Creative Blocks Require A Different Kind of Date

Pushing through creative blocks is always tough. I was planning out my content the other day and felt so stuck! The creativity just wasn’t flowing.

I struggled at the computer for a while and thought back to one of my favorite books on creativity, The Artist’s Way. In it, Julia Cameron talks about how our inner artist is a child that we need to take on dates, ideally weekly (I’ve put a list of my favorite date ideas below).

I decided to have an impromptu artist date to open myself up to much-needed insight, inspiration, and guidance. So I did what Baby Diamond loved to do—paint. I remember painting along with Bob Ross nearly every week with my Grandaddy as a kid.

I found a Bob Ross YouTube video and got to work. It started off so bad! I had barely any white paint and was missing brushes. Any painters reading this know how important white paint is, especially to get the canvas ready.

I made do with the little I had and panicked. My blending wasn’t right, and my shapes were terrible. Then I remembered why I did this in the first place. To have fun and get inspired. I didn’t show up to continue judging and critiquing myself. This was supposed to be fun!

I reluctantly got off my own back, and Bob cheered me on the rest of the way. Then something beautiful happened. As I added more layers, objects, and shadows to the painting, it started to look better. With every stroke, the painting improved.

It made me think about how sometimes we're so worried about what we don’t have and how even still, we can still end up with something beautiful. We can’t always see where and how what we create will turn out, but if we just keep going and enjoy the process, the outcome won’t matter as much.

Of course, by the end, I was proud of my work because I knew all the limitations I had experienced throughout the process, and yet I still managed to finish.

The artist's date was a success. I enjoyed decompressing my mind and even gained some insight to write this post.

Here’s a list of Artist Dates:

Oh, and here’s the painting I did as well!

Go out and play!

With Love,

Diamond