the artist's way assignments

The Artist's Way: Week 3 Assignments

This is one of the assignments from week three of Julia Cameron’s renowed 12-week course “The Artist’s Way.” I was originally going to start at week 1 when it came to sharing these, but I decided to keep the first two to myself as I got acclimated and explored my feelings and memories. As I mentioned, this is only one assignment— not all of them. Some of them are still just for me only. This is partly to experiment with being a little more personal and intimate, and partly to hold myself accountable as I work my way through this project. Feel free to also participate in this little prompt— I found it quite fun and rewarding to take a little trip backwards, rewarded with warm nostalgia. I would never go back— but I do like to visit.

Describe your childhood room. If you wish, you may sketch this room. What was your favourite thing about it? What’s your favourite thing about your room right now? Nothing? Well— get something you like in there— maybe something from that childhood room.

I moved around a lot as a child, but the room that sticks out was my teenage bedroom, a green and yellow monstrosity covered with posters of band members ripped from magazines. I collected copies of Alternative Press like my life depended on it, and filled an entire wall with old records I had brought back from Russia— my uncle’s old collection.

I would frequently change the decorations in this room— or, rather, what my teenage self thought of as decorations. One time, I covered half of a wall with paint chips taken from the local home hardware store. I loved this room— despite it not filling all of my teenage fantasies, it filled as many as it could. It was crucial to my inner self to have a canvas of walls that I could play around with as a form of self-expression. For a while, all of the band posters were removed and replaced with huge maps gleaned from my National Geographic subscription at the time— maps of Antarctica, a map of South America (Brazil calls to me), Africa. I wanted to see the world. I still do… perhaps I should put a map up again, to remind myself, to keep manifesting.

My favourite thing in my room was a silver, clearly dated stereo system I bought for myself— one of the first things I ever did. It was a huge, plastic monstrosity— chunky, puffy, cartoony in the way that all early 2000s technology was, with two enormous speakers and a central console/control centre. It got FM radio (oh wow, those were the days), had a CD drive (perfect for all the Lindsay Lohan and Ashlee Simpson CDs I had), two cassette decks (for waiting for my favourite song to come on the radio so I could record it, and then duplicate the cassette to give one to my best friends). It had the prize spot front and centre in my room— when I woke up and turned my head, it was the first thing I would see. I used it religiously every day. Eventually, as a gift, my father bought me an upgraded system— a sleek, black, SONY set with two narrow speakers and a flat control centre. Gone were the two cassette decks I had learned to rely on— instead, they were replaced by an iPod port. In 2021, this system is dated, too— the iPod port is for the first generation of those, with the wide plug for the wide port. A current model could not, and would not fit. When I moved out of my parents’ house, I took this system with me, and brought it to three different apartments. Most recently, when we wanted to use it, we would connect our phones via an aux cord, leaving the old iPod port on the top to gather dust as it remained unused.

My new room in Korea is small— just the right size for me. I have a small wardobe that holds my few outfits, my socks, and my underwear. I have a small nightstand with three drawers. I have a small tapestry showing what could be seen as either a sunset or a sunrise. Clean, white, sheets. I want another set. Four pillows— still probably going to get another one, as I am the type of person who prefers odd numbers. Several plants— one of them, a pathos, sadly yellowing and dying. I had to move a lot of my plants into my bedroom because it was the place getting most of the light. Each morning I wake up in the dark, and imagine them sleeping too. I have seen the leaves slowly move and thicken, new buds show up. It’s a thrill. My favourite thing? The size. The simplicity. A few decorations, mostly plants. A tall, white lamp. I don’t like ceiling lights all that much most of the time, preferring the warm glow of something smaller, sometimes even a candle.

I love my little bedroom, my little apartment. It is in looking at this small room with few things that reminds me that I have everything I need. All my clothes in a small wardrobe, a lovely bunch of plants, a few rings and necklaces for bejewelling the daily outfit. I love the light coming in all day, the big, wide window. While my teenage room had no empty wall space, my adult, nearly-30 bedroom has loads of it. In the living room/kitchen (Korean apartments are small, after all), I have a couple of tapestries, my Big Calendar that I swear by, a tambourine I hung up on the wall, some other vertical decor, but even this collection is minimal compared to what my homes used to look like. Plants, mostly. Plants and natural materials.

Having moved around a bunch, over time, I’ve found it easier to keep things simple, and now, as I move into a new stage in my life, I want things less than ever. I find pleasure in a mostly plain wall, with just one or two pieces to catch the eye. I love the newfound calm atmosphere I’ve cultivated. With less clutter, less things , I can catch a breath inside.

Because I have so little space, I have less desire to fill it. I want my apartment, my room to feel spacious— even if it isn’t actually— and clutter will only make it feel smaller. While in the past, I think I was a bit of a maximalist, these days I am only thinking about how easy things will be to transport, get rid of, or leave behind. I wouldn’t call myself a minimalist— I am just trying to minimize.

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As always, thank you for reading.

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Writing of Riding

Week 2 : Recovering a Sense of Identity

As equestrians it's easy to become blocked and stuck in a pattern of false identity and lost creativity.

Going Sane.

