Creative Block

When you want to write, draw, paint, make music or even produce film, the thought process almost always happens instantaneously - a torrent of great ideas spill fourth from one's imagination, sometimes giving the most out-there and creative pieces of media conceivable.
When somebody is especially talented in those areas it can be a turning point for every one - like, who on earth managed to bring the most gaudy and disgusting sportswear back into fashion? Christopher Shannon. Or who somehow made us all adore geometric shapes again? Daft Punk. Whats funny is the fact it's been done before and were just catching onto a zeitgeist, which, put simply, is a formulaic revival of things from 15 years ago. Creative processes MUST go into revivals though - you cant simply re-publish a classic outfit or piece of imagery. There always needs to be a new flavor mixed in, making it the mark of a movement or era e.g. NPS Black Duck, which is essentially Ali G + Skinhead. Hell, to create this blog's layout I couldn't help but look back to Jurassic Park (1993) and Point Break (1991) - it was just a matter of combining 2 timely pieces of imagery in an aesthetically pleasing mash-up.

Sometimes however, people just can't create. I and many of my friends have had this symptom - it's commonly known as "creative block", and it's pretty much agony. Agonizing in the sense that whatever you create, either you've already done (to death possibly) or somebody else has beat you to it.

Firstly, surround yourself in art. I reckon it's gotta be new stuff though - older artwork has usually already been used as inspiration or recycled completely, unless you go for a completely obscure or unknown artist like Paul Laffoley or John Greenwood (top).

When you totally immerse yourself in creative materials you'll find yourself beginning to think arty again. Try and take in what you haven't tried before, be it a convention in music, painting, drawing, filming, etc. as long as you haven't experimented with one of them, doing so will open up a whole new "zone" in your mind - it's how I placed myself in the mindset to create these. I had never tried "net-art" before and I'd never nicked stills from films either - it was obviously time to try it out...

The most recent thing I've been inspired to do is set up a newspaper via The Newspaper Club. It's a site that you send magazine/newspaper layouts for them to print however many copies you want. I'm working on ideas for the paper content right now and organizing the artwork too. It's getting distributed by Media Magazine so that'll definitely build up some hype for Righteous Blog.
It was Jeffrey Lewis' work that got me out of the creative block that time - he's pioneered "anti-folk" and built up fame by stuffing his comics in cereal boxes.