I’ve learned several ways to combat my own blank canvas syndrome, that’s not the difficult part right now. I’m not worried about ruining a nice, new canvas or being stuck on where to start, I’ve gotten much better with that over the years. It’s the step before that that’s snagging me now.

So much inspiration was jumping out to me at the beginning of the summer.

I continually saw images in nature that I was eager to recreate on a canvas or sketch pad. I saw it all around me on walks, road trips running errands or going to church and thought I’d be set for several pieces for a while. I was practicing art in some way daily. Seeing numerous displays of art in nature left me encouraged for getting back into creating art this summer.

Then the occasional reality of an artist’s life hit.

I still see the beauty in God’s creation, it hasn’t gone away, but my eye for it has been distracted lately. Not all bad reasons either. I’ve been blessed to stay home with our son this summer and spend more time with him outside, exploring, watching him play and grow and interact with other LITTLE kids. I can’t and won’t say I’ve regretted that, it’s been wonderful. Nor will you read on to find any “but”, “though”, “second-guessing” or anything of the like. I’m simply learning that it’s ok to get distracted once in a while by other beauty and if I don’t see something that makes me think of making artwork, that doesn’t make me any less of an artist. It just means I’m walking through different landscapes in life.

I also know this can rapidly turn into complacency or even laziness which I need to keep in check. I recently realized it had been a while since I’d last written a blog post and I had to reflect on whether that was more because of lack of inspiration, or simply because of laziness. More so laziness. That and being stuck in my mindset from college of the majority of my motivation coming from seeking a high letter grade (not the right mindset for this). So I started writing down post ideas outside of sitting at the computer and with old-fashioned pen and paper and also realized I could write about these distractions and how they’ve impacted my creating art.

This reality of not always seeing the inspiration staring right at me and then wanting to dip my brush in my palette has been a good learning curve for me and my perfectionism and idealism. It has also opened my eyes again to actively look for the inspiration like at the beginning of the summer. The next step: thank God and create.