What fills my creative well?

As artists, one of the things we need to do is fill our creative wells. I came up with this list of what works for me. And looking at it, I realize that I find myself cycling through these all the time. Sometimes one really works and gets my creative engine going again and then sometimes it takes a bunch of these things strung together. If I’m doing it well often enough, it’s just an every day part of my practice.

When I wrote my series “How to create your art practice” once of the posts was called “Modulate our input” and that feels like sort of companion piece to this post. So if you haven’t seen that series, I hope you’ll take some time to enjoy it.

Things that I can do in my studio

• reorganize my space
• reorganize my paper bins
• look through old journals and art I’ve made

All of these things allow me time to wallow in things that I’ve found interesting in the past. It allows me to see new connections between materials I already have on hand. And then maybe use those things before I decide I need new stuff. The byproduct is also that my studio is then maybe cleaner than when I started!

Things I can do in my studio (Part 2)

• carve a new stamp (maybe a design I found when digging through my stuff!)
• swatching pens, pencils, markers, or other media
• doodle
• cutting out images I like from magazines and books

This group is slightly different because there’s some creative energy behind it but they are things I don’t always take the time to do. It my mind, these are kinda daydreamy activities.

Things I can do out of the studio

• go to a museum
• go to the library
• go to the park
• go to a bookstore with magazines

These are my “wander around and see” kinds of activities. I just want to gather new visual stimuli and think about colors and let things float in and out of my mind. I want to see what other people are making and remind myself that there’s a big wide world out there.

Things I can do with other people

• have an artist playdate (in person or on zoom)
• chat with others about what they are making (I love my ALWCA peeps for this!)
• go to fellow artists’ show openings
• take a class

I can do any of the things in the other lists with people but I’m a solitary person by nature so I really enjoy filling my well without a lot of chatter. Sometimes though only the company of other artists will do the trick. It’s great to hear what others are working on and remember that we all are facing such similar problems.

Other things I do

• crochet on a big project
• start a new crochet project
• look up new crochet patterns
• look through my yarn stash to see if something catches my eye
• cook a new recipe
• play with my dogs

These are the things that I also love to do but they don’t always fit so neatly into my artist practice. I would be lost without these other creative outlets though.

Please feel free to tell me all about the things you do to fill up your creative well! Catch up with me on socials, email me, or go old school and leave a comment on this post to be immortalized for all of time.

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