Creating art is not just entertainment, it is a way of life. So how can you nurture a more artistic existence? Artists share their advice on how to be more creative.
It’s okay if you can’t draw
Helen Cammock, one of the winners of the Turner Prize in 2019, says that although she was the daughter of an art teacher, she was not inclined towards art in her childhood. “Just because you can’t draw something in a representative, representational way doesn’t mean you’re not creative,” she says. Cammock, who lives in North Wales, works in “film, photography, printmaking, performance, writing and text”. He’s hopeful that art classes at school are changing to focus less on representational drawing and painting.
It’s never too late to create
Cammock was 35 when she started studying art after a 10-year career as a social worker. It’s important to keep challenging ourselves by trying new things, she says. “As we grow older as adults, we become less comfortable taking risks. If we think about the things we did as kids and tested in our youth, somehow that bores you and taking risks is not an area you can live in. “There’s something about allowing yourself to try things and not having expectations of what you’re going to produce.” Cammock is now taking trumpet lessons: “I’ll never be a great trumpeter, but it’s important for me to open myself up to new things throughout my life.” Irish artist Anne Ryan, who works in painting, ceramics and sculpture, started tap dancing for a similar reason. “I suck at it, but I come out glowing and feel like I spread some love,” she says. This energy feeds into his art.
Find your space
Or as Cammock calls it, your “container.” “For me, a container is walking. It is a way of being in a particular space emotionally, psychologically and intellectually. And that could be in the mountains, or walking across London instead of taking the tube to a meeting. I drive long distances silently and these are some of the most productive moments, this container in the car, where no one can see me, no one is next to me. It could be a table in a crowded house, it could be a window, or it could be lying in the bathroom. I think people do this in gardens or on balconies if they have them. It’s about giving yourself time and space where you’re kind of inside your own head.
Move on
One of those taking part in the walk is east London resident Babak Ganjei, who travels on foot whenever possible to find inspiration for his text-based paintings. “All thinking happens while moving,” he says. “It’s actually really hard to sit still. When I sit down and try to figure something out, I get bogged down trying to figure out whether I’m really thinking or not.” Ryan says he’s constantly moving in the studio: “I’m very physical when I’m doing it; It’s like the music is flowing through my body.” Alberta Whittle, a Barbadian-Scottish performer, says she dances when she’s not feeling inspired: “Sometimes I really need to move my body and mix things up, so hosting a solo dance party can really help.”
Understand the importance of looking
“The only thing you really learn in art school is to look,” says Ganjei, who studied at Central Saint Martins in London. “Being creative is all about looking at the world and taking in information in a different way,” Ryan says. “Whether you are a poet, a painter, or a writer, you have to step outside yourself to do work.” Suffolk-based portrait artist Stuart Pearson Wright says: “It’s really about taking the time to stop and observe things. And whether that’s observing things in a visual world, listening to things, or spending time in nature, the important thing is to find sources of inspiration.”
Keep an idea notebook or sketchbook
Cammock always has an idea book with her, and when she doesn’t have access to it, like at night, she uses her phone to take notes. Even after bedtime, Whittle notes, “I’ll wake up with ideas or fragments of dreams about what I’m working on, and I need to get them out of my head and onto the page. “I have a terrible memory, so my notebooks or notepads come in handy for writing things down at night or from dreams.” “I feel very comfortable taking a sketchbook to the bar,” says Pearson Wright. “Then if I don’t know what to talk about, I can just draw people.” Mental notes are also valid. “I don’t take as many notes as I should,” says Ganjei. “It’s almost like I rely on what’s left… It’s my brain that sort through them.”
Don’t put pressure on yourself to produce
Ryan teaches foundation and undergraduate art classes and is about to start a new sculpture course. One of the key principles he tells his students is: “It’s not about going to the studio to paint, because then you’ll never do it. But he goes there to read a book or play with something. Don’t try to do something, or it won’t happen.” Cammock says: “What I’ve learned is that the best thing for me is to take the pressure off and do something else and trust that it will come; “It always happens.”
Be inspired by others but know when to look away
“It’s always nice to talk to artists and go to galleries and be a part of that community,” Ryan says, “but when I’m doing it, there comes a point where you look at a lot of things and you just have to stop and look at yourself.”
