FA+
Shop
Urge to Create Vs Time
a year ago
Ok so not really time
I'm sorry I've not been putting out bigger projects and stuff this year, I could put out the usual tired excuses of burnout and of work absorbing me and all that
But to truth is probably more that I've lost a certain level of creativity to anxiety, and don't seem to be able to bring it back.
If you're an artist and you've experienced this, how did you overcome it?
Ty for listening
I'm sorry I've not been putting out bigger projects and stuff this year, I could put out the usual tired excuses of burnout and of work absorbing me and all that
But to truth is probably more that I've lost a certain level of creativity to anxiety, and don't seem to be able to bring it back.
If you're an artist and you've experienced this, how did you overcome it?
Ty for listening
It also helps to break up the pattern as well, drawing the same thing over and over again causes artistic burnout, or does for me. Such is why I alternate between expansion, hyper, inflation, fat furs, etc... so when one starts putting me to sleep, I switch to something else that'll hold my attention as I push through the next picture.
Having something to listen to can help greatly as well. I tend to listen a lot of horror and true crime podcasts as well as vintage 70s muzak [like played in department stores], and sometimes.. rock, metal, or so on. If one genre gets stale, flip the record.
I apologize for the corporateness of this article, but it has some good points:
https://www.emyth.com/inside/8-self.....s-entrepreneur
It can help to break a bigger project down into smaller things. What are we doing? How many hours should it take? When is the deadline when we should be done? Can we outsource some of this to editors, colorists, designers, etc.?
Getting more exercise can help a lot. You are made of meat! Sometimes you need to tenderize it. A few minutes of yoga when you get up, and then before bed, can do wonders for your energy. Also you should be getting about 20 minutes of cardio a day — maybe 50 minutes on art, 10 minutes on a walk, can also help.
I try to change things up with a monthly theme, where I offer discounts on art if they have muscle cars or genies or Artfight or something. It can help change the routine.
Here's hoping you find your peace, soon. 🙏
Could it be something related to that? If you're creative in your job all day, it's understandable why it'd be hard to be creative after work too. I remember you used to pump out tons of art (like a sketch a day!) which is really impressive, but I know that burns me out pretty quick.
Naturally, it depends on where the sources come from, but most forms of anxiety is your brain alerting your body to danger, or warning you of something. Anxiety is the monkey-brain warning for 'watch out for tigers,' and now that we aren't being eaten by tigers... we don't really have a way to turn it off.
(I impart this knowledge as someone who //is// anxious, and does what will be said below. The reality is that its not always effective, but sometimes it is. Sometimes, 'sometimes' is enough.)
I advise listening to someone on youtube explore and summarize classic philosophy, specifically on what ails you, (Pick and choose, really) and sometimes the little adages that stick with you can be helpful in guiding a spinning mind back into cruise. Anxiety has afflicted us since before our kin could write. In some ways, reading the classics should provide some solidarity in that the suffering you experience in anxiety is universally part of us.
Organizing what can and cant be dealt with is a proactive way of trying to sort out your stressors. It doesn't solve them, but it can isolate irrational fears from rational ones, and organize what can be solved. What you cannot do anything solve, you should not worry too much about-- things like existential anxiety, for one, can trigger anxious responses and spiraling-- but dont actually have a stop because you can't do anything about it. Trying to 'catch' yourself here is important, by the way. From retrospective experience, existential anxieties are, in the moment scary, and in retrospect, incredibly annoying and time-wasting (and sometimes self perpetuating.)
I actually am trying an interesting sooth that, when you feel anxiety, you ""run"". Extreme exercise: pushups, sit ups, burpies-- move like your life depends on it to physically exhaust the anxiety away. This is to be a sooth for the ancient-brain; when you feel 'danger' more than just a latent anxiety.
What I would not advise doing is burying your anxiety. Not for too long, anyways, since I find that anxiety is like a mold: you can't expect it to go away just because you can't see it, but it can be removed. And it can also be stubborn and resurface elsewhere.
Off any sort of record: I think heightened anxiety is something that comes with the creative spark. Creativity is something we draw from within ourselves, like a well, and because anxiety lives there, in us, as well, we have to face it every time we try to be creative. As we get older, we accumulate more gunk too: experiences both good and bad that just distil down to old feelings and blurry reflections. Leaves and dust in the water that will take more and more effort to clean before we can use it.
We are victims of our society's rapid evolution; old defenses have not disappeared, just found new purpose. While I can't provide any direct solution, I believe that at least trying to arm yourself with as much philosophy and actual know-how on the grand-schema of anxiety may help you turn off the panic alarm in your head. It may never go away; it's better that it doesn't. It's just finding the right tools to turn off the klaxons when there's no reason for it to be on.
Good luck; sorry for the textwall.
unfortunately I find my creative spark crushed at the moment, so I suppose it's a little moot