Question 12: "What do you do when you have a mental block?"

“In the Heart of the Woods”

This question definitely falls into the category of “Last but not Least”: “What do you do when you have a mental block?”. This is such a difficult question to answer, and THAT may baffle non artists. I’ve never heard of a doctor or a car mechanic or an attorney or an insurance salesperson say “I just have no idea where to start. My head isn’t in this at all.” Maybe they say that. Maybe I’m making a huge assumption based on ignorance. I just know that when it comes to creating…creating something out of nothing, it requires inspiration. It really does. Whether that’s writing a song that has never been sung, or writing a poem that’s never been spoken or painting a painting that’s never been seen…creating from nothing requires an almost “spiritual” energy.

If that is an accurate way of looking at it, then because I am not God (the source of unlimited spiritual energy), I have only a bit here and there. I am a rechargeable “AA” battery, and not a cold fusion reactor. And so, a creative person absolutely needs to recharge their AA battery or nothing will happen creatively at all.

So my answer to the question of what to do when I have a “mental block” is a very person answer. I have my own answer, but if YOU were asking me this question, rather than telling you my own answer, I would first have to ask you a question. My question would be “What is ‘life-giving’ to you? What recharges you?” Maybe it’s cooking. Maybe it’s hanging out with friends, or hiking, or traveling, or reading, or singing in the shower, or finger-painting or taking a long drive. Do that. Do whatever recharges your own AA battery. My answer is MY answer and I'm fine sharing MY answer when specifically asked, but I don’t think this is the place to do that. See, your answer to a truly “spiritual question” is also a very deeply “personal answer”. Your answer is as custom fit to you as mine is to me. So I make it a rule of thumb not to give my own answer unless I’m actually asked for it.

The point though is, if you are creative and you have a mental block, you need to figure out how you’re put together so to speak. What is akin to “inhaling”? If you exhale (create), you HAVE to inhale to keep the whole process going. This is very, very difficult in our modern western society, because time does not allow for “luxuries” like taking a walk or savoring a slow, quiet afternoon, or turning the lights out and listening to a Brahms Symphony. The way we look at these “luxuries” is all wrong though. We are humans, not robots. We require real, spiritual input to create beauty. That input is not a luxury. That is real. That is life. And that is deeply, deeply human.

New Goals + Winter Months = "Outside the Box" Creativity

During the winter months, Asheville's River Arts District turns into a ghost town, but I've found the winter months to be an awesome time to think, dream, imagine and plan new work. When it's slow and I have time to catch my breath a bit, that's when I start thinking outside the box. Boredom is something I dreaded as a kid, but now as a full time artist, I’ve recognized boredom is kind of a gift to creativity. Down time is when my creative brain really starts firing and I begin thinking things like “I wonder how I can do THAT” or “What would happen if I tried THIS?” There’s only one way to find out (and then boredom ends, having done it’s job).

Over the years, I've primarily focused on landscapes, but I've had time to develop some really interesting directions as far as abstract pieces go. Ideally, I would like to have a better balance between the two styles (landscapes / abstracts) because they require such a different creative approach, and that keeps life interesting!

And, in addition to working on paintings for my studio in Asheville, I'm also creating several new landscape pieces for Mountain Nest Gallery in Black Mountain, NC and several new abstracts for Revealed Gallery in Charleston, SC. I’m so grateful for how these galleries have exposed more people to my work than otherwise possible with my studio in Asheville.

Oh, also (on a more business note)…I’ve begun to offer payment plans for people who want to purchase my work. Here’s how it works…If you purchase a completed piece or commission a custom piece from me, you can take up to nine months to pay for it at no interest. When the last payment is made, I ship the painting to you (and...shipping costs are on me).  

So, 2024 is shaping out to be a really fun (and hopefully) challenging year, as I continue to develop this technique of mine and see where it goes and what it becomes, and that is incredibly exciting for me. 

Question 11: Where do you get inspiration for your work?

This question, “Where do you get your inspiration?” is one of the most asked questions I get. And it’s funny. It’s actually one of the most difficult questions to answer. It’s like someone asking you, “how do you breath?” Simple question, but how do you answer it? “I…uh…just do?” I don’t know how other artists might answer this question, but since this is my blog, I’ll answer it for myself.

For me personally, I need peace inside my head to create. I need quiet. This may just be because I’m an introvert rather than because peace is intricately connected to creativity. I don’t know. Maybe an extroverted artist would feel different, but that’s not me. And for me, quiet and peace happen best when I’m walking or (preferably) hiking in nature. It can take me a while to walk a few miles because I like to stop and just breathe, listen, take in the essence of the place. Hah! That sounds so “spiritual” but honestly, for me, I guess it really is. I can’t think outside the box and create when life is rushed, loud and crazy. I love rushed, loud and crazy (in bite sized pieces), don’t get me wrong. I just can’t create in that environment.

“…I feel the intense desire to communicate to someone else what I’m feeling at that moment in such a way that they feel it too.”

And usually, walking in that quiet place, taking it all in, I’m with my wife Joy. So it may be quiet around me, but I sometimes talk a lot in that context, expressing myself and processing the emotions the place excites inside my head. Does anyone else do this??? I’m probably really annoying to hike with.

Joy: “Why are we stopping?”

Me: “Listen to that!”

Joy: “What? I don’t hear anything”

Me: “I know. Isn’t it beautiful? Just the wind…that’s all I hear. That’s so beautiful!”

Joy is very patient and is really great at entering with me into that “sacred space”. It’s there I get ideas, and at that point, it’s not just “Oh, I can paint that mountain over there!” It’s more like I feel the intense desire to communicate to someone else what I’m feeling at that moment in such a way that they feel it too. When you look at it that way, it’s actually a very intimate thing — creating a piece of art.

So in a nutshell, I get my inspiration from walking, prayer, breathing and listening in the context of nature. It can take hours, so I can’t rush it at all. But given the time (and the quiet), inspiration comes and at that point, in that quiet moment, it can ironically break in like a hurricane. I love that.