In the Netherlands we have weeks of lockdown already. Even though the schools were all closed and I had to homeschool AND still do my job in healthcare, I thought it probably would help me design more since there is little else to do, especially in evenings and weekends. I already pictured myself drawing and painting for hours at night…
But boy, was I wrong.
Not that there wasn’t time. I had plenty of it, now that there are no birthdays to go to, no coffee with friends, no visits to grandparents. But I simply didn’t have the inspiration. How frustrating! The frustration about it surely doesn’t help. I realize I need to go outside, talk to people, see things Or just sit and observe. And now there is too little to observe. A little change to feed the creative part of my brain. It is very draining that every day is so similar. It is not exactly being bored -there is still enough to do, since I still have my job, had to homeschool etc. For being creative, I need to think a little bit outside the box, see something unexpected (even if it seems hardly noticeable), and simply experience. I never thought it would have such a huge effect on me as an introvert. I can only imagine the effect it has on extraverts. And adolescents.
I tried different things, like asking myself questions to get that out of the box thinking to work; tried some new materials to work with, watching a movie or read a book and hope that’ll inspire me. It didn’t work. It might have worked another time, but I think the solution here is to have some spontaneity, new, emotional encounters, surprise, and simply something to experience to be able to be creative the way I like it. Now it just seemed forced. I don’t think it is impossible to be creative right now, but it is definitely harder for me, since this is not the way I get inspired a lot, apparently.
I started drawing again with colored pencils and crayons. Since I don’t have inspiration, I just draw what I see or even retrace a drawing by someone else. Usually I create when something evokes an emotion or memory and I will not recreate it in the exact way it is (or, the most exact as I am able to) but give it some different color, add a story, a detail, or something that wasn’t there but was in my head. It is more the moment, feeling or memory I capture than the actual objective situation. As far as we people are always capable of capturing situations in an objective way, but that is for another time 😉 But that is what makes my art worthwhile for me and what I enjoy.
Instead of designing and trying to create I was focusing on simply playing with my latest collection. I liked doing it. Just play. No obligations. No deadlines. I even like the outcome. It is shown below. I don’t think I’ve ever created a page with this many layers (over 80!).
Fortunately, the creative team didn’t seem to have a creative block. They made some gorgeous layouts with my 28 Days collection . I will share some of those amazing pages here soon and hope they will inspire YOU!
Oh… Even though I would LOVE you to comment on my little stories here and have some sort of interaction on the internet, I decided to turn comments off for now. The spamming is just really getting out of hand and I don’t want to spend more money on this website than I already do. If you would like to reach me, you can find me on Facebook or Instagram. Unfortunately, it seems that bots can send you private messages now too.
Thanks for reading about my little corner of the world, that feels even smaller now due to the lockdown 🙂
<3 Maaike
