Por: Erin Knight

Hi, and welcome to this short podcast on motivation in the creative industries. Today we will be talking to two people, Megan Knight and Claire Bryce on how they stay motivated to create.

Hi, my names Megan, I’m an illustrator and designer from Edinburgh.
So in terms of motivation I would spend a lot of time doing work in the studio, but I would also try to take time out with people who weren’t on the same course as me, and do something kinda fun, because I thinks it’s a good way to get inspiration from things and conversations that are happened out with a creative environment. Also I was really lucky that the studio that I was in for my fourth year, and actually throughout all the years at Greys, I was in a big studio with everyone on my course who were doing a mixture of disciplines, so photography, graphic design and illustration. So I was constantly surrounded by loads of really good work and nice people who pushed me to keep creating and I think it was really a good way to- it was a kind of collaborative studio space which was also motivational.

Hi, I’m Claire, I’m a textile artist from Glasgow.
I think when trying to keep motivated when you’re creative, it can be- it can be tricky sometimes and like, often you’ll find you get a block or you just run out of mental energy for these sorts of things and I’ve found that a way I can sort of get past that, or around it, or through it is to just try something outside my comfort zone basically, so maybe try a technique I’ve never done before or maybe like, something that’s crazy the opposite of what I would normally do or even something in a whole other medium perhaps.

Recent lockdown restrictions have been hard on everyone, especially those who work in a creative industry and are self-employed. Finding motivation van be hard at the bast of times, so how has lockdown affected artists?

So obviously with corona virus and lockdown, we all got sent back home, so we weren’t able to be in the studio environment which was kinda sucky for a lot of people, but luckily we’re in a age of technology where, you know, you could use zoom or Instagram, and we would arrange crits over zoon, sharing screens and showing each other our work and what we were working on to try and keep people going cause I know from myself and a lot of people, the first month or so was a really weird adjustment, going from the studio with sixty people to your bedroom back home, completely on your own.

I think with- with covid and the sort of lockdown and everything that’s going on that there’s new pressures and stresses and everyone’s mental health is suffering and it can be very difficult to just get the energy to start, and you can often find yourself kind of beating yourself up about it. I think the biggest task is to just be a little bit easier on yourself, and that’s very hard because you’re always gonna be your harshest critic. Just give yourself a little slack, because this is- this is really tough. Jut be good to yourselves, just be really nice, you deserve it.

Its important to remember that staying creative and motivated can be a hard thing to do, take your time and don’t feel pressured to be creative 24/7. Thank you to Megan and Claire for participating, and to freemusicarchive for supplying the music, thank you for listening.

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