- sigh* i want to paint . Need to create, make something… but i cant . It seems like my creative spirit is as frozen as my toes . I have done only one painting this last year, and i did finish that one a week or so ago.
I usually need peace and quiet both around me and inside me to find my painting zone and be able to create something. When i do, i can paint for hours.
Sometimes it helps me to watch videos on youtube, hoping to kick my spirit in the @$$ .
What do you do to overcome this , if you ever had to?
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I just listened to this podcast episode a couple hours ago where she was talking about this subject.
For me, when I’m not able to find the environment I need to create, I try to find a different type of craft that is more suited to the current situation. For example I much prefer to create when it’s sunny out, I really struggle to do my main crafts (weaving and mixed media) when it’s dark out. But I have found I can do crochet or cross stitch when it’s dark out.
My intention for 2022 is to develop a daily art practice. So far I’ve found what has been really helpful is to give myself a lot of flexibility with what that means (doodling for 5 min counts the same as sitting down for a few hours working on a mixed media piece). I also find taking classes with a scheduled meeting time really helpful (I’m currently enrolled in a few zoom classes that meet a few times a month).
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This very thing has been a hot topic here for nearly all of covid, you’re not alone! You’d think being laid off work for 5 months would have meant crafting allthethings but nope. Return to work with zero social life outside of the 9-5 was no better. I have made less creative effort these past 2 years than ever before in my life.
@Edel posted this quote a while back that really helped me let go of some weird guilt I was manifesting about not doing enough with all that “free” time. It wasn’t really leisure time at all, it was fully occupied with mental & emotional gymnastics!
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My point being, sometime we could stand to give ourselves a break & just let our minds rest until inspiration comes creeping back in. It does, it did, it will again. A bath, a cup of tea, sitting in silence, visiting with friends (distanced or virtually), reading a book, cooking good meals, all the mundane activities we can do to nourish ourselves & let momentum build back up while we’re thinking of other things.
Oh, and there is a fabulous Art journal along where people are watching videos & trying simple & fun little painting exercises that are REALLY inspiring.
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Thank you@photojenn. I will check that podcast ! And yeah, i also do other crafts when i cant do my favourite. So i knit or crochet… socks, doubleknitted socks with my twist on it, so that i get double layered woolen socks. And thats nice, but … it doesnt give me the same peace at mind feeling as painting does.
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Yeah… i really love silence. Its not silent here. Its been almost a year since i moved here, but i still have days that i just wanna get back deep into the forrest.
I m sensitive to sounds, and now living in an appartement building. Right now my neighbor has a party going on, even tho it says in the houserules to be quiet after 23.00.
Yup, first night in ages that i feel tired before 04.00 
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Sometimes when I lose my motivation to craft, I try to use my free time searching for patterns that I like and know I’ll enjoy making in the future. Sometimes I just need a short rest… though I did have about 15 months a few years ago that I barely crafted anything.
I got out of the hospital after a five day stay last Monday. I finally crafted last night for the first time in over a week. I’ve been too tired to do anything. Healing from surgery is exhausting, but I have found a few projects I’m excited to make once I get more energy back and I’m not sleeping 12-16 hours a day. It felt great to work on something, but today I lack the energy to even think of pulling out something to work on. 
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Okay, I SWEAR this is not a self-serving post to promote Lettuce Craft…
I feel like doing swaps helps me get back in a creative groove. In swaps, there is a clear and well-delineated creative “assignment” and a specific time deadline. There is accountability to another person, who expects you to send them something. Plus, you get a jolt of creative juice when you receive what the other person made, and view the gallery to see how everyone else interpreted the assignment. I find it very, very creatively motivating.
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I do think taking a break can be good. Just letting go and be, dont press yourself into paint again.
But maybe it’s something else. If you lived in the forest before (sound amazing), maybe go back to nature and find some quiet and inspiration there. Sometimes we need new views and perspective and that creative spark with shine again.
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@storerboughtcreation Thank you for replying!
I also search for patterns that tempts me ( like your wonderful sign alphabeth ) , or i watch youtube alot. Watching different things there often give me a starting point, or what i should call it.
@endymion Thanks, that sounds interesting ( and a bit scary with the time limit) but still , that might be something to try !
@skrutt , yeah, i think i need nature… i actually live close to the border between Sweden and Norway, in this area its lots and lots of lovely forrests and lakes. Really wonderful! I love it 
Thank you , everyone , for good advise ! I hope i crack out of this soon
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Anna Mason has an entire blog category dedicated to motivation in painting. Maybe you’ll find something there? Get motivated Archives - Anna Mason Art
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Welcome home, hope you’re feeling better.
A small, lightweight craft is great to while the tedium of post surgical waiting rooms. I managed to embroider 40 holiday cards after my last hospital stay.
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So much this. In the beginning of Covid I was totally paralysed, and the only thing I could was miniature kits, they kept me absorbed but required nothing more than following instructions. Now I get really inspired by art journaling craftalongs on zoom and craftalongs generally.
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I’ve started wondering if there’s a deeper part of me that holds me back, in times I can’t get started, because it knows I’m trying to use crafting/art as a distraction from something–and it wants me to really face it. I firmly believe in the power of creative expression for working through problems and healing, in many ways. But maybe I am approaching it less as a real exploratory process than as something I run to for a quick bandaging-over of the real issues beneath.
It is also possible these times come from knowing (on some level), or fearing, that the emotional need I expect to fulfill through art/craft can’t be met that way for now. That’s a dark, defeating place to find oneself, where creative activity leaves you feeling just as empty as before–it is much harder to come back from that than from not being able to get started…so, for good or for bad, this deeper part of myself puts up a mental block to try to protect me.
I try to be kind and patient with myself in these times, and fully accept whatever it is I am or feel in the moment because it is temporary, and because this may be the window of opportunity for a new part of me to break through into the light.
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" who are you, and what are you doing inside my mind?"
You are spot on saying what i am thinking about this, too. .
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Masterboards. That’s the cure for me. It’s messy and freeform, you can’t do it “wrong”, and I find it to be meditative as well. So even if you have something bothering you, engaging in this kind of crafty play could help pull it out of your head and into view.
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My advice would be to not ‘start a painting’, but to allow yourself to take a large piece of paper or a cheap canvas, a lot of paint and brushes and to just play with them. Play is where art comes from. Maybe not on the first play, or the second, but in the meantime you will enjoy playing with paint, so there is no time (or paint) lost.
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I wish I could give this reply 10 
s. It took me a long time to realize that it was more about the process/playing than about the finished product.
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Also, inspiration and ‘the zone’ come from playing around with your tools. Not from waiting for them to just come along one day. They won’t.
I have to tell myself this regularly as I try to grow as a creative writer.
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