Art Block, and consequently, the rigorous process of becoming an artist

Recently, a student at Palmer was interviewed on the difficulties of art as a class and in general. Her response, "Sometimes I can't think of anything to draw, because I don't always have good ideas," as in the need to have outstanding artistic concepts can sometimes shy us away from drawing, or even feeling like the quality of anything produced is subpar. Her solution, as is many others', is to go on sites for references or looking at other artists' work to inspire or invoke a feeling to draw and visualize.

This is a problem that many artists struggle with. Because of how amazingly beautiful so many artists' pieces are, it drives them to want to create something as amazing, therefore throwing away any ideas seemingly unfit to put down on paper. This sensation, not being able to draw, is often called "art block" by many on the internet and some in real life. Art block is often a devastating rut where the artist feels like anything they create is bland or worse than usual, and some even think their work is horrible in this state. Oftentimes this is terribly unwanted, because of how artists feel compelled by their artistic improvement to keep creating to keep getting better, but is ultimately what causes burnout and breaks from art.

This, unfortunately, is never a one-time thing for anybody. It is something that occurs for the entire duration of being an artist. Throughout the constant flow of creation and illustrating, there is a senseless push and pull with the artist's motivation and improvement. While they go hand in hand, this constant need to keep creating, keep creating, keep creating, is what makes artists so devastated when they physically can't anymore due to the art block.

The journey to becoming the type of artist they want to be requires a lot of patience and dedication, but along the way, bumps like this are really detrimental to whether or not the artist keeps trekking along or not. It makes them vulnerable to the criticisms and feelings of inadequacy of their art, which often makes them looked down on because of how minuscule it seems.

The journey of becoming an artist is rocky and imperfect, and while people often reduce it to purely talent, it needs to be known that artists struggle with getting to where they got today, and appreciated not only for what their art brings, but for them as people, for their ideas, for their philosophies, and for their humanity.