When You’re Stuck in a Rut, Try an Artist Date
The Rut
As artists and performers, sometimes we can feel really stuck and creatively burned out. I know I’ve been there before, especially when I was working long hours at a job I didn’t enjoy with a lot of people who made me uncomfortable in my own skin. I really felt like my soul was dying, especially on the nights I was so burned out I physically couldn’t pull myself off the couch to get to the studio. I would miss class, then feel bad about missing class, which just made me more tired and enter the downward spiral.
The Audacity
In October 2023, I signed up for Rachel Strickland’s The Audacity Project (highly recommend). Prior to the project, I was on the waitlist which got all kinds of goodies. Rachel introduced us to two concepts: artist pages and artist dates (Rachel cites Julia Cameron as the person who introduced her to these concepts in the book “The Artist’s Way”). Artist pages is a fancy way of saying Journaling. Typically, artist pages are done in the morning as a brain dump before you get your day started. They are meant to clear your mind and get your day started right. That said, they can really be done at any time. Rachel, as well as some other artists I follow that partake in this practice, post a daily accountability story to Instagram and make the whole process look very serene.
Artist Pages
Artist pages don’t have to be about art or projects but they absolutely can be. They can be more of a dream journal, nonsensical doodles (or sensible doodles) or some combination of things. The beautiful thing about morning pages is you can’t do them wrong. Once you’re done you can always refer back to things you wrote, or if you’re writing things just to get them out of your head you can lock the thoughts away when you’re done, or even set it on fire. Totally up to you.
Artist Date
The other thing Rachel introduced me to is the artist date. This is now one of my favorite things. The artist date is also whatever you want (or need) it to be. You could go to a museum, go for a walk in the woods, take a bubble bath. The point is to take the time to do something alone. No other people, no influence, and ideally no phone. The point is to take some time to just be with yourself.
Dating Myself
My favorite way to do an artist date is to make some pumpkin spice coffee with a splash of soy milk in my favorite mug and work on something called a diamond painting. It’s like a paint by numbers, but instead of paint you have these small, shiny pieces of plastic that stick to the adhesive on the painting.It takes minimal thought and I can really zone out. Sometimes I hum or sing to myself while I work, other times I play with my breath (like exhaling when I place a diamond, inhaling when I go to reload the placement tool or vice-versa).
Conclusion
Rut or no rut, spiral or no spiral, artist pages and artist dates are a lovely way to unwind and tap into your inner creativity. I have, honestly, fallen off with artist pages, but I do try to have an artist date at least once a month to find some zen in this crazy world. I invite you all to give it a try and find your zen.
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