Passant: Welcome back to the creative minds podcast where we have insightful conversations with musicians, artists, writers, performers and those who work in creative industries about their professional journeys.

 

In this episode, we are discussing an artist's most dreaded fear: creative blocks. Even Claude Monet, the great French painter who lived between 1840 and 1926, couldn’t escape the inevitable creative slump. The impressionist dealt with the frustrations of these blocks for two years, destroying several of his artwork and stating that his life had been nothing but a failure.

 

To discuss this universal artist experience, today I’m joined by Nadia Al Tarmanini, a student at the Canadian University of Dubai who pursues singing and songwriting as a hobby in her free time. She has a YouTube channel with almost 100,000 subscribers where she uploads acoustic covers of her favorite songs and some originals. I'm also joined by Raghad Ayman, a popular makeup artist of over 5 years. Some of her looks have been featured on beauty brands social media accounts like Fenty, KVD and Mac. If you follow beauty blogs, you’ve probably heard of “The Beauty Look Book” where she provides readers with creative makeup looks, makeup tutorials and insider tips.

 

Passant: So, we all know that each artist has their own experience with creative blocks, what does a creative block mean to you?

 

Raghad: Thank you Passant for introducing me, and thank you for having me here. It’s a pleasure being here and getting the chance to speak about my own experiences as a makeup artist and a blogger. Because let me tell you, as passionate as I am about my career and the opportunities that come along with it, it’s not always just fun and games.

Creative blocks to me is finding it difficult to create new makeup looks and designs that are unique and different from each other. With my blog, it’s having a tough time to constantly invent new makeup tips and techniques, that’s because they have to be a completely different concept each time in order to keep it interesting to my readers. 

 

Passant: I agree. Creative blocks can lead to a person feeling mentally stuck. Having to constantly think of new content for your audience adds on so much more pressure.  Nadia, being a singer / songwriter and having to come up with new songs, do you relate to Raghad’s experience? 

 

Nadia: Thank you Passant for this wonderful introduction, it’s a pleasure to be here so I appreciate you having me on your podcast to give people a glimpse of my experiences. As you previously mentioned I am a student at the Canadian University of Dubai and Music is my happy place. Singing and songwriting is my escape from the world when I’m overwhelmed or feeling down.

A creative block is like my worst enemy when it comes to music since I am quite the perfectionist and pretty indecisive which leads to me coming up blank many times. So honestly, I’ve suffered many creative blocks and overcome them eventually but when you go through it especially in a field that is your hobby and getaway from reality, you just lose this spark that was keeping you going and making you happy.

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Passant: Creative blocks can be very frustrating, especially when you’re so passionate about your field but you’re stuck in a slump that seems impossible to get out of. What’s the longest duration of time you’ve been faced with a creative slump? 

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Nadia: Okay so let me think, the longest I’ve ever had a creative slump hmmm was probably three months which I can tell you was nowhere near fun, big no no, it’s like where’d the sunshine and rainbows go?

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Passant: Three months! We need to know more about this; how did you deal with it? 

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Nadia: This is actually one of the craziest song writing crisis I have ever faced. My best friend’s birthday was coming up and my friend and I were planning to surprise her and perform the song at an open mic as it would be something she would remember for the rest of her life because open mics was like our thing we loved hanging out in that spot. You’re probably thinking to yourself aww that’s really sweet, friendship goals and it can’t be that hard and whatever. Trust me I was thinking like that too, telling myself that this isn’t my first time writing a song, and like man that’s my best friend I just need to dig deep into my feelings and put them into words. I started working on it three months in advance and two months in and I still had a blank page. I was losing it at this point and felt like a failure. Mind you there was so much going on in my life at the time, so I was extremely and that’s a mild word to describe it but extremely overwhelmed. Of course I pushed myself and had to let loose which is one of the hardest for me to do but long story short, I got it done and she was really happy and surprised when she heard it. It was real bad but at the end of the day, I managed to overcome it by not giving up. 

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Passant: I definitely feel like staying persistent and not giving up is a key factor when it comes to facing creative blocks. What about you Raghad? You’ve been a makeup artist and blogger for so long, you must’ve faced a creative block at some point in terms of coming up with fun new makeup looks and interesting blog articles for your audience to read.

 

Raghad: I definitely did have to deal with a creative slump. It was for about 3 weeks, a tough 3 weeks. I just couldn’t find it in me to create content that was interesting enough to post. As you may know, I like to give advice on tips and techniques to do makeup, and review different products, like the latest products that have been introduced to the market, and so sometimes it’s tough coming up with engaging articles and  keeping each one of those as interesting as the other in order to publish it. Also when it came to creating makeup looks and designs, I felt like I was out of unique looks, as if I've done every makeup look or trend already. Because of that I took a small break for myself and I even stopped taking in clients that wanted to book me to do their makeup for whatever type of event they had going on.

 

Passant: It's a part of the creative process. Every artist no matter how established they are in their respective industry will face a point where their ideas aren’t flowing as smoothly as they used to do.

