Creative Spirit Blog May 15,2025 Just Start!

" Looking Ahead" Collage

“Every morning you have to conquer the demons who say, ‘This will never be any good. This will never be what I saw when I dreamed of it’. But you just have to say, keep on, keep on, and finally it gets through.”                                                                    May Sarton

Task paralysis, we all get it!  Sometimes we feel unable to start a project because we have no ideas or we become overwhelmed by having too many ideas. We want to use too many varied materials and techniques all at once, and we are not sure what things will work together.

“I don’t know what to do.  I don’t know where to start.” is something as an instructor I hear repeatedly.  Do we need a set idea?  Do we need to have a plan? 

There is something in the act of putting one or more of the elements: line, shape, color, or texture on a surface. The act alone gets our creative juices flowing. Action attracts energy.

“Creative energy is energy. When we are worrying about creating instead of actually creating, we are wasting our creative energy” .Julia Cameron 

Once we have started, we need to let our intuition guide us and be willing to follow it fearlessly.  The more we learn to create, in a world based on trust in our intuition, the stronger our work will become.  Our perceptions are often far more accurate than we are willing to believe.

Sometimes having a mantra or having an affirmation can help us start.

“I am going to joyfully play with color and shape. “

“I am going to explore what I can make with lines.”

“I am going to listen to my creativity and not talk back.”

“My creative energy is going to energize me.”

“As I create, I will be led.”

If we limit our paint palette and pick one or two techniques to work with initially, we eliminate the problem of being overwhelmed by too many choices. We can always add more. And when our inner critic starts to nag us, remember it is the journey that counts.

Of course, we want to have a strong painting when we are done painting. That comes with practice, practice, practice, and editing your painting in the end process. 

If you are a realistic painter, this is an easier problem to solve.  You find a reference picture from your stash of photographs and find a part that is interesting to you.  Edit it and start to work.  As you work, your style and love of the subject will show through.

Much of this problem of not knowing where to start comes from not having a subject that motivates us. That special thing that is all important to our lives and makes us feel alive.  Is it colors, textures, flowers, nature, people, architecture, animals, light and how it plays on objects? Working with something you love brings joy to the process. 

Art is about making art. We are all creative, we just must do it! What we must learn is, that we learn by the act of doing.

“Inspiration does exist, but it must find us working.”  Pablo Picasso

Go put marks on paper and feel the inspiration come.  Carolyn