Remember: Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure, creative energy. There is an underlying, in-dwelling creative force infusing all of life — including ourselves. It is safe to open ourselves up to greater and greater creativity. Our creative dreams and yearnings come from a divine source. As we move toward our dreams, we move toward our divinity.

What we play is life. -Louis Armstrong

Checking In.

How many days this week did you complete the morning pages? How as that experience for you?

Did you do your artist date this week? What did you do? How did it feel?

Were there any other issues this week that you felt had to do with recovering a sense of creativity?

The Second Week. Recovering a sense of identity.

This week addresses self-definition as a major component of creative recovery. You may find yourself drawing new boundaries and staking out new territories as your personal needs, desires, and interests announce themselves. The essays and tools are aimed at moving you into your personal identity, a self-defined you.

Trusting our creativity is a new behavior for many of us. It may feel threatening, not only to ourselves, but to our friends, associates, and intimates. We may feel and look erratic as we begin this process… it's important to remember that at first flush, going sane feels just like going crazy. There is a normal ebb and flow to this work. As we gain strength, so will some of the attacks of self doubt. This is normal, it's a symptom of recovery. We'll hear “Okay, so I did my morning pages… but I probably did them wrong, could have done them better, and didn't do them every day… I probably will let this slide soon. I can't actually stick with this work, not really.” The attacks are groundless, but they FEEL real.

Just as a recovering alcoholic has to avoid that first drink, we have to avoid buying into that first “Think,” that first self doubt. The attacks can come from both internal and external sources. They are sort of a creative virus. Affirmations, the affirmation that you find within the affirmation as we learned last week, are the best antidote to this virus.

Don't let self doubt lead you into self sabotage… remember the morning pages are private, you are NOT to share them with anyone or even re-read them yourself. (One newly unblocked writer shared his pages with a friend, who criticized his writing, and BANG he was blocked again.) Don't sabotage yourself!

Poisonous Playmates.

People stay blocked for a number of reasons. You can describe it as having an anorexia of creativity… you don't write (paint, explore your training skills, develop as a rider) because you're getting something you value out of being blocked. You may be enjoying the martyrdom of it, you might be just scared of taking on the consequences of success — from bigger challenges, to hollow successes. You may be softwired to get your ya-yas from sympathy and pity.

People you know around you are in the same place. One of the hard things about unblocking is that it shifts who you are in your strata of friends… and it may well threaten people who are entrenched in being stuck. They will have a vested interest in keeping you stuck. Be alert to subtle sabotage, not only from your inner critic, but from friends. When you feel the undertow of criticism, see a red flag- that's a person you want to avoid for a while.

Be very careful to safeguard your newly recovering artist self. Your morning pages (evening pages for some) become a channel to your inner guide, that part of yourself that actually looks out for you, knows what's best, is there for you. You'll be led to new sources of support as you write these pages faithfully. It will become easier to be creative than not to be.

Crazymakers.

The second form of sabotage comes from friends who fall into the category of Crazymakers. They create storm centers around themselves. Drama queens, they are charismatic or otherwise seductively attractive, and they suck up your energy and time with their constant pressing problems and challenges. Crazymakers love to set people against each other, they love to undermine you JUST as you're about to succeed. They rent a cabin twice as large as agreed upon and expect you to foot the difference in the bill. THey show up early for a party and expect you to drop everything and entertain them. They abuse the people around them, and are adept at making you feel that the problem is the people around them — not the Crazymaker. They discount your reality. “I know you asked me not to call you this early, but…” They spend your time and your money. THey set people against each other with gossip and malicious rumor. They feed on rancor. You're dealing with figure and ground — they draw attention to unimportant dramas and pull you away from all important projects of your own. They sabotage your schedule, your work place — they'll suddenly decide to sort socks in the middle of your drawing table. And they always deny that they are doing this. The problem is never them, but always you.

Why do we hang around these people? Because, the payoff is that we then have a legitimate excuse for not having lives that work. An excuse that is palatable. We are victims of the Crazymakers, that's acceptable — tolerating our potentially intolerable weaknesses and failing is NOT acceptable, we won't be able to survive that. Better to let the Crazymakers keep us stuck safely un-tried.

Skepticism.

One of the things that starts happening as you do this work and begin recovering your creative self is that you feel better, happier, more alive and as we begin to work with the gifts of being creative, things start to support us in the direction we want to be heading.

Coincidences begin to appear. However, right on the heels of that, is that you'll discount this as having any relation to opening up your creativity. We doubt ourselves and this process- “we not only look gift horses in the mouth, we swat them on the rump to get them out of our lives as quickly as possible.” There's a reluctance to recognize that the universe might be lining up to support us in our work. “We still feel too much like frauds to handle success, when it comes, we want to go.” During this course, try to gently set skepticism aside. When the world offers opportunity… nudge the opening door a little wider. Trust it, just for now, just a little.

Pay attention to the moment you are living, right now, right now. As the yogis say, “Be here Now.” Keep returning to the world you are standing in, right this moment, without judgement or fear.

“Regardless of whether we are experiencing success or failure, the truth of a life really has little to do with its quality. The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention. “

Each moment, taken alone, is always bearable. In the exact now, we are always alright. Each moment holds a beauty all its own, we are constantly adrift in a moment-to-moment experience of delight. It's the fretting about “what if…”, and the fretting about “I should have…” that keep us derailed from this exact moment. In this exact moment, we are alright. The fear and the shame keep us in pain, but in fact, they are not real. The color of the sky, the curve of your horse's neck, the touch of his muzzle against your hand. These are real. Pay attention.

