How Julian Schnabel Breaks Through Creator's Block (VIDEO)

Filmmaker-painter-designer Julian Schnabel has revealed his secret to getting out of creative ruts, and it's pretty simple: Get back to work.

In the above video for BigThink, he describes filming a scene from "Before Night Falls" as a transcendant moment where he witnessed the importance and power of having a clarity of vision. But those artists not (yet) making Schnabel-level works of art can still get good mileage out of his advice.

"If you don't paint, you can't be a painter, if you don't write, you can't be a writer, if you don't film something, you're not a filmmaker," he says. "All those people sitting around thinking, 'Oh God, I might make a bad film of I might make a bad painting or maybe somebody won't like this,' you're doomed."

He adds, "It's better to make a mistake than to not do anything. If you win you win, and if you lose you win."

What do you think? Do we just need to simply start on a project and take it from there, or is it that easy?

Related on HuffPost:

Comments

[jdevans]

11:13 AM on 01/18/2012

I heard Julian Schnabel give a lecture 20 years ago and thought he was a pompous, egotistical jerk. But his advice here about overcoming creative ruts is quite good. "It's better to make a mistake than to not do anything."

[RandyMan7027]

10:57 PM on 01/17/2012

(correction) "...genius and future historical importance."

[RandyMan7027]

10:55 PM on 01/17/2012

Irascible art critic Robert Hughes will tell you that Schnabel has suffered from "creator's block" his entire career despite "a megalomaniac, painfully sincere belief in his own present genius and future performance" -- Nothing If Not Critical (p. 301)

[Lex10]

02:16 PM on 01/17/2012

Good ol' Julian Schnabel.