Question of the month: What do you do when you’re in a rut?
February 6, 2009 by Cyndi Lavin
Filed under Home & Living
What do you do when you’re stuck in a rut?
My best solutions are to either browse through some new books from some other art form, not beading and jewelry, or to go take myself on an artist date. What do you do?
You can either leave me a comment below, or if you’d like to share an image of your work and your website link, you can email your idea to me at cyndi @ b5Media.com (remove the spaces). Please make sure your image is only 72dpi, and put “In a rut” in the subject line!
Image: Stock.xchng
Funny you should ask this. I just posted about my inspiration on my blog the other day.
http://keithperkins.net/2009/02/04/on-inspiration
I go through my old sketchbooks, basically. At least that’s one way for me to get out of a rut.
Sometimes when I am really, seriously in a deep rut (guess that could mean depression or near depression couldn’t it?), I just mope. Sometimes trying to push it makes it last longer and letting myself sit and mope gets to me after a while. Then I start to touch my art supplies again or turn on the computer again to get back in touch. Read a book, do a small part of a project and at some point my creativity finally kicks back in. I must admit on this last bout I had, when I finally checked in to my computer I found people had actually missed me and it really speeded up my moping process!
mmm if being in a rut is doing the same thing over and over and not getting any joy and feeling stale I’d have to say taking on something different that takes you out of your comfort zone and requires real stretching and learning new stuff. Then if and when you go back to your normal you bring another perspective or dimension along. I have gone off to a mountain running camp, gone to classes I have always wanted to do but not necessarily had any talent for, taken time out with books with lots of pictures at home or at a library, or vegetate for a good stretch.
These are all great suggestions! Keith, I forgot to mention revisiting old ideas…there are hidden gems in those notebooks
Timaree, you’re right, sometimes you just have to ride it out, and the hard part can be knowing when to push and when to rest. Shirley, learning something or doing something completely new and even non-art related is one of my best kick starts!