Learn about art history
“The problem with artists is that they absorb other artists,” Ryan says. “So when you look back at Cézanne and El Greco, for example, you become part of that timeline and that is part of your story. I tell students to look back and start a family, whether it’s from the 1700s or another time. It narrows down your world in a good way. “You start to see cultures and ideas across the ages very differently because you start to place yourself there.” Your style may remind you of those who came before it. Ganjei worked with the text “Not David Shrigley” for a while. “It’s quite difficult to know when you were influenced by something or when it was your original idea,” says Ganjei. “Because if you found something that simple, it was almost always there.”
Consume other cultures too
Ganjei likes to listen to comedy podcasts while walking on the sidewalks; Conan O’Brien is the favorite right now. He also sees a lot of stand-up. Ryan goes to folk concerts that evoke the music he grew up with, from girl punk bands like Panic Shack. Whittle appreciates it: “Family and friends send me links to articles and posts, which can really change how I feel about myself and my work. I love a good meme!”
Use your mistakes to your advantage
“Be confident,” says Whittle. “So much time is wasted worrying about doing something perfect. “Perfection is overrated, and mistakes are often much more interesting.” Ganjei is embarrassed, remembering his disastrous A-level art painting exam, which took him from A to C. “But as I got older, I realized that I could use this painting for something else; This is a funny story. The painting is terrible, but there is something inside somewhere else. Your mistakes can be positive in a different way.
Learn to love your own company
“One of the most important things for creativity is that you love being by yourself because we spend so much time by ourselves,” Ryan says.
Calculate what time of day you will enter the area
“I’m a morning person, but I’m a bit obsessive, so it can be really hard to pull myself away from what I’m working on and I can keep working until the wee hours of the morning,” Whittle says. Ryan says he could be in the studio all day, but he doesn’t really kick into gear until the evening: “There’s a build-up in the area to get to that point. 17.00-17.30 is the turning point for me.”
Create close to home
Pearson Wright often works until midnight. “I always feel creative,” he says. It helps that his studio is next to his house. When his kids come home from school, they work at the studio hot desk, making their own art, so they can spend time together while he works.
Work work work
Artists don’t actually shut down. Pearson Wright describes a period last year when he realized he had been working for six months straight without taking a single day off. “It’s like a flow I can’t turn off,” he says. “My problem is that I have too many projects and plans in my brain. I think that’s why I’m such a workaholic, because if I sat down now and started working on the ideas I had in my head before new ones came along, I could work until the day I die and we can’t get half of it done. I want to build a half-scale Routemaster bus out of copper and fill it with numbers; This will probably take two or three years; I want to make a copper head 25 meters high and stick it in Lowestoft overlooking the North Sea; I want to make a series of paintings depicting the M25 set in the 1980s, which come together on five meter long canvases and surround a huge gallery space. “I’m constantly coming up with new ideas, and each idea can take six months or two years, so I’ll never catch up.”
Do something creative every day
Even if you’re a little less productive, taking one creative action every day can help. So how can you achieve this? “Putting the phone away is a good start,” says Pearson Wright. “Carrying a sketchbook can be a good thing. I taught myself how to draw by making sketches of people on trains and buses, which can be a somewhat dangerous profession. But definitely try to sketch every day. “This is a very good discipline in visual arts.”
talking to strangers
“Have a conversation with a stranger,” says Whittle. “Even if you disagree with them, your world and insights will open as you hear a different worldview.”
Don’t force creativity
If you’re struggling, Whittle suggests taking a break to reset the creative flow. “Leaving the house or the studio, seeing the world pass by, or calling a loved one can release a lot of tension until you’re ready to move on again. There’s a community organization with a choir near my studio, and if I time it right, I can come out and hear them singing, which really changes my energy.”
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If all else fails, do nothing
“When you let everything into your life, it’s not like, ‘Oh, I’m going to go painting now, I’m going to go painting,’” Ryan explains. I mean, you’re clearly doing that. But it’s more about looking, or sitting with your mouth open and looking out; It’s actually about letting go and giving yourself a break. Sometimes, to get you to do nothing… and suddenly something happens, whether it’s tearing two pieces of paper, which I just did, and gluing them together differently. “Give yourself a break and allow yourself to do nothing to make something happen.”
Be creative without realizing it
Cammock believes that even non-artists live creatively. “Everyone works creatively to survive,” she says. “The families I worked with as a social worker were working in creative ways to survive. So we all have it; It’s not a special thing that only certain people have. “It’s part of the human experience.”