How to Increase Creativity During an Illness
Encourage Innovation in Your Art Through Experiences
Nov 10, 2009
Increasing creativity during a stressful time such as an illness takes a lot of soul searching. Here is how to harness these intense feelings to encourage innovation in art.
Evaluating
Illness is a trying time. It is also a good time to reflect on life. These reflections can be turned into insightful works of art. Here are some creativity tools to focus ideas:
- Create a personal definition of “creative” and what would be needed to achieve it.
- Try to answer this question: "If I died, what do I want to leave behind for the world to know that I was there?"
- If the experience was a color, what would it be?
- If the illness was a tangible feeling, what would it be? Jagged? Rough? Misty? Sharp?
- What strong emotion is connected with the illness? Sorrow? Hope? Fear? Perseverance? Rage?
- What would be an insight from this experience that could be shared with others?
Write all of the answers down, along with any thoughts on each answer.
Express the Experience
Use the creativity tools answers from above to express your journey through an art form. For example, if some of the answers were black, jagged and rage, a painter may create a series of abstracts that focus on tones of black and overlapping angles. Another example is an artist with breast cancer may be compelled to paint nudes that have had mastectomies to show that beauty comes in all forms.
It is important to let go of the planning aspects of art creation and to just let the emotions flow onto the canvas or paper, at least for one piece. The results may be surprising. It also may be the inspiration for a whole series of art work.
Remember, the artwork doesn’t have to be shared with others if it feels too personal, so don’t let that become an obstacle. Later, sharing the journey or triumph may be easier. Eventually, the art work may be the inspiration someone needs to make it through one more day.
Further Research
For more information on increasing creativity through illness, try reading about other artist’s struggles and triumphs.
Tobi Zausener's book “When Walls Become Doorways,” for example, includes many examples of how normal people used their illnesses as a motivation tool to become more creative in their lives.
Also, try these articles to help inspire creativity and encourage innovation:
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