A Date With Your Muse

You go about your days completing what seems like an endless project list and all the while you're looking forward to finally sitting down in your creative space to make art. But when you get there you find your brain still running non stop from everything that happened during the day, thoughts keep popping up from your long list of things left undone, shopping lists, or maybe a bit of guilt for not spending time with family. Everything storms through your mind… that is everything except art ideas. A little bit of panic sets in because there are too many responsibilities and your creative time is so limited and precious that you want to cram it full, not wasting a second. You sit there feeling frustration build, you fumble around with your supplies and fall into a downward spiral. Feeling let down, you get up to tackle all the other things screaming for attention. You tell yourself that once everything is finished you will be able to get quiet and enjoy some time with your art. But it feels as if that time is always so far away.

This was me for a very long time. Struggling to silence my mind and start the flow of ideas when I was ready to create. I read tip after tip and tried everything. Finally a creative burst would hit me and I would have great studio sessions and wouldn't even think about my last creative block. But it would happen again, an artist drought. For quite a while I created in this start and stop way and just thought it was how the process worked.

After quite some time of this frustrating way of working I set out to find a way to be more consistent. I wanted inspiration when I needed it not just when it happened - I wasn't always available when inspiration would hit.

What I needed was a muse, even though I wasn't sure what that really was. I had heard of the muse and wondered if I had one. I imagined it to be some unseen female being who dances around in a flowing fairy-like gown whispering in the ears of artists. Or maybe it is part of the higher self we hear so much about. Or the muse could be outside the self, in those people and places where we sometimes find inspiration. I really reached for the muse, researched it and asked others what they felt the muse was. Finally, I realized that, for me, the muse is inside, my inner child. It is the part of me that doesn't know boundaries and loves to play, that retains the huge imagination that used to fill my days with imaginary friends and adventure when I was young. It is the part of me that processes the outside world and turns what I see and experience into creative inspiration, such as watching my pets and being out in nature or spending time with children.

I thought about this for a while. I did have ideas but they didn’t always show up when I was ready to create. So, my muse was there but I needed to figure out how to work with that part of myself and how to have that creative inspiration available when needed.

What finally hit me was that my muse would tap me on the shoulder when I was in a place where I could be free to be myself and when my mind was more at peace. For example, I would be alone in the car and my mind would start wandering and an idea would spark to life and grow right there while I was in the driver's seat. I would get very excited and then one idea after the other would jump into my mind. However, as much as I tried hanging onto these thoughts they would fly out as fast as they showed up. I managed to keep one or two but most would be gone by the time I was ready to create. I did keep a journal with me but I didn’t always have a pen handy, or wasn't able to stop and write them down. I would occasionally jot some of the thoughts down on a scrap of paper here and there but this was not the greatest way of keeping these precious ideas.

Once I figured out how to access my muse I needed to figure out how to have this experience on a regular basis. Establishing a bit of ritual in my life and making daily dates with my muse was what I set out to do. And I needed a way to capture all of those ideas so they would be available for me when I was ready to create.

The more I brought ritual into my life, morning and afternoon coffee time, bath time, that half hour of quiet before bed, the easier it became to get in touch with my muse.

One of the best places for me to have a flow of creative ideas is bath time. I love unwinding or even starting my day with a long hot bath. There is something about water that moves my creative soul. Being around water, in water, walking along the lake or ocean, sitting by a pond, rain - all feed my creative mind.

The picture here is of the journal that now sits by the bathtub. It is water stained and smells of lavender oil. This one is only half full but I have already used so many of the ideas it contains.

I keep a small digital recorder for those times in my car when the ideas start to flow. Here is a photo of it on the left. It has a USB connector so I can easily transfer the recordings to my computer and label each entry. If you don't already have one of these then I would highly recommend getting one. This one was purchased at Radio Shack and the brand is Olympus. I love it because I can turn it on and set it next to me in the car and when I play it back my voice is clear, even with the background noise from the road.

I keep idea journals everywhere: in the kitchen; at my desk; in my computer bag; in the bathroom beside the bathtub; in the night stand for when I wake up with ideas bursting to get out; in the car for coffee shop breaks and times I have to sit and wait. And I make it easy to get to my journals.

I like a journal that will fold all the way back and not break apart so I can hold it in one hand. It must at least open flat and spiral bound journals are great for this. If they don't have a ribbon to mark the pages I add one and always keep the next blank page marked and ready to go. A pen or mechanical pencil is clipped to the outside of each journal. I don't worry about keeping these journals neat and clean - I like them better if they look ragged, water splotched and coffee stained. They will be worth a lot more that way because they will be used and filled with many wonderful creative ideas. I have baskets of these journals sitting in my studio. They are kept on a shelf where they can be seen and available when I need them. Some will get ripped apart and separated into categories and placed in plastic project folders.

I don't worry about how the entries look in my idea journals. These are very different from my art journals and are usually messy and contain very rough sketches with lots of notes. Sometimes I just need to write to get something out of my head and these journals are a good place for that.

It is an adventure going through my journals and recordings. Often I am surprised by what I find. I feel like I am looking at something someone else has scribbled or sketched because much of what I find I don’t remember doing. I then get a burst of excitement and can’t wait to get to my art desk and begin.

I would like to hear your story. What do you think about the muse? What is your process for dealing with artist block? How do you capture creative ideas? Feel free to share in the comments and/or post a link to your blog post on this topic.

I wanted to share a link to one of my favorite videos about the muse. It’s by mixed media artist Suzi Blu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi07vJsgU_8  Enjoy.