RULES OF THE ROAD.

In order to release my creative self, I must:

Show up at the page. Use the page to rest, dream, try. Show up in the arena. Use the time with the horse to rest, dream, try, PLAY.
Fill the well by caring for my artist self. Fill the well by caring for my equestrian self.
Set small and gentle goals, and meet them.
Pray for guidance, courage, and humility.
Remember that it is far harder and more painful to be a blocked artist/rider than it is to do the work.
Be alert, always for the presence of the Creative Spirit leading and helping my artist self.
Choose companions who encourage me to do the work, not just talk about doing the work or why I am not doing the work.
Remember that the Creative Spirit loves creativity.
Remember that it is my job to do the work, not to judge the work.
Relax, let the Creative Spirit take care of the quality, you just take care of the quantity.

The Second Week:

Morning pages and artists date.

Remember, your Artist's Date is supposed to delight you!

Affirmative Reading :

Read the Basic Principles to yourself. Notice what you feel.

List your five major activities this week. How much time did you give to each one? Which were “want to's”, which were “shoulds”. How much of your time is given to helping others, and ignoring your own desires? Do you have friends that trigger doubts in you? Draw a circle. Write in the center of the circle the topics you need to protect. Write the names of the friends who support you inside the circle. Put the names of the people who trigger doubts outside the circle. Use this to remind you to keep a little distance from the Crazymakers and the ones who actually prefer you to stay stuck.

Make a list of things you love to do, aim for 20. When was the last time you did these things? Write a date next to each. From this list choose two things that can be this week's small goals. Look for windows of time just for you and use it in small creative acts. Don't overwhelm yourself with a huge goal — if you love photography, you could just buy a roll of film.

Affirmations.

Read your affirmations from week one. Note which ones seem to provoke the most reaction, they are usually the most significant. Write three affirmations five times in your Morning Pages each day.

Alternate Lives.

Add more lives to the list of alternative lives. Include some small action toward these alternative interests in your week. If you kind of wish you had enough lives to be a nun, can you give yourself a 10 minute retreat by walking in the woods in silence.

Divide a circle into six parts. Label one piece spirituality, one exercise, one romance, one play, one work, one friends and family. Place a dot in each section at the level to which you are fulfilled in that area — out on the rim if you're delighted with that part of your life, in toward the center if you are less fulfilled. Connect the dots. This begins to show you where you are lopsided. Find a tiny way to nurture the areas you are impoverished.

10 Tiny Changes.

List ten changes you'd like to make for yourself, large or small. Do it this way: I would like to… get a new set of sheets. I would like to… go to China. I would like to… dump my bitchy friend Shelly.

Select one item and make it a goal for this week. It's okay to take on even the largest one — for instance, you can't go to China this week. You can investigate what it would cost, make an itinerary, talk to a travel agent, make it something measurably real. Or, take on the smallest one. I'd like to polish my tack.

DO that one item from your list. Notice how you feel when it's done- does it free up some energy?

The Artist's Way.

The basic principles..

Creativity is the natural order or life. Life is energy: pure creative energy.
There is an underlying, in-dwelling, creative force infusing all of life — including ourselves.
When we open ourselves to our creativity, we open ourselves to the creator's creativity within us and our lives.
We are, ourselves, creations. And we, in turn, are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves.
Creativity is God's gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God.
The refusal to be creative is self-will and is counter to our true nature.
When we open ourselves to exploring our creativity, we open ourselves to God: G ood O rderly D irection.
As we open our creative channel to the creator, many gentle but powerful changes are to be expected.
It is safe to open ourselves up to greater and greater creativity.
Our creative dreams and yearnings come from a divine source. As we move toward our dreams, we move toward our divinity.

I'll be posting my check-in notes to the comments. Please share your experiences from Week One's exercises, if you need support in an area you're struggling with reach out for encouragement. I want to see us all unblock our creativity and get unstuck!

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I've been riding since I was 9, and in love with horses from the day I was born. Living in Washington with my horse and 5 dogs.

Week 4 : Recovering A Sense of Integrity

This week may find you grappling with changing self-definition. The essays, tasks, and exercises are designed to catapult you into productive introspection and integration of new self awareness. This may be both very difficult and extremely exciting for you. Warning: Do not skip the tool of reading deprivation!

Week 3 : Recovering a Sense of Power

This week may find you dealing with unaccustomed bursts of energy and sharp peaks of anger, joy and grief. You are coming into your power as the illusory hold of your previously accepted limits is shaken. You will be asked to consciously experiment with spiritual openmindedness.

The Artist’s Way for Equestrians

I’ll be posting the next week’s section each Monday and asking for you to share your thoughts, experiences and any struggles you might be wading through from the previous week in the comments section. Remember you can also share photos when you post comments if you’d like to share anything visual from your week’s journey.

Joining in? Introduce yourself in the comments and share what you’re hoping to get out of this 12-week journey!