Speaking of established, Raghad you’ve been in the industry for 5 years now and you've seen makeup trends change as the notion of what the ideal makeup look is evolves. Has the shift in the beauty industry’s standards driven you to a creative block before?

 

Raghad: Of course, As beautiful and as fun as it is to watch the evolution of makeup throughout the years, it could be tough, especially because it happens quickly and you need to adapt to it in no time. The way it affected me was that I’d need to immediately keep up with those trends even if I'm still using “old” techniques or makeup products. Keep in mind the clients, sometimes they’d complain and wouldn’t be satisfied. Yet on the other hand, some clients would prefer looks or techniques that are considered “old” trends. Another thing is that it drove me to a creative slump in the sense that I sometimes had to clear out some of the information I’ve written for my blog, and produce updated content, which as you can imagine is irritating.

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Nadia: I can totally relate to Ragahd on that not, since being a songwriter the music industry changes a lot, genres have taken a turn and the audience has changed as well.There are so many instances where I wrote a whole song but after listening to it realized that wouldn't be something my audience would want to listen to on the daily. Also, when I upload covers I need to make sure that whatever I film is something my audience wants to listen to so I can keep them engaged with the content I am putting out.

 

Passant: Nadia, I can only imagine the sort of obstacles you face trying to come up with new lyrics and songs. You’re a songwriter which has its own set of expectations and demands. But you’re also a performer so you’re expected to get up on that bright stage in front of hundreds of people and perform with confidence and grace. Have you ever faced a creative block before or during a performance?

 

Nadia: Wow, I really love the direction of this conversation. Nothing comes without an effort. I‘ve loved performing for a very long time and it was something I have always wanted to do ever since I was younger but there was one problem: I had stage fright. 

The worst creative block happened to me right after lockdown during a performance at an open mic. I was so excited to get up on stage and perform after a long time, but I was really nervous as well because I haven’t sung Infront of that large of an audience for quite a while. I was performing a duet with one of my friends (Ed Sheeran’s perfect to be exact). Everything was going great at first as I sang the harmonies but as soon as it was my turn to sing, I just completely blanked and started to stutter. 

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Passant: What happened afterwards? 

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Nadia: Can I just say it was the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to me? I immediately got off stage and even though everyone was comforting me and cheering cuz they watched me perform before I felt like such a failure. After this incident, I didn’t perform Infront of an audience for almost a year, having this fear that I would mess up just like I did before. Long story short I overcame it by joining musicals in school that were done by the drama club. Thanks to my creative block experiences. I learned to  love being challenged cuz that’s what pushes me to work harder and achieve my goals.

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Raghad: I don't know what I would've done if i was in your place 

 

Passant: That must’ve been a very difficult, demotivating experience. I commend you on getting through it.

 

Nadia: Thanks.

 

Passant: You experienced Imposter syndrome and doubting your abilities as an artist which often comes hand in hand when dealing with a creative block, making it much harder to get out of that rut. What advice would you give to someone struggling with a block and how do you get your creative juices flowing again? 

 

Nadia: Yeah, everytime I talk about this experience with someone they end up getting really shocked and say stuff like wow how’d you get through that like i’m some super woman haha.No but on a serious note, I definitely was thrown in situations that were out of my comfort zone which isn’t easy being someone who suffers from anxiety.I think the first piece of advice I could give is to just take a step back and stop whatever it is your doing, forget about the deadline, do a select all delete move on everything.You take a break and go do something with some friends to let loose and distract yourself.Trust me you’d be surprised by the things that you can come across. I think Raghad and I can agree on that note huh?

 

Raghad: I agree I wish someone would have given me a straight up answer on that when I was struggling. But anyway, first and foremost, do not be so hard on yourself. No matter what your job is or what industry you’re in, we all go through creative blocks, even if it doesn’t seem like it to you. We’re all just trying to do our best. 

I’d say that taking a break for yourself and refreshing your mind is a priority; that’s one thing that’s helped me when I was in a slump for about 3 weeks. Also, I reached out to other creators in the beauty industry to help me regain inspiration once again. It’s okay to ask for help so don’t be afraid or embarrassed to reach out to your colleagues or friends from the industry you’re in. And last thing I’d say that writers out there would hopefully find beneficial, that as a blogger, changing up your scenery and finding a place that you wouldn’t normally work and write at can really help stimulate your thoughts and maintain that creative flow of yours.

 

Passant: Both of you dealt with creative blocks that placed you in challenging situations; Nadia you experienced a performance block for a year, Raghad you lost clients because of your slump. However, talking to both of you also made it clear that these blocks pushed you outside of your comfort zones immensely and caused you to advance both professionally and personally. 

The key takeaway here is to remember that while creative blocks cannot be cured, there are ways to get through it. Take comfort in knowing that all artists face these blocks and remember that progress is not always linear. You’ll find your way back to creativity. 

Thank you Raghad and Nadia for joining us on this week's episode and for this eye opening conversation. Hopefully it inspires our listeners and anyone struggling with a creative block. 

For our listeners, make sure to tune into next week's episode where we discuss the metaverse and how it can impact digital creators.