Summary: <p><a href="http://www.rebeccacrowell.com" rel="nofollow">www.rebeccacrowell.com</a><br> <a href="http://www.squeegeepress.com" rel="nofollow">www.squeegeepress.com</a><br> <a href="http://www.facebook.com/messystudiopodcast" rel="nofollow">www.facebook.com/messystudiopodcast</a></p> <p>Notes:</p> <p>PODCAST—Keeping it Going<br> Intro:<br> Several listeners have asked us to talk about how to stay motivated and on track<br> with work in the studio. Maybe it is a reflection of the winter doldrums (which we<br> talked about last week) but blocks and down times can happen any time of year.<br> How do you cope with feelings of boredom and frustration that make it hard to</p> <h2>keep working?</h2> <p>A big topic with no right or easy answers</p> <p>What’s the main issue? Is it actually a problem or is it your attitude and belief that<br> it is a problem?</p> <p>We think of blocks or times of low motivation as problems when holding up an<br> ideal of always being on track, motivated, productive but is that realistic?</p> <p>Almost nothing in life is constantly rewarding and interesting</p> <p>There really are no standards of how productive you need to be—the idea that<br> we need to paint every day can be an impediment to natural ebbs and flows</p> <p>Give yourself a break--consider that you are creating your own path, making<br> something from nothing, a difficult challenge to always stay on track.</p> <p>Part of the creative process is incubation; sometimes just recognize that<br> being stuck may mean you are on the threshold of something new, it’s not<br> a bad thing, you still need to push through but you are not on a timetable (unless<br> you have deadlines)</p> <p>It still may help to just give yourself time off --you may be able to find clarity then<br> A few days or weeks apart from the studio does not mean you have failed</p> <p>What else causes you to be blocked:</p> <p>Resistance to some new idea that needs to come through</p> <p>Being pushed in a direction that doesn’t feel right by something outside yourself--<br> major cause of being blocked</p> <p>Recognize if you are feeling pressure from a deadline, something with a<br> gallery, some positive or negative feedback that is getting in the way—</p> <p>Examine that, discuss it with someone</p> <p>Trying to repeat yourself—a big one. A really good painting can shut you down.</p> <p>Extract the ideas that interest you from the piece, it may help to put it away<br> and not focus on its visual aspects –example from my own work</p> <p>Being afraid to totally change the painting—you don’t owe it to anyone to keep<br> anything less than what you want</p> <p>Make a radical move</p> <p>Don’t second guess the urge to make change, sometimes you really have to<br> wreck it first/creative destruction</p> <p>A “pretty good painting” –the temptation to check it off the list for paintings<br> needed for a show or other commitment—but inside it does not satisfy you, may<br> be hard to acknowledge that….</p> <p>Have several going at once so you can move from one to another.</p> <p>Wrap-up –</p> <p>Ross emphasises the importance of risk taking in overcoming creative blocks</p> <p>Part of creative process, does not have to be a negative thing though it can feel<br> that way –deal with it in a way that supports your own path and not someone<br> else’s ideal of what “artists should do”</p>