Week 9 : Recovering a Sense of Compassion

This week finds us facing the internal blocks to creativity. It may be tempting to abandon ship at this point. DON’T! We will explore and acknowledge the emotional difficulties that beset us in the past as we made creative efforts. We will undertake healing the shame of past failures. We will gain in compassion as we re-parent the frightened artist child who years for creative accomplishment. We will learn tools to dismantle emotional blocks and support renewed risk.

Week 11 : Recovering a Sense of Autonomy

This week we focus on our artistic autonomy. We examine the ongoing ways in which we must nurture and accept ourselves as artists. We explore the behaviors that can strengthen our spiritual base and therefore, our creative power. We take a special look at the way sin which success must be handled in order that we not sabotage our freedom.

Week 1 : Recovering a Sense of Safety

This week initiates your creative recovery. You may feel both giddy and defiant, hopeful and skeptical. The readings, tasks, and exercises aim at allowing you to establish a sense of safety, which will enable you to explore your creativity with less fear.

i did my morning pages 7 days out of 7 days. i do love writing them and getting it all out on paper. all those ideas and thoughts i have flitting around in my mind that i lose just as fast as they enter. i was happy to get them down on paper before they were gone, moving onto the next person… however there were days that writing 3 whole pages felt a bit like pulling teeth. it’s those days that i wish i had chosen a smaller notebook…

i did a rather weak artist date last week. on saturday i met my mom, 2 and half hours from my house, so she could take my boys for a week. then on the way home i stopped at McDonald’s (HUGE YUCK!!!) for a snack because it was quick and easy and right off the interstate. the food was awful, though i tried to chose wisely and really only wanted the coffee. and the location wasn’t much better as the people watching was weak and uninspiring. so this week i will shoot for something better!

the “monster” finding was difficult for me last week. i did discover that the main person that told me working with horses wouldn’t net me a good income was my dad. of course… then i remembered as i was answering these questions that i had an art teacher in high school that was awful. she wanted us to draw HER drawings, basically copying her work, in her way and never allowed us the freedom of creativity. i got a big fat F in her class because i never did the assignment, instead veering off into whatever i wanted to do. we had to paint an oil painting at the end of the semester that showed a feeling we had about the class. i painted a big blue horses’s ASS and then stood up to explain to the class that the reason i painted it was because i thought the teacher was a horse’s ASS. of course she called my mom in and my mom agreed with me and informed that teacher that she was not a good art teacher and that i wouldn’t be in her class again. it was then that i ventured out into pottery (which my mom picked up from me and now makes her LIVING doing!) and then photography which has become one of my life’s passions. so that particular “monster” actually helped form me into what i am now. something that i found particularly interesting yesterday 😉

I too struggled this week with Morning Pages. Funny sometimes but I have observed in myself that when there is no expectation I can complete something quite well (like doing the Morning Pages before the first week started), but once there is expectation I slow down and almost impede my own progress.

Having done this previously I chose in advance a medium-sized notebook for just those days when I hope I don’t have to write three legal-sized pages. 😉 Some days I write smaller letters and others I use big flowing cursive and double space. Remember you can be creative in the way you lay down your words in the Morning Pages too to help fill them up more rapidly on the days you struggle. It isn’t about being militant and rigid but just in getting things flowing before you get out of bed.

My artist’s date this week wasn’t the most colorful either, actually very colorless! I’m not a fan of the cold weather, anyone who knows me knows I avoid sub-zero temps at all costs (which describes the whole of our winter so far). But I took an hour in the middle of the night (best time for star-gazing), piled on as many clothes as possible and went for a walk through the neighboring fields and woods. With all the snow it’s still very bright out at night and as much as I protest the cold it is also very rejuvenating and peaceful.

Very powerful Monster story! I enjoyed reading the part where you stood up in defiance and shared your true feelings instead of burying the emotions. Perhaps that is why you experienced such a positive outcome from that particular monsters’ influence. I’ve noticed that before with certain monsters, that they actually serve me in a positive way later on that I wouldn’t have recognized without having done the steps in week one. 🙂

My Monsters were… expected? Leading up to doing the exercises I kept procrastinating a great deal because I’d already been mulling over and identifying my monsters and wanting to avoid putting some of them to paper. When I finally did I really felt an “ah ha!” moment and then of course, “well why did I put so much effort into avoiding this sense of relief?!” 🙂

For me some of my sisters have been life-long Monsters for me. One in particular, an older sibling, has spent my entire life making negative remarks to and about me. Among them are that I’ve always been spoiled, I’m unmotivated, I’m lazy, I’m distracted, I’m not smart, and so on. I can remember these words coming at me from my earliest memories. As an adult I’ve often avoided spending much time around her (obviously), but a couple of years ago she sent me a scathing email attacking me for having sent out a group email that included her in it. She simply let loose and tried to put me down in every way she could imagine, but unlike all those times she’d done it when I was younger I didn’t internalize it and ignore her. I spoke up for myself. I defended myself. And then I blocked her from my life completely. And at the time, I told my mom about the exchange. I was feeling very hurt by my sister’s words and actions, very angry and also anxious about whether I was doing the right thing standing up for myself and removing her from my life. I don’t remember the exact conversation with my mom but I do remember coming away from it feeling not terribly supported. Not that she thought I was doing the wrong thing, but that she was very concerned about me pulling away from a family member and if I’d regret it later.

