Finally, my jaunty narcissus, with their delicate fragrance and puff of cream, have officially broken into a song of Spring.
Of course, this cheery outdoor bloom is a bit offset by all the crunchy, brown leaves and dried out twigs scattered around them.
But, hey! As much as I’d love to clean up outside, my CreativeSelf is in full bloom inside. And that is a creative spring I’m not about to neglect.
Last time we checked out chronotypes and how paying attention to your natural rhythms helps you intentionally activate creativity.
Remember that crucial insight about your daily slump?
Turns out, that’s just the beginning.
Why Sleep & Rest Drive Your Creativity Forward
Sara Mednick’sgroundbreaking sleep research revealed something fascinating and counter-intuitive: those “unproductive” moments, when your brain craves rest, are unmined, glittering gems of creativity.
Mednick’s studies show how your REM sleep—during a full night’s rest or a strategic afternoon nap— substantially improves your ability to make unusual connections and solve creative problems.
Think of REM sleep as your brain’s private gallery opening, where ideas that would never meet in waking life suddenly find themselves in conversation. During REM, your neural networks play with combinations that your conscious mind might ignore or dismiss.
The best part? You can expand your creative options by using Mednick’s research for yourself.
One 90-minute afternoon nap, rich in REM sleep, can begin to reproduce the creative enhancement that longer rest periods give us.
Or shorter naps (20-30 minutes) can boost specific types of creativity, particularly if you review your creative challenges just before closing your eyes.
For those who can’t manage longer naps, there’s still good news. Mednick’s team found that consistent nappers develop more efficient “sleep architecture” over time – your brain learns to access creative sleep stages more quickly during shorter rests.
The key isn’t how long, but how consistent.
And, your weekend recovery matters too. Allowing yourself, once or twice a week, to sleep until naturally waking (no alarms) refills your creative cup from days of overuse.
Three Ways To Harvest Your Creativity
The most practical approach? Start with what fits your schedule:
A 20-minute power nap during your natural afternoon dip because this timing works with your circadian rhythm to enhance specific memory processing.
Note: Mednick’s studies show these shorter naps are effective for sharpening your rational processing while making creative associations.
A 40-60 minute “sweet spot” nap that includes light REM sleep because this duration allows your brain to enter creative problem-solving modes.
Note: Mednick’s research validates that naps containing REM sleep significantly improve your creative connections and pattern recognition.
One morning a week of unlimited sleep because it allows your brain to complete multiple REM cycles, maximizing your creative potential.
Note: According to Mednick’s findings, REM-rich sleep periods are crucial for enhancing divergent thinking and your creative problem-solving abilities.
And for an extra creative kick:
Before resting, briefly review any creative challenge you’re facing. Forget trying to solve it; your sleeping brain will work on your problem for you, behind the scenes.
About Your Creativity, Ask Yourself…
What if those moments when I feel least productive are actually my brain’s way of calling me to deeper creativity?
What creative insights might show up if I stop fighting my need for rest ? What if I use rest as a transformational tool for my artistic growth?
How wide could I cast my Creativity Net if I began to challenge the productivity mania our cultural peddles to all of us?
P.S. If you decide to set an intentional Creativity Rest, let me know how that goes for you.
Tell me in the comment section at the end of this post and I promise to respond!
P.S.S. If you want to work with me, here are three places to start.
I’ve been prowling around online, visiting artist websites, and honestly, I’m disappointed. About pages are so neglected it makes me cringe! Forget artist statements; there are barely any boring bios either. Or sometimes a slap-dash, mish-mash of both, with neither winning.
But, there is an obvious solution. It requires that you take charge. That you value how people think about your work (words). That you value what you think (also words!) about your work. Because the people who love your work do value what you think. So, tell them!
In these info-saturated days, your artist statement sets you apart.
If you want some serious, evergreen, retro, art career material, I have two seasons of The smARTist Telesummit (originally $497, now just $97) each one available as a one-time podcast—over a dozen art-career presentations, with my ground-breaking templates for capturing what you need right now.
After my creativity surge from my five-week hiatus from life (surgery recovery), I became intensely curious.
Was there a way to jumpstart creativity in normal life?
