How to Deal with Artist Block in Quarantine

If you feel stuck in your life and art, you’re not alone. During the pandemic, many artists find themselves deprived of their usual artistic environment. Travelling is out of the question, studios and galleries are closed, models can no longer attend photoshoots, and human interactions are reduced to a minimum. How can anyone be inspired and creative under these circumstances? And how can you continue to create and express themselves when met with artist block?

The most popular tips for dealing with the artist’s block are to take a long walk, travel, and meet new people. Today, creatives can hardly do those things. Thus, finding new ways to deal with the artist’s block is essential for your career and mental well-being.

Quarantine Art

Many artists and photographers rethink their artistic inspiration and focus on what happens in the world. You can see moviemakers making movies in their homes, photographers taking pictures of empty streets and airports, artists painting the cities’ walls, and pavements covered with COVID-19 inspired messages. Most of them used to work with big budgets, studios, and teams of experts. Today, they streamline from their dining room and cast their pets in starring roles. The world is changing, and art is changing as well.

Virtual Travel

While many museums closed their doors, they’ve opened virtual windows. You can visit the most famous art museums in the world from the safety of your home. Virtual tours, 3D exhibitions, and live events are just some of the things that can help with the artist’s block. See the masterpieces you’ve always wanted to see. Visit the Louvre without buying expensive tickets to Paris. Listen to your mentors, take time to study their work, and engage in an active and vibrant virtual artistic community.

Take Time to Observe

Without regular stimuli, the world has taken a break. Use this time to observe your art, family and friends, and surroundings; notice the beauty of sun rays through the curtains; study the stillness of the city or the unstoppable changes of nature; look at rain like you never did before. Take these little mundane things and transform them into art. Deconstruct an object, draw a feeling, or photograph from an unusual perspective. Even if you don’t like the result, it’s still a way to overcome the artist block and regain your rhythm.

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Maybe the best advice we’ve heard from psychologists these days is to live life as it is. Don’t wait for the pandemic to end to go back to your ‘normal’ life. Use your current circumstances as an artistic challenge — the results may pleasantly surprise or disappoint, yet it would be an undeniably valuable lesson.

Article written by Monica Radulescu