Sweep a floor and embrace naïveté (an extra five thoughts on art, mindsets, and creativity).

Lose it: cut up the form or the structure.

Regardless of what your discipline is, you probably get stuck sometimes. When you do, chop it up.

If it’s a drawing, do it literally.
If you’re a photographer, re-compose so now you have half the original image.
If you’re editing a film or video, cut out half the middle.
If you’re a dancer, start early, end early.
Et cetera.

You might not like it. But you might. And it will help you not to get too precious with what you thought you couldn’t lose.

Be okay with being uncool (you can keep being good, or you can try being great).

When others start loving what you’re doing, that’s a good thing, mostly. Mostly?

Mostly. But what if you want to move beyond doing something good? We look at so many artist (in any discipline) now and hail them as revolutionary. But in their time, many were not revered or respected or liked or sometimes even tolerated.

Don’t be different just for the sake of being different. But if your voice is calling you to do something different, then don’t be beholden to continuing to do the same thing that’s pretty good, just because it’s pretty good and people seem to like it.

Or maybe…and let’s be honest, you probably have bills to pay and obligations to meet - maybe, you keep on doing some of that, but also commit to doing something that doesn’t have a built-in set of cheerleaders in the present.

Sweep a floor, then use that as a metaphor.

Take a break from whatever it is you’re doing, and go sweep a floor. Move some dirt and dust around. Then take that idea back to your art form.

Sometimes you’re gathering up things to throw away.
Sometimes you’re gathering up things to recycle.
Sometimes you’re gathering up things to set aside for the time being.

And maybe sometimes, you’re gathering up a bunch of dirt and dust to make some magnificent new structure or sculpture.

Embrace naïveté.

The mindset of an artist is that of perpetual curiosity, wonder, and possibility at the mystery and beauty surrounding us pretty much everywhere.

Irony is a blanket that covers everything; a fog that disguises all else. It’s a great tool, especially if you’re a writer or storyteller. But try setting it aside enough to get excited about what’s around you - objects, people, weather, space - in the way you might have when you were a kid.

The world is a deeply neat place. Soak it in.

Sometimes it’s okay not to finish today.

Let it go, or sometimes don’t. At some point you gotta let it go. But who’s to say when?

I have things I’ve been working on for years, intentionally. I’ll add to over time - a poem, a story, a painting, an essay - and then finally…I’m done.

Just because you set something aside, deliberately and intentionally, doesn’t mean you’re not going to finish. But be honest. Are you going to? Are you using it as a perpetual excuse? Or is it really part of your process?

Be honest about it.