I’ve actually removed several people who were once very close but completely unsupportive of me, negative and even verbally abusive, since then. And like you seeing the positive that can come from a very negative experience, I feel like the positive from this is she allowed me really recognize for the first time just how I had allowed people to remain close to me who were only damaging me and keeping me from becoming a better person. And also making room for me to invite people in who are so wonderful and gracious and positive, who I get excited to cheer on and feel so loved when they share their support with me. 🙂

——

So heading into Week 2 and reading through the assignments, where do you feel you’ll breeze through/embrace and where do you think you may struggle or hesitate?

Aside from the Artist’s Date, I feel I’ll struggle most with the Actions, and am really looking forward to taking on the Alternate Lives exercise. 🙂

wanted to add that i LOVE the affirmation: “There is a divine plan of goodness for my work.”

it sends tingles up my spine. there is so much POWER in that statement and is something i feel strongly about… i wrote about it on my blog briefly here: http://theheartjourney.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/the-artists-way/

I saw that post! 🙂 And also shared your blog on our FB page last week, hopefully you’ll get some new connections from those who follow the page and positively support your goals!

14 Tips for Completing “The Artist’s Way” and Maximizing the Benefits

My experience of completing The Artist’s Way course was both rewarding and challenging and looking back, there are ways to ensure you finish the course and get the most out of it.

This course may look daunting to you or not, either way, these tips will help you see it through.

1. Make an honest commitment to yourself

Commit to completing the entire 12-week program and treat it as the highest priority. By doing this, you are honoring your creative journey. Do not underestimate this. You need to keep yourself accountable. Sign a contract, wear a ring, whatever gets the job done.

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one commits oneself, then Providence moves too.” – William Hutchison Murray

The act of committing is often the difference between sticking with a new habit or not. You might have to renew this commitment if you feel your commitment wavering. It’s normal and part of the process.

2. Establish a Routine

It’s essential to create a weekly rhythm to stay consistent. It’s important to give this some thought and come up with a plan since this is something completely new that you are trying to fit into your regular life. Where will this fit in and what will you have to sacrifice?

Luckily The Artist’s Way does not require hours of your time. You need an hour or two each week to read the Chapter, about 30 min in the morning to write your morning pages, and about two hours spread throughout the week for the tasks and your Artist’s date which can take anything from two hours or a whole day (it’s up to you).

This is what I did and it worked very well.

I started each week by reading the corresponding chapter on a Sunday. This meant I could read it at leisure and maximize my absorption. Then I would jump into the tasks on Monday. I would do the tasks sporadically throughout the week and didn’t clear my schedule for a specific time. I just fit them in here and there when I had a moment.

I tried to write my morning pages every morning even if I only managed to write a paragraph. I often continued the journalling in the evenings if I felt my emotions stirring or had a significant reaction either positive or negative.

I allocated every Saturday to be my Artist date day – just to simplify things. Then Sunday would always be my check-in day again.

It might be useful to track this in a habit-tracking app or a pen-on-paper method. You can create one on Canva using a template. I like having a physical one where I can see it.

3. Keep a video diary

Instead of writing down how you feel at every check-in (once a week) record yourself and talk about how you feel and what you experienced that week. I felt too lazy to write down all of the subtleties but it would have been valuable looking back to have that information and to see the progression I made.

I will definitely do this when I start the course again.

4. Know what to expect

At the beginning of the book, Julia Cameron describes an exact cycle of events that most people experience. She details the emotional rollercoaster that you can expect. I don’t know why, but I must have bypassed this somehow. It was only after I re-read the book that I read what to expect and realized that I had the exact experience. It would have helped to have this information in the back of my mind for the duration of the experience.

This is the cycle in case you miss it too…

Phases of Recovery

Giddiness or Defiance
Explosive Anger
Waves of Resistance and Hope (Peaks & Valleys)
Strong Urge to Abandon
Re-Commitment triggers major ego surrender
Final phase = new sense of self

5. Embrace the Process

Allow yourself to fully engage with the activities and exercises, even if they seem unconventional or uncomfortable at first. Embrace the opportunity for self-discovery and personal growth that the course offers. Trust the process and be open to what unfolds. This is vital. If you go into it with distrust, you will undermine your own chance at healing.

Keep in mind that your subconscious wants to keep you stuck because it is familiar so it will come up with plenty of logical reasons why this is a giant waste of time. Take note of those nuggets of fear, write them down under ‘Silly things my inner critic says’ and carry on.

6. Stick to Morning Pages

‘In order to retrieve your creativity, you need to find it. I ask you to do this b an apparently pointless process I call the Morning pages .’ Julia Cameron

Morning Pages are a foundational practice in “The Artist’s Way.” Set aside time each morning to write three pages of stream-of-consciousness thoughts. Be consistent with this practice as it helps clear mental clutter, boost creativity, and uncover insights.

I think adding your morning pages’ writings to your digital notetaking system could be very useful for the future. Just something to think about.

My biggest hack regarding writing morning pages is to keep a highlighter alongside your pen and book. Use it to highlight insights or things you want to do or remember. You can even color-code this for ease of reference so it’s easy to spot. Pink for insights, Green for To-dos & Goals, Yellow for affirmations, Orange for inner critic, etc.