Turns out, yes. Most definitely.
First stop: figure out my chronotype, which of course led me down a research rabbit hole.
After I dug up nine studies on chronotypes, sleep, and creativity from 1976 to now, I called it quits.
I also learned that it’s not a good idea to depend on the experts and their assessment questionnaires tounderstand your chronotype.
I tried three of these online, and none of them told me what I already knew. But, hey, I’m happy to offer two of them here, if you want give it a whirl:
I answered all of their questions accurately, but the end result—while somewhat in the ballpark—failed on key metrics of my life.
I don’t go to bed before 2 am, no matter what’s going on. I’ve been like this as long as I can remember. Raising children who woke up in the morning was my kryptonite!
And, I need a full 10 hours or I’m pretty worthless.
I spend the first part of my day with minor domestic tasks and catching up on small to-dos; things that don’t require much brain power or creativity surges.
I crash around 3:30 or 4 pm, when I used to force myself to power through until 4:30 or 5 pm, the time my brain wakes up and I’m into the creative work I love.
And, yes, I know I have the luxury of working within my natural daily rhythm. Something that’s nearly impossible when you depend on a work schedule based on the boss’s chronotype, or your family’s multiple chronotypes.
Okay, So Chronotypes… What’s The Point?
Creative behavior, that’s the point.
When you know your chronotype, you also know when (and how) to deliberately activate your creativity.
My guess is that your CreativeSelf already guides your daily creativity for you.
But there’s a huge difference between instinctual creative behavior (you go along for the ride) and intentional (you guide the ride).
Hitting a Creative Slump? Downtime it!
At some point in your day, you slump over. The British, famously, call it Tea Time.
As I’ve said, my slump hits around 3:00 to 4:30 pm, where I used to force myself to power through until my creative brain woke up around 5 pm, or later.
Naps felt silly, especially since I’d only woken up few hours before, so why on earth would I take a nap? Not my thing. Nope… power through, which usually meant aimlessly reading emails.
But Sara Mednick’s studies on napping and creativity changed me forever.
Now, when I slump, I lay in a quiet room, on my back (when you sleep on your side, your sleep is deeper and it’s harder to wake up and get going again), pillow under my knees, some black silk over my eyes.
I begin by giving myself a creative problem or prompt, which (studies have confirmed) gives your brain a task to work on in its unconscious, resting state.
Forty-five minutes to an hour later, I wake up easily, roll over, give myself a few minutes to acclimate and then start my creative work day.
But, What About Your Creativity?
You can take the assessments above, for sure, but I urge you to compare those answer to what your sleep pattern would be if you had your druthers.
If you could structure your sleep/wake cycle just as you’d like, that’s your chronotype: would you wake up easily early morning, mid-morning, or later?
When you go to bed, what time is easiest for you? Early evening (8 to 10) , mid-evening (10 to midnight) or late evening (midnight to 3 am)? Not what’s most convenient. Not what you’ve adopted out of habit. But what would instinctively be the easiest?
What time of day do you find yourself slumping over (even a bit)? Paying attention to this time is crucial because what might seem unproductive, as if you aren’t doing anything at all, is actually the perfect time for your brain to jumpstart up your creative juices.
Wondering…
What if productivity isn’t about how much we push out into the world, but about how deeply we allow our creative spirit to breathe?
What if the real measure of our artistic success isn’t in the quantity of our output, but in the quality of our creative presence?
Let’s dare to challenge our cultural, productivity mandate together. Your art deserves space to truly come alive.
Next Time
There’s so much more I learned about creativity, breaks, incubation, intentional rest/naps.
At this point, I’m still processing a lot of this myself.
And I’d like to bring you along for the ride, so to be continued in a third and last post, yes?
P.S. If you decide to set an intentional Creativity Nap, let me know how that goes for you.
Tell me in the comment section at the end of this post and I promise to respond!
P.S.S. If you want to work with me, here are three places to start.
AI is on the loose while gobs of images dominate Instagram…
but a compelling Artist Statement cuts through the noise!
In these info-saturated days, your artist statement sets you apart.
