{"id":2416,"date":"2016-11-03T14:35:58","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T14:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/?p=2416"},"modified":"2016-11-03T14:35:58","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T14:35:58","slug":"occupational-hazard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/occupational-hazard\/","title":{"rendered":"Occupational Hazard"},"content":{"rendered":"

While catching up on my blog feed this week I ran into two moderate length videos on the Sketchbook Skool blog<\/a>: \u00a0Part 1: The\u00a0Creative Block<\/a>\u00a0and Part\u00a02: Turning Problems into Solutions<\/a>. Filed under “Art Therapy Thursdays”, they feature illustrator Koosje Koene<\/a>, drawing teacher and co-founder of the Sketchbook Skool, laying bare the struggle of her current creative dry spell. My first reaction was empathy for how deeply this is affecting her (who among us hasn’t been in her shoes at one time or another?), and then I couldn’t help but think how brave she is to share her struggle\u00a0so publicly. That in itself may be part of the answer.<\/p>\n

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Scissors<\/strong> \u00a9 Elizabeth Fram<\/p><\/div>\n

Acknowledging the problem is one thing, but how do you find your way out of it? Both her musician husband Pascal Oetiker<\/a> and, in the second video, Danny Gregory<\/a> offer concrete suggestions of what has helped them in the past: a) return to basics, b) give yourself a problem to solve, and c) get out of your regular routine by\u00a0exposing yourself to new stimuli. But it seems\u00a0the core of what she is experiencing is the lack of joy in working, which makes it all the more scary.<\/p>\n

I was reminded of a story I heard a couple of years ago on NPR about Sting<\/a> as he was emerging from a decade-long creative drought. His TED talk<\/a> about his experience drills home the fact that it’s a phenomenon to which everyone is susceptible. That fact\u00a0doesn’t make the issue\u00a0any less painful, but it’s helpful to hear how others have coped. Brain Pickings<\/a>, one of the best resources for exploring just about any idea in depth, quotes Chuck Close, Isabelle Allende, and Tschaikovsky on the subject as a preface to referencing two books that tap the knowledge and recommendations of 90 and 50 artists, respectively:<\/p>\n