How to Make Sense of Your Practice When You Feel Lost
By Sarah Francis @sarahfrancis.art
There comes a point in almost every artist’s practice where the work stops making sense. You look around the studio and wonder how any of it connects. The work you felt certain about a few months ago now feels distant. New ideas keep appearing, but none of them seem fully formed.
Then the questions start.
What am I making?
Why am I making it?
Is any of this going anywhere?
If you’re here, you’re not alone.
After supporting hundreds of artists, I’ve realised this moment is much more common than people admit. It usually isn’t the end of a practice. It’s often the point where it’s beginning to change.
Why this happens
One of the biggest mistakes artists make is assuming feeling lost means something has gone wrong. In my experience, it usually means the opposite. The way you’ve understood your work is no longer big enough for the work you’re starting to make.
Sometimes the work has changed.
Sometimes you have.
Most of the time, both are true.
Sarah’s Insight
Artists often think they need a new project when what they actually need is more time with the one already emerging.
Before you change everything…
When we’re uncertain, it’s tempting to start again.
Write a new artist statement.
Abandon the current work.
Apply for something completely different.
Rebrand your practice.
Slow down.
Before you throw everything away, ask yourself what keeps returning.
- Is there a material you can’t stop using?
- Does the same shape keep appearing?
- Are you asking the same question in different ways?
- Which piece do you keep coming back to?
Those repetitions are rarely accidents.
They’re often the beginning of your next body of work.
Return to making
When artists feel stuck, they often try to think their way out of it.
Sometimes the quickest way back is through your hands.
Not by making something brilliant. Just by making something.
Cut a piece of wood. Move objects around. Photograph a surface. Make a terrible version of an old idea. Test a material you’ve been avoiding.
The goal isn’t to make good work.
It’s to reconnect with your practice.
Try this
Spend thirty minutes making it without asking yourself whether it’s successful.
At the end, notice what surprised you.
Don’t rush to explain unfinished work
One thing I see regularly is artists asking unfinished work to explain itself. Some work needs time before it can be understood.
A test isn’t a failure because it raises more questions than answers.
A contradiction isn’t necessarily a problem.
It’s often where the interesting work begins.
You don’t need to understand everything you’re making immediately.
Sometimes your hands know long before your words do.
When another pair of eyes helps
It is incredibly difficult to see your own practice clearly.
You’re carrying every failed experiment, abandoned idea and moment of self-doubt.
Someone else only sees what’s in front of them.
That’s often an advantage.
A good conversation shouldn’t tell you what your work means.
It should help you notice what is already there.
“We quickly established a productive way of working through verbal processing and reflection. Sarah challenged my thinking while completely understanding the way I work.”
If you’re still feeling stuck
This is often the point where mentoring becomes most useful.
Not because someone gives you the answers.
Because they help you ask better questions.
My mentoring isn’t about telling artists what to make or helping them sound more impressive.
It’s about slowing the process down, looking carefully at the work in front of us and finding the threads that are already there.
For many artists, that conversation is enough to move from “I don’t know what I’m doing” to “I know what I need to make next.”
Depending on the fund you’re applying to, mentoring can often be included within project budgets or supported through Access Support.
One last thought
Feeling lost isn’t separate from having artistic practice.
It’s part of it.
The work rarely moves in a straight line.
Sometimes the most important thing you can do isn’t find the answer.
It stays with the question long enough for the work to answer it.
The Mill Gallery
Unit 5 Cardinal House
Swinnow Grange Mills
Leeds
LS13 4EP
