Have you hit the low point? Force a creative re-boot.
By Jodie Mann
At times like these I swear I wish I was a computer. Cluttered memory? Sluggish startup? How about a good old cache clear and reboot? Good as new.
Sadly I’m not a computer but I’m going to give you my thoughts on how to give yourself the data purge and restart you (and your creativity) probably need right now.
At the beginning of the new decade, I said I would tell stories of truth and honesty through my work (see that article here). In the UK, we're now going through week 7 of lockdown, and for those in my industry, it's been a pretty scary and de-motivating time. I write this in the hope that others may find they've not been alone in their struggle through this period, and that my experience so far could spark some ideas to get back in the game.
In all honesty, the first 4 weeks were okay (wait for it though). I'd come straight back from a big job abroad into lockdown with my parents on the west highland coast and my instinct to just carry on and pretend like nothing that bad had happened kept me going.
5 weeks in and I suddenly woke up feeling as dense, heavy and graceless as an old elephant seal. It was as if someone turned the lights off in my head; it hit me just like that. I'd reached the bottom of the ocean and the cold weight of all the work I'd put into building my business up for the last 8 or 9 years was lolling around on top of me. I was exhausted and I needed headspace, desperately.
I'd really spent the last year focussing on business, clients, momentum, social media, content, timings, management, production, networking, organising, numbers, spreadsheets, SEO. I'd almost forgotten what it was like to just create. To play. To get terribly excited about a new technique or effect. I'd forgotten how important it was for creative folk to feed that side of their brains. In business, especially when you run your own, this is so hard. To neglect it however, is not worth the eventual consequences.
After this mental smack in the pus i'd received, it took another 4 days for me to get to a place where I could start to re-build the creative part of my mind again. Unknowingly, I did that very literally. I started painting watercolours. This was my first brush - if you will - with art I ever had when I was young. Early primary school I reckon. I forgot what it was like to use (real) brushes, paints, pens, palettes, paper, make a horrible mess and mistakes that couldn't be erased using the good old “Cmd z” tool on the keyboard. It's all these things that teach you the basics of “creating” with colour and texture.
My mum (who i'm currently locked down with) is an astonishingly good artist. I've always said I feel like I got my love for art from her. When she saw me in dire straights staring at my camera like it was the devil, she sat me down at her art station in her outdoor studio, gave me some torn-off squares of watercolour paper and said "Just play. The fun is simply putting colour onto paper, and seeing where it goes". In all honesty, that idea of not having a plan and not knowing "where things were going" scared the shit out of me. I hadn't painted anything since I was half-pint-sized.
Anyway, the first things I made were these two squares:
During my weekly zoom calls with Kim, my Powerlifting coach (who is now also my friend/counsellor/healer/queen), I showed her my two weird little squares for a laugh. She immediately pointed out to me that she knew which one I painted first. The messy, colour-plosion square before the 'neat', slightly more considered, stripy one. I don’t like either of them at all, they're a bit crap, but she made a bloody good point. She was explaining to me how important it is to get everything out of your system before calm and orderly thoughts can occur. Since that tiny eureka moment at the weekend, I haven't stopped creating, and I've been loving it more than ever.
So if you're properly, horrifically stuck right now, I highly recommend going back to basics to find something new. And actually, if you can find someone who you can create with (in my case it was my mum), it can kick-start those feelings of excitement even more, because a lot of the time our working lives can feel solitary, and feeling like you're part of a little team can make everything so much more worth taking part in. I talked about honing in on your creative identity in my previous article here, which may also be useful.
Things lead to other things. Remember that beautiful things are often made within really tough times, and during these times, creativity can still be your outlet. We have so many tools around us, both in traditional art and technology, to help us find our thing. Keep an eye out for my next article where I'll show you where this experience has taken me, and what work I've been making from it.
Stay safe, keep positive.