Thursday, January 24, 2019

Is Creative Block A Thing?

So as I was watching some more Emily Artful videos, I stumbled upon one about Art Block, which come to find out is the same idea as writer's block, where you lack inspiration and are unable to write or produce art. Her argument, however, was that art block is not real.
Now before you go off on a tangent about, "Yes, writer's/art block is real! I have it! It's so frustrating!" let me continue.
Emily went on to say that the definition of the word "block" is to completely hinder someone from accessing something. The definition I found in my own research read, "an obstacle to the normal progress or functioning of something." While my definition did not precisely match up with her, I see where she was coming from. You can never be permanently creatively blocked from something. Inspiration is everywhere. Unless you are in a padded room with no windows (or have a mental illness which does in some way hinder your creative process), you can find inspiration from something.
What I liked about her video was how she framed art block (and for me, writer's block) as a frame of mind, and therefore called into question it's very existence. When we say we're "blocked" creatively, is that putting ourselves into a more poisonous state of mind? If we framed the phrase, "I have art/writer's block," differently, would that actually help us in overcoming slumps where we find it more challenging than usual to put pen or paint brush to paper? Kind of like when you're learning something and the person teaching you says, "I don't expect you to understand this immediately." Having that premeditated expectation effects the way we process and understand information.
But getting back on track, what if we've been doing that to ourselves all this time, telling ourselves we're "blocked" when we're more like...stumped? You can climb over a stump. You can go around it and get back on track. It's something I'm willing to try, especially since I haven't seriously written anything in so long. My muscles are sore. But that was another thing Emily mentioned. These slumps can last weeks or years. That is normal. In fact, that is okay. What is not okay is you giving something up that you love just because you lack inspiration, the muse isn't there, you have no ideas, etc. You have ideas. You have thoughts. And if you don't, there are prompts everywhere. Think of a nursery rhyme. Write a story or paint a picture about that. Give it a dark twist. Listen to a piece of music and figure out how it makes you feel. Translate that into whatever medium you prefer.
Perhaps then we can overcome this pesky thing called art block and writer's block.

-Grace

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