5 Steps to Moving Past Resistance to Artmaking
It’s absolutely normal to feel resistance in our daily lives. We want a tidy yard, but we put off weeding because it seems unpleasant. We want to keep up with our health and our home maintenance, but we dread making phone calls to set up the required appointments. Often we spend way more time in dread and resistance than we do in actually accomplishing those tasks! And when we do check those tasks off our list, we feel such a satisfying sense of accomplishment.
This happens in artmaking all the time. We want to create art and in fact we love creating art—so why do we sometimes find ourselves procrastinating and avoiding it? Resistance can derail our artistic efforts for years if you don’t take a proactive approach to moving past it. Here are 5 steps to help you do just that.
Identify the Resistance
What is causing you to resist artmaking? Grab a journal or open the notes app in your phone and do a brain dump. List as many of the reasons you can think of for why you aren’t making your art, and then delve deeper into the why behind each reason.
My guess is that 99% of the time, fear is at the root of our resistance. Even though we’ve made art that we’ve been happy with in the past, we’ve had a few bad experiences that have stuck with us and leave us feeling doubt. The longer it’s been since we made art that wowed us, the easier it is to start thinking that we’ve somehow lost that ability. Of course that’s not true! But the fear needs to be acknowledged.
If not fear, what else could be causing our resistance? Perhaps unresolved anger, guilt, or shame. If it’s something that has nothing to do with your art, consider seeing a counselor. If it’s an art-related feeling, you may want to seek an art mentor for help. Either way, knowing the root feeling behind your resistance is critical to moving past it.
2. Set a Low Barrier to Success
Next, I want you to think of at least 10 art activities that you can accomplish in 10 minutes or less. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Some suggestions are:
Play with color mixing: create three colors. Do you like any of them? Do they coordinate with them? Write down your “recipe” for any that you like.
Scribble with crayons, graphite, or markers. This can be torn up for collage paper later or used as a base layer.
Do a few contour drawings: Keep your eyes on your subject and your pen on the paper. These drawings come out wonderfully wonky and are great practice with seeing!
Your ideas should be relevant to the kinds of art that you do and the kinds of things that get your creative juices flowing. The goal is to do one of these tasks and then celebrate that you have spent some time being creative. It’s entirely possible that the activity will loosen you up or inspire you to create more art, but even if it doesn’t, you have still succeeded just by showing up and doing this one thing.
3. Envision the Results You Desire
When you book a vacation, you get excited. You start imagining yourself having adventures at the destination, right? But the fact is that there are a lot of ups and downs (and to be honest, work!) when it comes to going on a grand adventure. You need to batten down the hatches at work and at home. You may run into discomfort or inconveniences while traveling. Things will not go as planned. And yet in the end, you’ll get to that destination and have an experience that enriches your life.
So why do we treat our artwork like a trip that HAS to go right—or we’re too afraid to even leave home? One key to overcoming resistance is to get very excited about the end result, the artwork. At the same time, we need to acknowledge that this artwork is going to take us on a remarkable journey that will have its ups and downs, and the downs will make it all the more interesting and satisfying. If it were as easy as going to the movies, it wouldn’t be as thrilling, right? Keep the faith that you’ll come out of this journey a wiser and more experienced artist.
4. Cut Out Distractions
If you find yourself cleaning, researching, or scrolling when you know you ought to be painting, this is resistance in disguise. Consider eliminating technology from your studio for even one hour so you can focus. Or try time blocking, so you write on paper that you’ll clean from 9-10 but then you’ll paint from 10-11. You can also try building in some accountability. For example, you could join a Zoom coworking group where each person states their intention for the session and then all members work as the Zoom room continues live.
5. Celebrate Your Progress
Any time that you push your resistance to the side and make progress on your art, celebrate it! Praise yourself for it. Say, “Yes! I felt resistance and anxiety but then I worked for 15 minutes and got this painting started!” Consider how much more productive this self talk is than harping on yourself for the time spent giving in to resistance: “I can’t believe I only got 15 minutes of work in today! At this rate, I’ll never succeed.” That kind of self talk will only make the resistance worse!
Overcoming resistance is a lot like strengthening a muscle. It may be hard at first, but it gets easier the more you do it. Build your capacity by following these steps—and watch your resistance shrink!
Caryl