7. Prioritize Artist Dates

I still find this so strange, but the most fun thing you are asked to do in The Artist’s Way course is the one most of us struggle with the most. I had a hard time keeping a date with myself (what does that say about me?) and I know plenty of others who did too.

Artist dates involve setting aside time to nourish your creative spirit by engaging in activities that inspire you (and your inner child). Treat these dates as essential appointments with yourself.

If in doubt, read Artist’s Dates: Cultivating Creativity

Explore new places, visit art exhibits, listen to live music, or simply take a quiet walk in nature. Allow yourself to be open to inspiration and follow your creative instincts.

Plan for these activities in advance to give yourself less room to escape.

I have recently found that it is incredibly beneficial to get into the habit of naming things you want, whether it be a thing or an experience. When you start thinking about what you want, you start uncovering how to progress in your life and start to follow your heart.

I would strongly suggest having a list of activities ready so you can quickly refer to it since most of us are incredibly bad at coming up with these on the spot. Start a list and keep adding to it. Even better, keep the list in your Morning Pages journal so you can add to it as they occur to you.

8. Create a Supportive Environment

Surround yourself with a supportive environment that encourages your creative pursuits. Share your journey with friends, family, or fellow artists who understand and appreciate your aspirations. Seek out or form a small group of individuals going through “The Artist’s Way” or engage in online communities to exchange ideas and support one another.

As you go through this course, you could find yourself feeling vulnerable and in need of a supportive shoulder. You might not find that in an online forum but it could help to at least have one friend to call when the time arises.

9. Creative Clusters

Cameron encourages readers to form or join creative clusters—small groups of like-minded individuals who gather to support each other’s artistic aspirations. These clusters provide a supportive community for sharing ideas, feedback, and encouragement. These are people who are also doing the course so you can compare notes and discuss your experiences.

She includes a chapter in the back of the book on exactly how to start a creative cluster which could be very useful for you. I might try this the second time around. I can imagine that it would add another level of depth to the experience.

10. Plan on increasing your self-care

The moment you commit to doing this course, I would advise you to just up the ante on your usual self-care or lack thereof. Buy some aromatherapy bath oils and candles if you know what I mean. You will need some extra pampering during the 12 weeks. Take better care of yourself because you are going to feel a bit more raw and fragile than usual. Nothing to be scared of, just have those extra comforts ready to soothe yourself.

This includes the basics of sleeping and eating well – don’t skip those!

11. Download my workbook to help you keep track

The moment I started the tasks I found it very annoying flipping from the book to look at the questions, to then writing my answers in a separate journal, only to look back later and not knowing what I was writing about. I decided to make myself a workbook with all the questions and tasks and enough room to write the answers and journal prompts in. I wanted to create something that would help me track my progress better and that I would be able to read in the future. I can now also re-use it again and again since it’s digital as well as printable.

12. Journaling Beyond Morning Pages

While Morning Pages are a fundamental practice, some people find value in journaling beyond those three pages. Consider incorporating additional journaling sessions throughout the week to reflect on your creative journey, explore ideas, and record insights.

While you are going through this journey of self-discovery and recovery, you might as well go deep and take advantage of the process. I found that I wrote about very different things at night. Different topics came up and it was incredibly therapeutic. I’ve never been someone who enjoyed journaling but after completing the course, I’m a convert.

13. Find an Accountability Buddy

Partnering up with someone else who is also going through “The Artist’s Way” can provide mutual support and accountability. You can check in with each other regularly, share insights, and discuss your progress. Having someone to share the journey with can enhance motivation and foster a sense of community.

This tip is specifically for those of you who can’t start a creative cluster for whatever reason.

14. Don’t stop after the 12th week

“The Artist’s Way” is not just a 12-week program but a lifelong creative journey. Apply the principles and practices learned throughout the course beyond the 12 weeks. Integrate them into your daily life to nurture and sustain your creativity in the long run.

I'm Really Into

How i learned that creativity and vulnerability go hand in hand.

Lauren González

Eight summers ago, I found myself in a D.C. yoga studio sitting in a circle with several other women. No one was in a downward dog position, and hardly any of us were wearing stretchy pants. Any curious passerby might have assumed we were part of a support group of some kind, and in some ways, we were. We were a motley group of struggling creatives practicing The Artist's Way .

The Artist's Way is a 12-week course that helps people unlock their capacity for creativity — whether in art, at work, or in life. At its core, it's a great practice to access more delight, curiosity, and creative inquiry within your daily life. But for me, The Artist's Way grew to mean more than just a fun summer project or a tool to overcome writer's block. It helped me face my fears around trying new things, and gave me a better framework to live with the vulnerability and uncertainty that comes with life. I will gab about it to anyone who lets me in on their secret desires to pursue their artistic dream — be it tiny or grand.

How to make creativity part of your daily routine

Getting in an artist's mindset.

The luminary behind The Artist's Way is Julia Cameron, and I often call her my fairy godmother. Her philosophy has helped me understand that the ability to be artistic comes more naturally than one would think. Cameron believes that the "refusal to be creative is self-will and counter to our true nature." In other words, we all possess an inner creativity; we just willingly choose to block ourselves from that impulse. Her course is meant to help us unlock the artist that lives within each and every one of us.