If you want some serious, evergreen, retro, art career material, I have two seasons of The smARTist Telesummit(originally $497, now just $97) each one available as a one-time podcast—over a dozen art-career presentations, with my ground-breaking templates for capturing what you need right now.
Post-surgery scattered my sense of time to the four corners of the couch where I was recovering.
Not just the tick-tock of time on my watch or phone, but that deeper rhythm that hums beneath our lives: my natural circadian rhythm—the one our culture seems determined to override with its relentless chant of do it, do it, do it.
You know that rhythm I’m talking about, the one whispering to you when you’re about to rush through a piece, but something inside says saalow down.
Don’t you think it’s time we hacked our way out of this persistent, cultural obsession with productivity?
Buying into the notion that constant motion = success, and rest is kin to failure, has become an epidemic.
I’ve definitely fallen prey to this not-so-subtle form of collective hypnosis.
Even though my body demanded its time to heal after surgery, I felt a vague unease, as if sleeping on and off around the clock was a forbidden luxury in the Land of More, Now, and Forever.
But then, after letting my body take the lead for five weeks—at the time, a hundred years—I had a creative breakthrough that blew the door off the productivity myth
When Creativity Can Breath Again
The experience was palpable. Energizing. Creatively explosive. And it sent me curiously poking about.
Why had my fallow field of activity burst into bloom? Why had a decades old, ArtLife idea of mine, as bone-dead as it could be, suddenly come to life? (More on this soon …promise.)
First, I explored the decades of research connecting periods of brain-rest to a following period of high creativity.
The research I found confirmed what I experienced. But I wanted me-specific details. I wanted to replicate my experience without having to go through surgery. Ha!
So I kept digging until I ran into chronotypes, which dictate how your circadian rhythm expresses itself day after day.
I know, we’re getting a bit nerdy, but hang with me because…
…There’s Gold In Them Thar Creativity Hills!
Here’s what I learned:
Your circadian rhythm is your body’s internal 24-hour clock regulated by a part of your brain that controls things like: hormone release, body temperature (as it changes throughout the day), and your sleep/wake cycle.
Your chronotype is the way your body expresses your circadian rhythm over the 24 hours of external clock time. It turns out that we have internal “clock genes” controlling how and when our circadian rhythm shows up.
Most of us already know our chronotype from the standard early morning or night owl characteristics.
But it turns out those two are the Basement Basics. There is soooo much more directly affecting your creativity!
From 1976—when Horne-Östberg established five-categories (Definitely Morning, Moderately Morning, Neither, Moderately Evening, and Definitely Evening) to the present, with Robert Stickgold’s research demonstrating how chronotypes affect your creative expression—you and I can pin down exactly what’s working, when, in our creative cycles.
That’s exactly what I did.
My five-week hiatus -> creative explosion was so deeply satisfying I wanted a way to recreate the process without going through surgery to get it!
I wanted a path that reverses a cultural that has pushed the productivity pill to where we now berate ourselves for not meditating enough, not resting enough, not taking enough care of ourselves.
I wanted to permanently unchain myself from our culture’s relentless conditioning that I’m falling behind if I don’t grab that next achievement, that next project, that next breakthrough.
I wanted an antidote for the productivity mandate worming its way into our creative psyches.
And for you, my artists, I wanted a workable path that could support your artistic creativity even when you stop producing your art—for any reason at all
Or, when you abandon your art deliberately as a way to enhance your creativity.
Seems a bit topsy-turvy, yes?
Next Time
I’m going to give you a peek behind the Ariane Creativity Curtain and show you exactly what I’m doing now—that I wasn’t before—and how that’s working out.
P.S. I’m curious – what happens in your creative practice when you consciously step away from the pressure to produce? Share your experience in the comments. Whaaa? Comments? So early 2000s, but hey! Why the heck not?
P.P.S. If you want to work with me, here are three places to start.
AI is on the loose while gobs of images dominate Instagram…but a compelling Artist Statement cuts through the noise!
In these info-saturated days, your artist statement sets you apart.
If you want some serious, evergreen, retro, art career material, I have two seasons of The smARTist Telesummit (originally $497, now just $97) each one available as a one-time podcast—over a dozen art-career presentations, with my ground-breaking templates for capturing what you need right now.
