Monday Creative Block

 Over this past weekend, I went to visit my daughter and she kindly indulged me by taking me to a couple of really great, local art galleries. My mind immediately lit up, sparks flew as if billions of ideas were being downloaded into my brain in full color, with details sharp and clear as can be! I wrote them down and eagerly looked forward to the new week with childlike anticipation of all the beautiful art I'm going to create... then Monday came and nothing...crickets!

Sound familiar? This happens too often to us as creatives, especially when the reality of an administrative and/or family to-do list has reached critical mass and becomes a creativity buzz-kill. So how do you keep the creative momentum going despite the burden of all your other responsibilities? I don't have a magic bullet, but I can share what I do to generate a creative spark when  my right brain seems to have temporarily fizzled out...

Start by doing some of your to do list, so you feel like you've accomplished something, then try a couple (or all, ha, ha!!) of these things... 

• Go outside for 5 minutes, look at something other than the thing that is stealing your creative thunder.
• Hop on to pinterest or google (WITH A TIMER!!) Search things you love to look at... colorful things, black and white things, styles of art, illustrations...and take notes on ideas you might have while looking at all the eye candy!
• Keep a book close buy to write down  all the random ideas you get as you go through your daily tasks. 
• Take a couple of minutes in between tasks and scribble a little something in your sketchbook (maybe one of your plants, a child's toy, make a simple pattern... whatever). This doesn't have to be a masterpiece. Sometimes I will just take some markers or a pencil and play for a minute or two.
• Participate in creative challenge. Twitter is just chock full of them!  #colour_collective and Follow the Scribble are just a couple, but there are tons if you look around. 
• I have collections of things, sometimes I go look at them for a couple of minutes.
• Call a creative friend and share art ideas that get you excited.

These are just a couple of things I do, but they do help to re-ignite my creative flame. Even if it not a full blown bonfire of ideas all at once, I always celebrate the the sparks, because each one of them is the beginning of a potential masterpiece!