I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas out there and that you were able to spend the time with friends or family, as your preferences lie.
If you’re anything like me — a moderately creative person who’s always working on some project or another — chances are you received at least one gift that was meant to help spur that creativity into productive directions. I was lucky enough to get three notebooks and a tonne of pens, which is great because I’m always running out of pens and I’ve been dying to get my hands on a new notebook for a while now.
If there’s a problem with gifts like this, it’s that they tend to come with a certain amount of pressure to create. Not so much from the person who gave you the gift — their intentions were to only encourage you to do something you love — but from the gift itself. It doesn’t matter if it’s a new notebook, a new canvas or an unused block of clay, they have a way of calling out to you and making you wonder what possibilities they hold.
Even if you have an idea, getting that idea to the point where it’s useful can be tricky. Fortunately, there’s always something you can do at this time of year to help kick-start the process. I’m lucky enough that I’ve got a bit of driving to do today because it’s going to give me a chance to sit down and think about what I’m trying to work on, but if you’re not so lucky, I’ve got a few suggestions that may help.
The first suggestion is one of my personal favourites: take a walk. It’s not always effective, but I usually find that stepping away from the blank page, or canvas, for an hour or so and wandering around is an excellent way to process what I’m trying to do. It’s especially nice at this time of year because it’s not hard to find a nice, quiet place out in the woods for your walk. If you’re a visual artist you’ll get the double treat of time away from your project and being surrounded by lots of beautiful scenery to take pictures of for later.
If walking in the cold isn’t your thing, try getting together with a friend and visiting. Now that Christmas is done people tend to have a little more free time and, even if the conversation doesn’t even touch on art, having the distraction a conversation brings is a good way to knock loose an idea or two.
Finally, if you’re still not too sure what you can do with the gift you got, take a class. There’s a lot of wonderful classes coming up through the Arts Council and I’ve always been surprised at how much good thinking happens while I’m in a class.
Sometimes getting that first bit of work done is the hardest. I know it always is with me. So best of luck to anyone out there who got creative gifts. If you have a trick that you like to use when you’re trying to get the creative process going, please feel free to pass it along to me. I always love to hear what other people do in situations like this.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go for a long drive down a bumpy road to try and shake loose an idea.
Douglas Paton is a Summerland writer and musician. If you know of a local arts and culture event, contact him at dgpaton80@gmail.com.
