Sage Bray Varon

If you’re a writer, you have probably heard that you should not read or listen to the writings of other people before you sit down to write. The reasoning behind this is that you might start to take on the style of these other writers and that will influence your writing style, potentially drowning out your own unique voice. I actually believe this could be true for visual artists as well. For that reason, I don’t recommend looking at the work of other artists in your medium right before you sit down to create.

However, I know that sometimes we need a little pregame inspiration. So, what do you do for a creative boost that doesn’t involve looking at other people’s work in your creative medium? You look at work in other unrelated mediums, especially those that are unique and divergent from what you do.

This is actually related to one of the other creative hacks I’ve been researching recently. There are apparently a number of scientific studies suggesting that you can enhance your creative output by looking at images or items that are considered different, odd, or otherwise do not conform to expectations.

Although you could look for odd or different ideas within your own medium, there is some evidence that this will only give you a limited boost and, potentially, a prejudice for certain ideas or designs. For instance, even though my art classes are all techniques based and I encourage students to create their own designs, they almost always base their design choices off the samples I show them. So, if my samples are round pendants, they tend to all make round pendants even though the technique would work with squares, triangles, cylinders, or random organic shapes. I think they see a sample they like and, not stopping to identify the specific reason they like that piece of work, they adopt all the primary design elements.

This is why I think, if you’re going to look for creative inspiration, you look at a different medium. That way you will have to fully translate what you’re seeing, reading, or hearing into your own medium, as you won’t have the option to lift directly from what you are observing. You will have to figure out how to take what you like in this other work and make it within your medium’s limitations. This should open up your creative mind to wider possibilities.

Now, how do you choose and find different yet inspiring creative work in other mediums? I say let serendipity be your guide.

For visual arts, I suggest getting one or two newsletters that feature a variety of unique and unexpected artwork. This Is Colossal is my favorite. From paintings to sculpture to craft to short, animated films, they provide you with some really unusual visual work every weekday. You don’t have to read every newsletter. Just buzz through the images in them and stop when something catches your eye. There is also Hyperallergic, an online journal focused on contemporary arts and culture.

If you write or are looking for more conceptual inspiration, you might try The Marginalian, which contains “mind-broadening and heart-lifting reflections spanning art, science, poetry, philosophy, and other tendrils of our search for truth, beauty, meaning, and creative vitality.” If new places are a source of inspiration for you, you might look at Atlas Obscura, especially in this age of limited travel.

Of course, you can peruse Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram but because of their algorithms you’re likely to get more work in your own medium (assuming you have done a fair amount of searching in that area in the past) than anything outside your usual sphere of influence. Of course, museums, bookstores, and events can provide you with all kinds of inspiration outside of the things you work on yourself, but those take lots of time and planning.

So, to boost your creativity, consider building your online and email repertoire of places to go for unusual images and ideas. Then spend a few minutes before you get down to your own creative work checking out the creative output of other fascinating creative minds.

Photo by Matheus Viana