How to Unblock Creativity

Images from Allposters.

I love Picasso. Deeply. The local museum had a retrospective exhibit of 40 years of his work. Attending this exhibit was one of the best experiences of my life. I could see his evolution. Being with those paintings in person was almost a sexual experience, I had only seen them in books. There are just no words to describe the strength and power of his work live and cumulated.

I love Matisse as well. Anyone who loves art will tell you they love Matisse and Picasso. How could they not? They have influenced everything. I dare you to look at a piece of art and not see their influence.

I went through a period of time where I was looking at a lot of Picasso and reading Matisse's words. I was fascinated with Matisse's line drawings. He said he attempted to do a drawing quickly, with one uninterrupted line, without taking the pencil from the paper. I remember reading somewhere that to unblock the creative spirit to draw quickly and without thought. Try not to impose your will on the paper, try to feel an image that you are simply freeing. I filled notebooks with this type of drawing. And it must have worked in unblocking my creativity. In fact, today I am so flooded by creativity that I cannot keep up with it. Whenever you are feeling blocked, sit with an empty notebook and a pencil, and just keep that pencil moving. You will be surprised.

Here are the drawings I created during this period. I tried to do what Matisse said, not think, draw quickly. And they are clearly influenced (even stolen perhaps) from Picasso.

Since I really can't draw, I do a lot of multimedia and collage as well. Here are a couple examples:

Reawakening, 1994

8" x 10"

water color, marker and lace on paper