Writing the Artist Statement in 2025!Time to Blow UP Some Resolutions
I’ve never been onboard with New Year’s resolutions.
Partly because I know myself well enough to know I’m more a flow-with-the-moment kinda gal than a planner.
Partly because I’ve gotten myself in serious hot water planning more than I can fulfill.
And partly because I just don’t like the word resolutions. It sounds so, well… Resoundingly reserved and… resolved. All tied up in a bow before it’s even manifested!
Not my cup of tea.
So, this New Year 2025, resolutions are out the door.
Instead, here’s a word I can embrace with my whole heart: Intentions, clear-eyed intentions.
Intentions feel promising, yet flexible.
They feel open, yet specific.
They feel embodied, as well as conceptual.
They feel visionary without the judgment.
Five Ways To Move Into 2025: The Year Of Intentions
As you may have figured out by now, I’m all about writing.
As a practice, it not only deepens our connection to everything and anything, but it’s a way to gather fleeting thoughts into a container where you can explore, rearrange, examine, and play around.
It’s also a way to practice setting boundaries for your Inner Critic, and trusting yourself in a safe environment. (BTW, inside the 3rd edition of Writing The Artist Statement, I have a foolproof system for dealing with your Internal Critic. Seriously, the book is worth just this section!)
I’m also all about you, a visual artist who works from your creative core.
I understand the creative pull of visual language; how it offers all of us—creator and viewer—a deep dive into immediacy, a present-tense moment all its own.
And…
Writing The Artist Statement Elevates Your Thinking
For decades I’ve been encouraging artists to write, not just for someone else to read, but for you to feel the power behind finding your unique words that fit your unique work.
When you start writing, it pushes you into uncomfortable territory, especially when you are called to write about yourself and your work.
And this discomfort is critical for breaking new creative ground.
The fascinating thing about creativity is that it is NOT exclusive to one domain over another. Einstein, when he was computing wildly original equations, often stopped to play the violin. “Music helps me when I’m thinking about my physics,” he’s known for saying.
When you are a creative person, you find yourself creating across platforms, mediums, genres, etc. You can’t lock up creativity because it’s dynamic, alive, constantly moving the goalpost for you no matter what!
This is a blessing (you can’t stop it!) and a curse (you have to figure out what to prioritize, when).
For decades I’ve been preaching how writing the artist statement helps artists see their work from another perspective that elevates their entire creative process.
Writing isn’t what you do after you have an idea. It’s how you develop an inkling into an insight. Turning thoughts into words sharpens reasoning. What’s fuzzy in your head becomes clearer on the page. “I’m not a writer” shouldn’t stop you from writing. Writing is a tool for thinking.
When writing the artist statement, consider this: words help shape the sensations glimmering at the edge of every visual piece you create.
Where Does Writing the Artist Statement land?
Artist As Solopreneur Or Cultural Guardian?
Recently, I’ve also realized it’s time to pivot from self-awareness as an isolated tool for self-improvement and extend self-awareness to include our collective humanity.
I’m coming into the realization that, as individuals, we are also (and always) a part of a larger collective.
As such, navel gazing is a limited strategy.
Because the Self is always interconnected to Others, we short change our own growth by not including our impact on those who encounter our work..
The Big Question for Me in 2025:
How do I want to show up for others, even as I am working on showing up for myself?
If It Strikes Your Fancy, Pick Up One or More of These 5 Intentions For 20255
First, here’s a reminder about why writing the artist statement is so vital:
It’s the neurological process of naming something in words that brings that thing into consciousness. When you can’t name a thing, then for you it literally doesn’t exist.
2025 Intention #1:
Honoring what I actually feel so I can seamlessly integrate authenticity into the work I do.
Me: I will pay attention to whatever feeling turns up. I will give it space with 3 deep breaths. Then I will acknowledge my specific feeling: I am feeling xxx. And ask: What does this xxx want me to do next?
The key: Remembering that every feeling, from deepest dark to lightest light, is part of the honor of being alive. We are whole, inclusive Beings, and all of us is acceptable. All. Of. Us.
Your Turn: _____________________________________________________________
2025 Intention #2:
Trusting what I’ve accomplished so far, because it feeds the social impact of what comes next.
