illustration, illustrator, art, small-business, woman-owned, stationery, licensing, artist, whimsical

That creative spark

Or sometimes it's a flicker...

· Ponderings

I work full-time as a Creative Director. It's a lovely job with wonderful, bright and creative people. But my job itself is more director than creative. There are bits where I get to use my design skills on a new project, or opportunities to work on a creative solution to a problem. I get a lot of joy out of the process of working together to solve a problem in a new and creative way. And I love directing my team to use their amazing talent to meet the needs of our business. With all work developed for a client, and rightly so, there is a business objective and design constraints.

My illustration work has no such constraints. I make what I want and it travels from my head, through my heart, to my hands. There is freedom in being able to create something of your own original thought and it is delightful when the finished product is appreciated by others. Typically my biggest constraint is time. My life is full. like most others, with commitments and responsibilities. My free time for creating is limited. And most of the time I'm able to switch gears quickly and squeeze in creative time over the course of my week. But for some reason, that I have not been able to pinpoint, I've been in a bit of a creative funk. My creative spark is more like a flicker. My problem has always been too many ideas and not enough time. But this past couple of weeks, I've had the time but not the inclination. Or the inspiration. So today, I have a block of several hours to myself where I am going to dive in deep and try to find it.

What do you do when you when your spark is more of a flicker?