Missing opportunities from lack of ideas?

Does this sound familiar?

“There’s a new grant for an artist in residency, the deadline is this Friday, you should apply!”

“That’s great, but I don’t have an idea to submit.”

Everyone finds themselves sweaty, staring over a blank form, canvas or page feeling the pressure of coming up with new ideas.

It doesn’t take long to shut the computer off or scroll on facebook to distract yourself from the feelings of failure and impostor syndrome.

You aren’t alone and there is nothing wrong with you.

Every human being on this planet is born creative.

It’s always inside of you.

The frustration is when it’s hiding from your sight.

There are many reasons why someone gets stuck, lacking creativity.

For the sake of getting you over the agonizing hump and make the deadline that is looming over you like an aunt over a 5 year old trying to get a smothering hug…

We aren’t going to spend time on the reasons…

But if you want to do away with creative block forever…

Here’s the free ebook to do just that and the reasons behind why it happens.

What you need is to boost your creativity, like jump starting a car.

Before writing this blog, I googled how to increase your creativity and you know what I found?

Tons of articles with the same lists that lacked creativity themselves.

Surface level crap from writers promising to increase your creativity in 10 minutes with their suggestions disguised as Psychology.

Suggestions like “Do something you love, unplug or just do nothing...”

Really?

Are you kidding me?

If you’re in the creative field, you know all these tools already. If they worked, you wouldn’t be stuck.

Let’s get into these creative hacks, so you can move on with it already.

LET YOUR HAND DO THE TALKING:

Some of the most impressive creative minds this world has ever seen had surprising techniques for their work.

The key to those techniques?

Tapping into intuition.

You don’t need to light candles, meditate or go on a spiritual quest to tap into your intuition.

It’s actually laughably simple…

You let your hand do the talking.

What does that mean?

You let go… of expectation, direction, pressure.

Intuition comes when you stop trying so hard to figure it out.

ART MEDIUMS:

It’s time to get abstract! Forget an end goal. Make 1 mark on the canvas, then make another mark that touches that one, keep going.

Make marks that feel good to your hand and wrist, stop trying to figure out where it’s headed, let your body take over and your brain go along for the ride.

Every mark you make should be reactionary, not responsive. Let it create itself.

When you’re done, step back, reflect and observe. Ask yourself these questions:

How did that feel?
What was something you discovered in that process that surprised you?
Are there any images you can interpret in the piece? Any themes?

This will jump you out of the rut and you can do this exercise as many times as you want. You might be surprised at what new ideas come up.

I did this with a student of mine recently who was putting too much pressure on himself for his art piece to come out perfect.

We were basing our art for that day on Basquiat’s style, but the subject matter was up to him.

When I told him to let go, just allow his hand to do the talking, make the strokes that feel good, he was on a roll.

And the result was, that art piece ended up being his first sold.

WRITING METHODS:

There’s a method in the Dadaist style that’s cool and a great way to tap into intuition. It goes like this.

Find a book, newspaper or article
Cut up sentences and words, put them into a bag
Shake the bag and pick lines out - the order you pull them out is the order of the poem.

Yeah.. it’s seriously that easy.

You know what it does?

It allows you to pull inspiration from already created content to come up with new ideas.

Another method I swear by, is the confessional method.

Frustrated because you can’t write?

Grab a pen and paper and write “I’m frustrated because I can’t write. I feel….”

And fill in the rest.

Just allow yourself to rant it out.

9 times out of 10, about a page in not only do I feel better, I discover an idea to create based on what feelings came up for me.

LEVERAGE WHAT YOU GOT

Chances are you got some scraps, bits and maybe even old projects that you completed a while back that you were proud of.

SCRAPS

The reason why scraps feel frantic is because they’re usually found all over the house, studio, garage… you get the point.

You’d be amazed at what you can discover if you take all your bits and pieces of unfinished work, doodles and musings and lay them out together on the floor.

There’s always connections waiting to be discovered in these small captured parts of ourselves.

Make a list of the themes, connections and possibilities you see once those pieces are laid out together.

And when you put them back up, make a designated space for them to go.

LEVEL-UP FINISHED PROJECTS

There’s always a way to take completed projects to the next level.

Maybe you did an art show on a theme that you really enjoyed and was successful, or a book you published.

You can take that concept and leverage it.

Is this something that can be turned into workshops for you to lead? A play? A book?

A short film? Are there collaboration opportunities with other artists based on the theme?

Make a list of the potential ways you can make it bigger - more involved. Allow yourself to dream BIG.

THE ANGER LENS

Anger is a secondary emotion, it’s just the tip of the iceberg with a lot of other things underneath.

One thing I learned in anger management is anger is a sign that something is wrong. It’s a signal saying “Something ain’t right here and you need to figure it out quick.”

But you can also use that signal to find a passion.

When was the last time you got mad?

Were you scrolling on your facebook and saw a post that upset you?

Was it something in the news, something someone said or that happened?

Why did you get upset? The ideas for creation lie within.

Let’s say you had a phone call with a relative and they said something that really hurt. When you hung up you were angry. What are the solutions and themes that can be found in that experience?

Is there an art series based on family dynamics? Boundaries?

Use that as your motivation.

There’s always a lot to discover when we get angry. A lot of times it shows us what we really care about or are afraid of. Use those themes in your work.

LOOK AT WHERE YOU’RE AT

We find ourselves in phases as we go through life.

The cool thing about phases of life is that those phases can be shared by other people, but each person has their own unique view on them.

Each person has their own unique experience with being 20, 30, 40 years old.

If you make a list of what your life currently entails, you’ll find a plethora of themes to pull from.

There’s so much in life that makes up the human experience, use that to your advantage.

Not only will you be helping others by sharing your story, you’ll be making progress in figuring out your own journey.

LOOK AT WHERE YOU BEEN:

This can be a hard one, depending on what you’ve had to go through and how far you are in your healing.

The things we go through are stories and lessons that can help someone else get through similar situations.

Those hard parts of your life are sources to pull inspiration from, and you may find your purpose in those hardships.

THE SURE TRICK : NEW EXPERIENCES, NEW VIEW POINTS

This one NEVER fails me. It’s one I preach to every client.

I used to watch this guy who did a youtube show called “The Gradual Report.”

The show was funny and a lot of times insightful.

This episode has been my favorite for years and it explains the science behind why we need to have new experiences if we want to create something new.

It can be as simple as trying a food you’ve never tried before, standing on a chair in your room to get a different perspective or just taking a different way home.

New experiences cause new neural pathways to happen, that means new ideas can be formed allowing you to naturally exercise your creativity.

Shake up your routine, and you’ll get your creativity movin’.

DEVELOP YOUR CREATIVITY

When we’re so close to our art, it’s hard to see the big picture.

I have the coolest job ever.

As a Creative Coach I get to help people envision and execute goals that are specific to them so they can live a life full of joy and fulfillment.

A lot of my clients know where they want to go, or have a project in mind, but are overwhelmed on how to make it happen.

Sometimes they’re schedules are too full to tackle the task, they’re not sure the direction to take for the finished product or they don’t know how to combine all their passions into one revenue stream.

Every entrepreneur knows that no one makes it on their own, and the same can be said for the arts.

Hiring a Creative Coach is a great way to uncover possibilities in your work, make the goal you’re dreaming of come true, get clarity, accountability and support.

If there’s a project you want to make happen and aren’t sure how, please contact me, because I love helping other people achieve their goals!

WORK WITH ME