Me: 2024 was a serious uphill climb with every win logging hundreds of hours.
I finally got this custom website designed and running smoothly. Seriously, so much work. Have you checked it out?
I kept up with sending weekly emails to my loyal list of visual artists, feeling soooo grateful for their continuing support. (Well, in the spirit of transparence, I did miss a few weeks here and there and might miss a few more in 2025. The difference now? I’m not giving myself as much grief over this as I have in the past.)
I set up a system so I can start my Curiosity Cocktails podcast (stay tuned!)
I started my first Substack publication: A Slice of Orange, A Pinch of Sky, as a way to work on a book that’s been tapping me on the shoulder for twenty years!
The key: Shout it from the rooftops. 2025 is no time to play small!
Your Turn: _____________________________________________________________
2025 Intention #3: My Big Questions: Where will my creative truth makes the greatest impact? What creative accomplishments will contribute the most to our collective reality?
Me: Right now, what gives me the juiciest satisfaction is…
1) Supporting artists to bring their visions boldly into an aching world, via this blog, new courses, and a forthcoming podcast.
2) Awakening our collective consciousness to the true value of the Inner Teen as the touchstone for Radical Creativity.
3) Finally pulling back the curtain on my personal writing. What does that look like?
(Stay tuned…)
The key: Lean into your strengths; especially remember the skills that come so easily you forget to believe in them.
Your Turn: _____________________________________________________________
2025 Intention #4: Where do I want to grow so self-trust transitions into social impact?
Me: Where do I shut down and stay small? What elevates my ability to share without reservation? When do I shortchange myself, so I don’t fully give what I can? How can I better recognize perfection when it’s slowing me down?
The key: Self-honesty. Self-care. Self-love.
Your Turn: _____________________________________________________________
2025 Intention #5: Handing over the keys to my CreativeSelf as she springs into cultural relevance.
Me:
Remembering to allow my CreativeSelf the space and time for organic creation.
Paying attention to what my emotional, physical, and spiritual self needs to sustain my CreativeSelf: rest, healthy nourishment, time to heal (major surgery coming up!), entertainment.
Giving my personal writing the time it deserves.
Finding ways to advance the intentional stewardship my creative projects deserve.
Serving my small, but mighty, circle of family and friends.
Loving myself as the imperfect, perfect spirit in human form that I am.
The key: Include all areas of your life.
Your Turn: _____________________________________________________________
Remember, in this journey of being human, you owned words long before you owned any mark on any surface.
Trust your words. Write them down. Keep a journal: an art journal / a life journal / a cooking journal… really, any journal will end up including more than you can now imagine.
Keep your words as alive as you keep your visual creations, and they will serve you well in 2025 and beyond.
P.S. If you want to work with me, here are three places to start.
1. Even in 2025, even with AI on the loose, even with images domination Instagram…an Artist Statement can be used anywhere and everywhere.
When doubts are creeping in. When you hit a creative roadblock. When you’re sure nothing is working, come Meet The Goddess of Inspiration. Your CreativeSelf will thank you!
3. If you want some serious, evergreen, retro, art career material, I have two seasons of The smARTist Telesummit (originally $497) each one available as a one-time podcast for just $97. Inside, there might be the art-career gem you’ve been missing.
Think of writing your artist statement in the same spirit as creating another piece of art – one made with words instead of your familiar medium.
It’s a creative head space we’re looking for here. And, I realize this can be challenging if words feel like a foreign medium for you, or if your ability to write convincingly freezes up when you have to write about yourself.
In this guide, my intention is to offer you a way forward so your artist statement carries the same spirit and message as your work.
Just as you wouldn’t expect your first sketch to be the final piece hanging on a wall, please give yourself permission to write your artist statement with the same sense of exploration and discovery that you bring into your studio.
Give yourself permission to make mistakes, start over, scratch things out, delete to your heart’s content, and revise, revise, revise!
This Guide will give you’re a) the definition of an artist statement (so you know where you’re going), b) some techniques to capture your most compelling, effective words, c) how to collaborate (and quiet) your Inner Critic, and d) some key mindsets that will help you write your artist statement with grace and ease.
