A creative escape is a little time-out-of-time that you carve from your schedule to devote to running away to your art.
A creative escape is like getting away for a romantic weekend with your lover — except in this case your lover is your creative nature. It’s the chance to fall back in love with art, music, poetry and silence: all the important things.
Pencil in one day every few weeks to get away from your usual routine and re-experience your love of art.
Your day away is a good idea whether you are stalled or whether you are working productively on a project. If you’re stalled, your escape will help you unblock. If you’re working hard, it will provide a breath of fresh air.
You might spend the day out walking, looking at walls; walls evoke deep feelings. Or go where there’s live music. Listen. Get lost in the music. When you get back home, dive right into your current creative project.
Your creative escape can be at home, with a new art book, at the local lake or museum, or a long drive away to a forest that inspires you — or a mountain glen that moves you. Bring poetry, or be poetry.
If you can’t take your work with you because you do studio work that can’t travel, then just bring a camera, sketchbook, notebook or tablet. The idea is that you aren’t fleeing, abandoning or avoiding your work but rather that you are recharging your batteries while staying connected to your art. I’m sure you can figure out the details — and your creative nature will appreciate the adventure.
Eric Maisel is America’s foremost creativity coach and the author of more than 40 books including Making Your Creative Mark, Coaching the Artist Within, Fearless Creating, The Van Gogh Blues, and Mastering Creative Anxiety. Coming soon: Secrets of a Creativity Coach. Dr. Maisel presents two live one-hour teleclasses every month with the Academy for Optimal Living. You can visit Dr. Maisel at ericmaisel.com or contact him at [email protected].
