Don’t you love that creative moment when you step back to look at what you have created and feel a glow of satisfaction grow in your body? You feel that there is a communication between what the world has spoken and what you have done. You were successfully able to express a message, to show beauty, to make an important statement. You feel alive! You are in love! You feel like you could live in that moment forever and that THIS work is all you ever want to do for the rest of your life!
Does that happen to you? It happens to me a lot.
When it does, I move toward ‘THAT’ work knowing that it is what I was meant to do and nothing else will satisfy me. I share it with everyone and create more.
Then, at some point, I get bored.
Somehow the message that was so alive gets lost, and I look back at all I have created, and it looks like a big pile of garbage.
What was I thinking? Did I lose my mind?
I sink into a depression. Feeling ashamed, I retreat into myself and stop creating.
Eventually, I get bored of being depressed and find the tools to help myself back to the place where I am creating and sharing again.
This is my cycle. And today, I know more about the nature of that cycle.
The creative peaks and valleys are necessary for growth and evolution. The exhilaration felt during the period of high creativity is exciting, and the joy is tangible. It is a great moment to live in, and it has nothing to do with the quality of your work. Getting bored signals that the cycle is at an end and a necessary period of rest is coming up. It is time to read, build and focus on other things. Creative scarcity has nothing to do with your talent, just as creative peaks have nothing to do with the quality of your work.
The trick is to remember that creativity runs in waves and spirals. Like all things in nature, it has seasons. So all we need to do is nurture the muse and not take the creative cycle personally.
Exploring ideas on creativity through digital art.