What Exactly Is An Artist Statement?
The most direct definition is this: An artist statement builds a bridge of words between you and your audience that tells them, in three paragraphs (or up to a single page) how you do what you do and why you do it.
In this artist statement definition, I’m guessing the easiest for you will most likely be the first two parts: How you do What you do. The third part, Why you do what you do, is arguably the most challenging because so many artists are not used to paying attention to how they are (all the time!!!) thinking about their work.
Feeling as if you don’t have words for why you do what you, comes from the nature of thinking where most every-day thoughts are fleeting and easily forgotten.
The trick here is to start capturing your thoughts so they aren’t flying below your conscious radar all the time.
And, after working with hundreds of artists, I can assure you that the process I’m giving you here will recover unconscious language you already have within you, inspire new (or more) language to use, and rewire your brain so you can apply this process as your artwork evolves.
Capturing The Artist Statement Words You Don’t Think You Have
So many artists I talk to, when I ask them why they do the work they do, tell me: I don’t know. I just do it.
And I believe them, sort of.
I know they are convinced, in that moment, that they truly don’t know. I also know that some part of them does know, but that this part is hiding out in a musty, dusty, cobwebby inner cellar.
In my book on how to write artist statements, I offer several tricks to brush away the cobwebs and start a conversation with this knowing-but-not-know part of yourself.
Because, the truth is, you really, really, really do know. And finding out what you know, and then applying it to your artist statement, is easier than you might think.
For starters, everyone talks to themselves, in their heads all the time. Humans do this because language, since birth, has been hardwired into our brains as our main form of thinking and communicating throughout life.
Even when you are deeply immersed in creative flow, even when you feel that you are one with the process of creating, there is mind chatter going on. And it’s going on in word-language as well as images or sensations.
However, our mind chatter can be drowned out by more dominant sensations: color, light, physical flow, perhaps music playing, and so on.
And most of the time, we get used to dismissing our own thoughts as being of little consequence. We don’t pay attention to mind chatter, especially if there is anything else more engaging.
The following system is so simple that you may dismiss it out of hand. I encourage you to intentionally give it a whirl for the entire time I lay out, because this technique has proven valuable over and over again.
Getting Your Inner Voice out of The Mind-Box and onto Paper,So Writing The Artist Statement Isn’t So Hard
Because physical writing with your hand activates a different part of your brain than typing or talking or keyboarding—and because this process will be the new kid on the block—I strongly suggest you follow the directions… unless, your CreativeSelf (and not your fears or ego) nudges you in another direction.
1. Get a simple, 3-ring, spiral notebook, one you can take anywhere easily.
2. Get a hand writing implement that feels good when you write with it, one that rests comfortably in your hand and flows smoothly across the surface. This is important especially if writing is difficult for you. You want to create as much pleasure as possible from this experience.
3. Start taking this notebook + writing implement with you EVERYWHERE!
♦ Into the studio, or wherever you do your art
♦ In the car
♦ Into the kitchen
♦ On the coffee table
♦ On your bedside table
♦ Into the café
4. On the first page write: I am paying attention to ALL the thoughts I’m having about my work—small, medium, and large; pretty, ugly, boring, exciting… it ALL goes here.
The reason you write ALL of this down is, when you are changing a habit, you need to give your brain notice so it understands what to do: Pay Attention / Write It Down / All Of It!
Also, writing it down means you can forget about it. You don’t have to remember because you’ve captured it in a place you can always access. This frees your brain to just do the assignment.
5. Now, about the writing—and this is critical—you can put down single words, single phrases, you can misspell, you can cross out or start over.
There is nothing you can do wrong. All you want is raw material. You want to start noticing when you are thinking about your work, capturing the exact words in the exact moment they are happening.
6. TIME: because this is new, your brain needs to literally build new neural pathways so noticing what you are thinking becomes easy peasy.
Do this exercise for two to three weeks. Jot down every thought that comes to you about your work. Fleeting specks count as much as grand canyons. Give yourself permission to gather without judgment.
By the end, you should have a decent sense of why you do the work you do and the words that work best.
And if you’re persistent with this exercise, you’ll probably discover even more words for how you do what you do.
