Sometimes, artists go through dry spells. In fact, probably every artist has found his or herself in this place at least once. A creative drought isn’t just discouraging; for the professional artist, it can also be financially damaging. After all, how people create quality art that sells when they can’t muster up good creative work? The answer is that they must find inspiration.
How to Find Artistic Inspiration in Dry Times
Finding inspiration in artistically dry times isn’t always easy, but it is definitely possible. The best way to get your creative juices flowing again is to take advice from successful artists who’ve learned the art of making art in spite of creative scarcity. In The Guardian’s article Top Artists Reveal How to Find Creative Inspiration, several different artists gave their two cents about how to get inspired creatively. Here’s a sampling of what they had to say:
Polly Stenham, playwrite, advised inspiration-seeking artists to listen to music:
“I always have music on while I’m writing. I’m a very aural person; as soon as I hear a lyric or phrase, I’m transported to a particular time or place. My taste varies wildly. When I was writing That Face, I listened to Love Her Madly by the Doors, which seemed to say a lot about the characters’ relationship with their mother. For Tusk Tusk, I played Radiohead’s album In Rainbows over and over. One lyric, about being an animal stuck in car, even made it into the play’s plotline.”
Tamara Rojo, ballerina, encouraged other artists to listen to their instincts about art:
“To be truly inspired, you must learn to trust your instinct and your creative empathy. Don’t over-rehearse a part or you’ll find you get bored with it. Hard work is important, but that comes before inspiration: in your years of training, in your ballet class, in the Pilates classes. That work is there just to support your instinct and your ability to empathise. Without those, you can still give a good, technically correct performance – but it will never be magical.”
Guy Garvey, musician, talked about the role introspection plays in creativity:
“Spending time in your own head is important. When I was a boy, I had to go to church every Sunday; the priest had an incomprehensible Irish accent, so I’d tune out for the whole hour, just spending time in my own thoughts. I still do that now; I’m often scribbling down fragments that later act like trigger-points for lyrics.”
Read the full article published by The Guardian here.
An App to Fuel Your Artistic Talents
One of the best things artists can do when they are feeling creatively dry is to do small things that fuel their artistic talents. For example, utilizing apps that engage the right side of the brain is a good practice for those who are artistically frustrated. One app that is perfect for this is SegPlay Mobile. SegPlay Mobile combines the old-fashioned paint-by-numbers technique with up-to-the-minute technology. The result is a mobile game that is both challenging and inspiring — the perfect combination for an artist trying to spark a creative flame. Download SegPlay Mobile for FREE here.
Have you ever been through an artistic dry spell? If so, how did you get through it and back to creating incredible art? Please share your experience with us in the “comments” section below.
Read more Segmation blog posts:
How Paint-by-Numbers United a Community
Do Vision Boards Really Work? (And How to Make One.)
Why Ice Cream Art is Perfect for Summertime
Be an Artist in 2 minutes with Segmation SegPlay® PC (see more details here)
SegPlay® Mobile available for Amazon Fire, iPhone, iPad, Android