Did I consider myself an artist at the time? Not in the slightest. I had forsaken dance classes in my teen years, and most of my creative writing was tucked away in personal journals alongside to-do lists and reflections of the week. I was too much of a nervous millennial to pursue anything as bohemian as the life of an artist.

The author's well-loved copy of The Artist's Way , with a journal and some flowers she gathered during an artist date. Lauren González hide caption

The author's well-loved copy of The Artist's Way , with a journal and some flowers she gathered during an artist date.

In many ways, I felt like the complete opposite of one. I was a bumbling and uncertain post-grad, trying to build a life on my own for the very first time. I played it by the books, landing a job in D.C. that looked good on paper. But it felt like I'd stepped into a pair of shoes that didn't feel like my style. But where would I go from here? What else could I do? I didn't have the slightest idea, so I waited for inspiration to strike.

And inspiration did strike. While taking a yoga class, I noticed a promotion for a summer workshop centered around The Artist's Way . I figured a workshop would keep me accountable to the process, and for the next three months, I'd meet with this group of women to discuss weekly readings as well as share our progress, frustrations, and aha moments.

The path that Cameron lays out is a simple one, but it requires commitment. There are weekly readings and exercises, all geared toward helping you understand your artistic hang-ups and how to get out of your own way. You're required to write your morning pages at the start of every day. It's meant to be an uninhibited style of free-writing: no stopping and no editing until you fill up at least three full pages.

A butterfly the author saw during an artist date. Lauren González hide caption

A butterfly the author saw during an artist date.

And then, there's the artist date — a weekly commitment to take yourself on a solo activity all for the purpose of indulging in a sense of fun and delight. No agenda, just play. All to say, The Artist's Way packs in quite a bit in three short months.

Inviting playfulness into your life

However you pursue The Artist's Way , my advice is to stick to it, even if you feel some resistance. Can Cameron's New Agey platitudes feel a little hard to swallow? For some, maybe. But there's a way to connect to this process that doesn't require a spiritual understanding of creativity.

Whether or not you believe that human creativity is inspired by a divine force, it's easier to see how our aversion to risk, failure, and humiliation prevents us from taking a creative leap. My practice with morning pages revealed just how often fear would eclipse my own creative ambitions. I'd always find an external circumstance or an internal flaw as a reason to skip out on a dance class or exciting job opportunity, and those limiting beliefs started making their way to the page.

That's because free-writing is sort of like gargling for the soul. You write a lot of nonsense early in the morning, but eventually you start revealing and shedding your hang-ups, fears, and the stories you tell yourself to protect you from taking a risk. But eventually, you start recognizing they're just that — stories.

My morning pages helped me recognize that I tend to avoid any situation that made me feel vulnerable. And yet, creativity and vulnerability go hand in hand. You can't have one without the other, and Cameron's writings make that tension resoundingly clear.

Calendars are for managing your time. But planners are for dreaming without limits

But Cameron also offers a respite for dislodging your writer's block, or any block for that matter. Fear is the most immobilizing force, but its antidote can sometimes be a dose of levity.

That's where the artist dates come in. Cameron stresses that recognizing your limiting beliefs is only half the battle on the path to artistic enlightenment. You also have to work actively in inviting pleasure, delight, and playfulness into your life. Without these ingredients, your end result will be half-baked. It's like a cake without frosting — who would want a slice of that?

And so I went on a journey of indulging in simple pleasures. I baked blueberry muffins on a Sunday morning. I went to a meditation series held at a paddock among the horses of Rock Creek Park. I listened to my favorite album of the Gipsy Kings from start to finish, no skips. I collected fallen summer flowers and pressed them between the pages of my notebook. I went to a park tucked behind Embassy Row and stared at the fireflies at dusk.

My favorite artist date was one of the last ones. I rented a car and drove out to Saint Michaels, a beautiful little coastal town in Maryland that feels worlds away from the D.C. metropolis. As I made my way back, I crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge right during sunset. I don't remember what song was playing, but I'll always remember what it felt like to roll down the windows, sing at the top of my lungs, and stare at the pink and orange sky that appeared before me.

How Legos helped me rebuild my foundation

The path beyond The Artist's Way has been a crooked one for me, with many starts and stops. But I've come to learn that life never gives it to you straight. It took a year to work up the courage to quit my job, and a few months after to land a job in a creative field. It took three more years to get back on stage and perform a dance routine for an audience. I still haven't published any short stories, but perhaps that's for next summer.

I come back to The Artist's Way often during this season, and each practice brings new insight. And yet each time, I relearn how important it is to indulge my curiosity and transcend the limiting beliefs I've set around my creative potential. And whenever I get caught up in the uncertainty that comes ahead of a new adventure, I remember Cameron's mantra: "Jump, and the net will appear."

What are you really into? Fill out this form or leave us a voice note at 800-329-4273, and part of your submission may be featured online or on the radio.

the artist's way

April Julia

Writing on Writing, Blindness, Science, Music, TV and Film, Meaning and Story

The Artist’s Way Reflections – Week Three: Recovering a Sense of Power

In thinking about this week and all its topics, including Synchronicity, it strikes me that this one line in the Detective Work, an Exercise section could be the topic sentence for the whole chapter. It reads:

“Many blocked people are actually very powerful and creative personalities who have been made to feel guilty about their own strengths and gifts.”

