The Fear of The Blank Canvas - Reframing Fear, Part 2
Rembrandt, The Artist in His Studio, 1628
Overcoming fear of the blank canvas evokes an image of a painter courageously going into battle with the blank canvas armed with brush and paint. Overcoming fear of the blank page evokes an image of a writer valiantly attacking the blank sheet of paper with a sharp pencil or percussive strokes on the keyboard. In this fear framing, mustering courage for the fight requires energy, determination, and the right frame of mind.
But is it really fear the artist feels? If we reframe fear in this context as uncertainty, we can draw from a broader and perhaps more productive set of responses.
Instead of asking, “How do I overcome my fear?” you can ask:
How am I going to make a start?
What can I do to help generate or clarify my ideas?
How can I pick a direction when I’m not sure where I’m headed?
The answers to these questions may not be as dramatic as “be fearless,” but they will probably be more concrete and useful.
Uncertainty can be addressed by giving yourself some possible paths to explore and cultivating a mental state that encourages non-critical exploration. As a start, you could try the following:
Give Yourself Something to React To
I know some artists who feel that everything good and pure about art must come from a purely intuitive process — an almost spiritual state where the artist is merely a conduit for a creative force that flows through them undirected and untethered to conscious thought and external influence.
But that’s not how all artists work. I, for one, almost always work better when I have something to react to and this is particularly true when I’m uncertain about how to make a start. If I stand in front of a blank board and wait for inspiration or intuition to strike, I could be waiting for a very long time. If, on the other hand, I lay down some collage pieces or break the white space of my surface with loose marks in paint or charcoal I suddenly see possibilities and my creative juices begin to flow.
Many artists use the technique of giving themselves something to react to not just to start a piece, but when they are stuck in the middle. Rebecca Crowell, for example, says she will often make a big change — like laying down a big red swath of paint — to a piece that isn’t working in order to provide the spark for a new direction.
There are many other ways of providing artistic food for thought. Inspiration can be captured on Pinterest or on a physical bulletin board in the form of images, sketches, patterns, textures, or quotes. Inspiration can also come from non-visual sources like music or poetry. Ronnie Cay, a South African artist whose work I adore, starts her work by first thinking of the title. The title helps set the idea for the piece and gives her something to react to in its creation.
Other artists can also be rich sources of inspiration. No one wants to copy, of course, but exploring and contemplating both historic and contemporary work often triggers something — whether it’s a different way of using brushstrokes, a color combination, or an idea that is only tangentially related but that wouldn’t have otherwise occurred to you.
My friend Anne, who is a poet and writer, introduced me to the concept of “po-jacking” as a way to jumpstart poetry. Po-jacking involves borrowing elements from an existing poem — like the first line or the general structure — in order to spark an original work. In other words, it is a way to cut through the uncertainty about what to write by giving the writer something concrete to which they can react.
Make Use of Prompts and Lists
There are times when I go into the studio with the intent of playing and exploring rather than starting a new painting. Yet when faced with the myriad of possibilities that my studio contains, I am paradoxically often at a loss for what to do.
To help overcome this paralysis of uncertainty, I keep a list of experiments and techniques to try. This list helps focus me and gives me a concrete way into the flow of exploration and discovery. I am not talking about a detailed set of instructions — that would defeat the purpose of play and experimentation — but rather general ideas, like “play with paint bubbles,” or “do some color mixing experiments,” or “markmaking with a huge brush.”
If you don’t have your own list of things you’ve been wanting to explore, a quick Internet search will give you enough ideas and prompts to last a lifetime. Some artists and writers I know put written prompts in a bowl and pluck one out when they are uncertain about what to do or how to activate their creative juices.
Distract Your Critical Inner Voice
We are often our own worse enemy when trying to make a start or continue work in the face of uncertainty. A mental state of uncertainty leaves a lot of room in your head for your critical voice to chime in — “That’s not a good idea, that will never work, you’ll never think of anything, maybe you should just give up.”
There is a time and place for self-criticism — when evaluating a painting for example — but it is not when trying to start a creative flow.
Finding the best way to quiet your own critical voice will depend on what you are trying to do. When I’m working in my studio, I find podcasts very effective at distracting the part of my brain that I don’t want interfering with my work. Other times I find that music — sometimes with lyrics sometimes without — helps me sustain a creative flow.
If you are a writer, podcasts might not work as they distract the part of your brain that you need to write. Music, for similar reasons, might be too distracting although perhaps music without words might be effective. You will need to search out other ways to write without editing as you go.
I definitely have more trouble getting into a creative flow while writing than while painting. During my writing process, I am constantly thinking through my ideas, checking facts, and trying to express things clearly. But this can make for slow and stilted writing. Lately, I’ve been using my critical brain to think through topics I want to cover, then writing more freely and uncritically, then editing and structuring again using my critical brain.
For the free and uncritical part of writing, I’ve been borrowing ideas from other writers, including unedited freewriting with pen and paper, setting a timer and writing fast, and writing with a audible clock tick in order to give myself more of a sense of urgency and keep me from overthinking. I find that distracting my critical brain is hard work but is hopefully something I will get better at with practice!
Be In The Moment
Starting and maintaining a creative state can be easier when the brain is relaxed rather than agitated by uncertainty or by thoughts about all the other things we could or should be doing.
Mindfulness and meditation can help alleviate the discomfort of uncertainty and the pull of distraction by filling your mind with the present moment. I know artists who start their studio day with meditation.
For others, meditation and mindfulness can be part of the artistic process itself. You may not know where you are going with a drawing, but you can lose yourself in the here-and-now tactile sensation of the materials and the physical movement of mark making.
Write Your Way to Clarity
Like many artists, I find freewriting to be an excellent way to bring coherence to my thoughts and help me find a way forward when I am stuck.
The freewriting that tends to be most effective for me is uncensored yet focused writing. I start with a question or topic that could be something as broad as, “What is my work about?” or something as specific as, “Reframing fear as uncertainty.” Then I write in a stream of conscious without editing or overthinking.
The finished writing may or may not be useful, but the clarity that the process brings is usually enlightening.
Reframe Uncertainty as An Opportunity to Explore
I have come to accept an almost chronic state of uncertainty about where I’m headed with my individual paintings and my larger art practice. I have also come to realize that this uncertainty is actually a strength — it is what drives me to keep exploring, learning and creating.
Reframing uncertainty as an opportunity for exploration and discovery can help us turn a negative mental state into a positive one. Uncertainty is painful, exploration is exciting. Uncertainty is something to avoid, exploration is something to embrace.
An uncertainty mindset leads to a bias for inaction, an exploration opportunity mindset leads to a bias toward action and can motivate us to get going even when we’re not sure where we’re headed.
Beyond Uncertainty — What If I Feel Like I Have No Idea What I’m Doing?
There are times when what we feel is stronger than uncertainty. It’s not just that we don’t know where to start or where exactly we’re going, its that we feel completely out of our depth.
In my next post, we’ll explore how to reframe this “fear” of not knowing what we’re doing and look at ways to deal with the confusion and lack of understanding that many of us feel when it comes to our art or art practice.
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