One of the best ways to get more ideas, make more art, and get better at your art is to work on your art!  As the slogan goes, “just do it”.  You need to get to your studio, your art table, or your atelier and MAKE THE WORK. As the brilliant quote goes “Amateurs wait for inspiration, the rest of us get up and go to work”

However, I have found that brilliant ideas I need for my creative practice often happens AWAY from my studio.  In fact, there are 6 creativity boosting activities that I try to make a part of my life on a regular basis because they have been so powerful for my studio practice. 

Walk

Going outside, especially in nature, is one of the best things we can do for SO many of our daily processes. It’s good for our bodies and good for our minds.  It creates a cascade of positive, health affirming hormones and chemicals.  Walking in nature for me is like blowing fresh air through the attic, allowing me to process the stress and anxiety that interferes with free and active creativity.

Remove the pressure

A lot of creatives are ambitious, passionate and energetic, but sometimes perfectionism can creep in. Perfectionism is the EXACT opposite of creativity.  Perfectionism is tight, narrow, constricting and afraid.  Creativity is open, wide ranging and flexible. Perfectionism is often a product of being afraid of failing, being afraid of uncertainty, and being afraid of nuance.  Creativity must embrace all of those things: failing, uncertainty and nuance.  One way to metabolize perfectionism is to remove the pressure.  Maybe you’ll make something that you’ll throw away?  Maybe you’ll make something that isn’t “important”, it’s just play? Maybe you’ll write a poem, play a song on the piano, or do a cartwheel?! The key is to REMOVE THE PRESSURE.

Journal

I could say a lot about manifesting, but for now I’ll just say that my journal is my manifesting device.  I write my dreams about my art, and then I write the steps I know I’ll need to take to produce the art.  I write every day, but it’s rarely a record of the past, it’s always forward oriented, hopeful, action focused, and specific.

Be careful with your words

Growing up in church, the pastor used to say “don’t make a bad confession”.  There’s a lot I left behind from my childhood church experience, but I’ve kept this good advice. I am very careful about how I speak about my art, my process, and my struggles. It’s not “toxic positivity”, like ignoring setbacks, traumas, or struggles.  It’s about deliberately re-framing them with future oriented hope and recovery. 

Meditate, mull, or just chill

There is low level mind numbing, like watching TV or playing minesweeper, and then there is higher level free range thinking.  The free range thinking is sometimes done in a deliberate, formal meditation practice, and sometimes done in alternative ways.  In fact, this kind of thinking is often something I combine with my writing practice.  The essential thing here is that it’s unstructured time, that’s allowed to be fantastical, far out, and impractical.  Those are the ingredients of amazing art!

Look at art in real life and actively be exposed to many different concepts

If you are lucky enough to live near major museums and galleries, these visits can provide unexpected fodder for your creative practice.  In this age of echo chambers with social media, we can be constantly fed what we already know we like. My Pinterest algorithm doesn’t try to surprise me with new ideas.  It just shows me what I already have expressed an interest in.  Currently, that’s cake decorating, abstract watercolors, and bathroom faucets because that’s what I’ve been clicking on recently.  However, when I go to a museum, though curated, it was not specifically targeting me.  As a result, I will be exposed to stuff that I may not “like” and have never seen before.  This new awareness acts like seeds in my creative thinking, and unexpected things will certainly sprout and grow.

There you have it! This list isn’t exhaustive, but these are the things that help my creativity flourish!

If you have found this information helpful and you are interested in learning more about how to grow your own business selling art, check you my free download ‘The Quick Start Guide to Selling Your Art Online’. You can it get at josielewis.com/quickstart