Selecting and sorting comes later, when you have enough in your basket. Our subconscious pays attention to what we give attention to.
Dealing With Your Inner Critic Before Tackling Any Artist Statement
Before you begin gathering your raw material for writing your artist statement, there’s an elephant in the room that needs to be acknowledged: you’re doubting, critical self.
For some of you this critical self is minor and you know how to turn away easily.
For others, our critical selves take over even when we don’t want them to. Most of the time, we have an historical person lingering in our inner landscape who used to put us down. It might be our eight-grade English teacher, a heavy-handed father, a critical mother, a cranky neighbor, or a perfect older sibling.
I understand that your first reaction is to want to “get rid of” all those nasty messages. Make the internal critic go away. And if this is the route you want, there is plenty of guidance online for how to do this.
But, most of these “get rid of” techniques don’t work in the long term, and that once-banished internal critic reappears, often in a new form.
Why, you might ask?
Because any persona inhabiting our inner landscape is there for a purpose. In the case of the Internal Critic, their deepest desire is to protect you, keep you out of trouble and away from embarrassment.
However, we often shy away from these inner warnings because being criticized can be so miserable and deflating. When that happens, we unconsciously push away our Inner Critic/Protector. This sets up a feedback loop where your Internal Critic decides they have to be even louder, harsher to get your attention.
Once you break this cycle, and interact with your Internal Critic from their highest intention—to help you—only then can you give them guidance on how best to help you.
The good news is that I have a pretty simple, very effective technique for keeping your inner critic out of your process… until you request that your critic return as its true self: your internal editor, guidance counselor, flashing yellow light.
Rehabilitating Your Internal Critic: A Guided Visualization for Writing Your Artist Statement
You may listen to this guided visualization right here, or continue reading:
Remember, your internal critic, no matter how harsh, has good intentions: to keep you from embarrassing situations, or worse. This meditation is a way to set boundaries so your internal critic will be available and useful when you need them, but back away when you don’t.
Close your eyes and see, in your mind’s eye, your worst critic, the one who steps in to give you a hard time. Let them take shape. Don’t be surprised if they represent someone in your past. Listen to them yammering away: “Oh, you’re never going to amount to anything. Your art’s no good. What do you think you’re doing? Who do you think you are?”
Once they’re fully present in your mind, turn toward them and say…
I understand that you are trying to help, trying to protect me from making mistakes that will embarrass me.
But right now, I need you to find something else to do and leave me alone to work without you.
You need to climb a tree, go skip stones, read a book, or find a park you like; it’s your choice.
When I’m ready, I promise you can come back and offer me your kind, helpful feedback. Until then, I need you to leave and find something else to do.
Because your internal critic is actually trying to help you, they respond well to firm kindness. But they are also notoriously stubborn, so you may have to escort them out, or repeat your request more than once.
If your internal critic persists, put your hand up in front of you in a “STOP” motion, and say something like, I really want to hear what you have to say, but not now. Now I need work from a different place. And I need you to find something else to do until I’m ready to bring you back.
If your internal critic is especially tenacious, the best tactic is a) reassure them, b) repeat the same request, then c) move forward on your exercise as if they are complying.
Some Strategic Mindsets for Writing Your Artist Statement
ARTIST STATEMENT WRITINGMINDSET #1
Treat your artist statement with the same care that your treat your art, remembering that the artist statement does not speak for your art, but is an extensions of your art.
ARTIST STATEMENT WRITINGMINDSET #2
Even if the medium of language feels foreign to you, remember this is not a reflection on your Original Language, the language that came before the rule makers and goal keepers of our culture started messing with how you said what. Your Original Language is as much a part of you as the art you create. And once you recover it, word-language will serve you for a long, long time to come.
ARTIST STATEMENT WRITINGMINDSET #3
Give yourself permission to write anything and everything that comes to mind. The boring ideas, the vanilla words, the cliches, these all need to come into the sunlight before the true gold of your creative mind can come above ground. Because, once you air out all the surface level chatter, that’s when the words revealing the true spirit of your work come alive!!
P.S. If you want the whole Writing The Artist Statement system, it’s right here!
