Artist block and the genesis of a new project... 21/9/2013

I have been an artist off/on for over 30 years. I say off/on because life happens, plans derail, and people develop artist block.

My artist block has been one of the most difficult things I have ever tried to overcome. Happily – and completely unexpectedly - I have been able to make some incredible breakthroughs in regards to my artist block over the past six months thanks to the persistence and support I have been receiving from my partner. The most important thing that he has said to me was that art should be “play” not work, not take it too seriously, to simply let go and see what happens.

#3 A Difficult Beginning

Up until the beginning of this year, I had been unable to produce art regularly. I would find myself going through phases in which I would be overcome with this incredible need to develop or work on a project, but whenever I sat down to “work” or attempt to execute the project, I would freeze up and would be unable to add even one line to the paper I was looking at.

The origins for artist block are endless and vary from artist to artist, but, in my case, it is fear. Fear of people not connecting or enjoying my work, of not being good enough and (surprisingly) fear of succeeding and then being unable to continue to produce work that people will embrace.

After years of frustration dealing with my artist block, I read an article in March of this year about a 30-day art journal challenge – work for 30 minutes in your journal for 30 days. All other ideas up until this point had failed, so there wasn’t any harm trying the challenge – the big question was: would I be able to complete it? And I did. It wasn’t easy, in fact it was extremely frustrating at times, but I had the support I needed and it WORKED. I started “playing” and eventually came upon my current project in the process.

#46 Striving Upwards

In an effort to continue to work through the artist block, I bought a set of stencils with organic designs – or biomorphic, as I came to refer to them. Armed with the stencils, a couple of boxes of Sharpies, and a stack of ancient watercolor paper I began “playing” regularly. The only “rule” was that the designs would be done entirely in ink – no pencil, no pre-planning. I started working with 15x22 sheets of watercolor paper, added a 0.25 inch black border, and used the stencils to produce designs. After a couple of weeks, this evolved into adding simple Celtic knots and, ultimately, on a whim, Chinese hexagrams from a portable book of the I Ching that I had. The result was the I Ching project.

The I Ching project will ultimately be a series of 64 mixed-media paintings – one for each of the 64 I Ching hexagrams. The only “static” requirements for the mixed-media paintings are: the black border, the addition of an I Ching hexagram and the corresponding Chinese character… anything else that may be included in the mixed-media paintings is entirely up to whatever inspires me at the time the painting is created. Right now, I have been working with the idea of combining Celtic knots with the biomorphic designs, next month it could be something entirely different. I have no idea what direction this project will go in, all I do know is that the mixed-media paintings completed at the beginning of this project will be entirely different from the ones completed at the end of it.

#25 Remaining Blameless

I am well aware that this is an ambitious project, but I have already completed 1/3 of the mixed-media paintings, so I am well on my way. I am also very much aware that not all of the designs “work”- and that’s OK, too. Not every painting will be “great” and not everyone will connect with them, but I can use the “failed” paintings to inspire new directions and new ideas. After all, it certainly doesn’t hurt to try an idea out.

Attached are three of the I Ching paintings… I have been working on getting the color correct with my camera for the past couple of weeks, but so far have been unsuccessful; maybe someone has a suggestion for future postings.

Any questions, comments or suggestions can be made either on this blog or sent to my email address: offthegrid91@gmail.com.

Jenn White

White Rooster Studios