bit, didnt know the guy, learnt him recently [from the girl]. .... OK if this ^^^ did not work to get you inspired here are some ideas - thoughts. Some people work most and most effectively with their art when being pissed off, sad or miserable, thankfully not true with me. SO maybe you're too happy to paint. *maybe consider employing a new technique or adding some to the existing ones. maybe play with an overall different technique for a change? *maybe the constipation represents real life constipation. so instead of curing the art inspiration method, maybe inspire life? *as others suggested, a trip literal or mind, might do its magic. I think cacti are great for music, I am not sure about painting though. Zen's comment is spot on too: you don't do such stuff. At least I don't like to. When I am not inspired I dont create. Sometimes, if I want to make some groovy dopey shitty rap cause I am drunk and stoned but the inspiration doesn't flow I have found that only thing that works is say 'fuck it' and skip it, and create when you got real inspiration. You can create if you force yourself, and it might be awesome anywayz, but you won't be enjoying it [the creative process] as much. life goes in circles and your a good painter mate. it will return Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PsillyBean Posted November 2, 2011 i find a new experience to be good inspiration, pretty much anything from major to minor. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Slybacon Posted November 2, 2011 List of things that get me going creatively- New People New Places Short Breaks from creating Lucid Dreaming Humming Go to a Gallery Try a New Style or New type of Art Excercise Weed Sex Sketching Whistling Pressure Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FancyPants Posted November 8, 2011 Reading Stephen King (or other assorted psychedelic fiction - no pics, let your mind see it for itself). Certain RCs practically demand (feels more like channeling than creating) I put pen to paper (much easier than Lucy which I find hard to see where the pen nib is in relation to the paper). Listen to music in the shower. Find lots of yellow and orange to stimulate creative juices. Watch a shithouse TV show, so your mind wanders to create better stuff to entertain you. I saw Alex Grey earlier this year and I wanted to ask him what his favourite substance was for creating particular pieces but Q and A was very short so I missed out. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Seldom Posted November 8, 2011 from Zarathustra "And whoever does not want to die of thirst among men must learn to drink out of all cups; and whoever would stay clean among men must know how to wash even with dirty water." from Ecce Homo about writing Zarathustra " Has anyone at the end of the nineteenth century a clear idea of what poets of strong ages have called inspiration? If not, I will describe it. - If one had the slightest residue of superstition left in one's system, one could hardly reject altogether the idea that one is merely incarnation, merely mouthpiece, merely a medium of overpowering forces. The concept of revelation - in the sense that suddenly, with indescribable certainty and subtlety, something becomes visible, audible, something that shakes one to the last depths and throws one down - that merely describes the facts. One hears, one does not seek; one accepts, one does not ask who gives; like lightning, a thought flashes up, with necessity, without hesitation regarding its form - I never had a choice. A rapture whose tremendous tension occasionally discharges itself in a flood of tears - now the pace quickens involuntarily, now it becomes slow; one is altogether beside oneself, with the distinct consciousness of subtle shudders and of one's skin creeping down to one's toes; depth of happiness in which even what is most painful and gloomy does not seem something opposite but rather conditioned, provoked, a necessary color in such a superabundance of light; an instinct for rhythmic relationships that arches over wide spaces of forms - length, the need for a rhythm with wide arches, is almost the measure of the force of inspiration, a kind of compensation for its pressure and tension. Everything happens involuntarily in the highest degree but a in a gale of feeling of freedom, of absoluteness, of power, of divinity. - The involuntariness of image and metaphor is strangest of all; one no longer has any notion of what is an image or a metaphor; everything offers itself as the nearest, most obvious, simplest expression. It actually seems, to allude to something Zarathustra says, as if the things themselves approached and offered themselves as metaphors ("Here all things come caressingly to your discourse and flatter you; for they want to ride on your back. On every metaphor you ride to every truth - Here the words and wordshrines of all being open up before you; here all being wishes to become word, all becoming wishes to learn from you how to speak"). This is my experience of inspiration; I do not doubt that one has to go back thousands of years in order to find anyone who could say to me, "it is mine as well." " meaning 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mutant Posted November 8, 2011 some clive barker's books are somewhat psychedelic in tone. everville, waveworld, etc, all great books, a fantastic writer that triggered a flashback episode when I was at the army reading 8 years from now... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Xenodimensional Posted November 17, 2011 (edited) Brian Eno sells a set of cards (Oblique Strategies) which are for artists/musicians/creatives to use when blocks occur. Some of the strategies are a bit cryptic, but the idea is great. I don't have a set but aquiring a deck of them is on the cards (woeful pun intended). One that I like is to revisit an old idea (and remix/reinvent it). Here's a few others: State the problem in words as clearly as possible. Only one element of each kind. What would your closest friend do? What to increase? What to reduce? Are there sections? Consider transitions. Try faking it! Honour thy error as a hidden intention. Ask your body Work at a different speed edit: here's a link to a small Windows application version of the strategies from the web site. Edited November 17, 2011 by Xenodimensional Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