She goes on to say that:

“Made to feel guilty for their talents, they often hide their own light under a bushel for fear of hurting others. Instead, they hurt themselves.”

To my mind, all the little essays in this chapter illuminate more about these lines, and get at how we lose our power through shamings and criticisms, how we give away our power by ignoring the messages from our difficult friend Anger, and how to start to take it back with detective work, synchronicity, and finally, growth.

Week Three: Recovering a Sense of Power

This essay is one that keeps me coming back to The Artist’s Way . It’s the take on anger, of all I’ve heard and read, that resonates most with me: that anger is a guide, a difficult friend who will always be truthful if never comfortable. That it’s meant not to be stuffed or suppressed or acted out or shoved under the rug but listened to.

What I kept thinking about this time around while reading this section was how angry I was at the start of medical school. I was angry about so much. Obviously, given this post , a lot of my anger had to do with the lack of support and infrastructure for students with disabilities, and instantly being saddled with a complete other (unpaid) job and role on top of medical student, and all the time and energy it took up.

But there were things aside from that where I was going against my own values, like signing up for a future of 80-hour workweeks where a typical 40-hour would sound like an absolute dream in comparison, and how much of myself I’d have to give up for that. And the debt. Financial security and stability is high up there on my personal importance and values list and taking on that much debt made me want to throw up every time I thought about it.

I was angry about all of it, and that anger bled over into all the little things, all the ways we were treated like middle schoolers (at best), all the ways we had less agency than in undergrad, all the busywork. Of course the big rage was always over the disability stuff–and that it never had to be that way, and that I kept getting such intense pushback when trying to make things better–and that fueled all the little things.

So the anger was there, like an honest friend, trying to tell me to GTFO. I was so ambivalent in the beginning, essentially not wanting to be there most of the time. But I stayed. I stayed because I’d been working towards this for over a decade. I stayed because you don’t have your dreams come true and then immediately turn away. I stayed because of the debt that was already accruing interest. I stayed, ultimately, for the love of science and medicine and a short lull in the disability struggles.

Until I couldn’t stay anymore despite all that. And that too was precipitated by anger. A rage storm after losing a long-fought disability battle. It would take a couple more weeks before I decided, for sure, to leave, but that rage storm was the breaking point.

On a slightly different note, I was thinking this morning in my Morning Pages how certain behaviors continue to evoke anger in me, and most of them have to do with being told who I am and how I feel, others imposing their ideas of me on me, and unsolicited advice. They all bother me so much because they all dig against my agency, my authority over my own life and what I want and how I feel and who I am. Fuck that noise.

I do think there’s a tie-in to disability too. People always seem to treat people with disabilities as younger than they are, more helpless, more childlike, more innocent, more simple, more in need of help and guidance. I am less than six months from turning forty, but sometimes people treat me more like a wayward teenager and I am not here for that shit, at all. Just thinking about and recalling this, which is less like a serious of infuriating events but something that happens so commonly that it’s woven into the fabric of my life and keeps me on a low hum of rage even in the best of times, makes me want to scream and scream and never stop screaming.

But, I noticed, I wasn’t writing it down in my Morning Pages. I’d space out thinking about it and then come back to the page and continue whatever thought I’d left off on, instead of putting the anger on the page. It makes me so uncomfortable to feel, and I feel if I write it I’ll feel it more, or be unable to escape the fact that I feel it. Anger may be a very truthful friend, and I may love this book because JC says that, instead of making it something to always suppress and not feel, but it is not a friend I’m comfortable with.

I still want to ignore it and shove it away and talk myself out of it, rationalize my way out of feeling it. Push it underwater. I have the intellectual sense that that’s not the healthiest or most helpful way of dealing with it, but it’s hard to do otherwise.

A lot of heavy-hitters this chapter. This is a big one for me. And probably a lot of people in my generation (very late Gen X or Xennial, depending on which definition you follow) where so much of how we were brought up was based on shame. Shame was part of the fabric of our lives, the thing you most of all things wanted to avoid but could never stop triggering with any wrong move and almost every move was wrong.

Shame for being blind. Shame for looking different. Shame for doing things differently because of the visual impairment, like looking at things close to read them or having large print books or squinting in bright light or wearing hats or sunglasses to block the light. Shame for liking everything that I liked–songs, lyrics, singers, albums, bands, music genres, books, TV shows, movies, so especially pop culture but also clothing and so many other things, almost like liking things itself, especially intensely, was a grave sin–or for simply liking anything too intensely so as to annoy everyone else. Shame for loving anyone or anything. Shame for hope. Shame for singing. Shame for writing stories that weren’t “appropriate” as in they weren’t all about peachy keen happy life and ventured into mystery or thriller territory. Shame for showing feelings of any sort. Shame for having a body. Shame for being too sexual. Shame for being not sexual enough. Shame for being boy crazy. Shame for not fitting in with girls and not being feminine enough. Shame for putting my hair in little braids. Shame for arguing. Shame for feeling intensely. Shame for standing up for myself (usually accompanied by being punished and rendered totally powerless). Shame for dreaming.

The list could go on. And on. And on. I think this is true of many people, I learned to make myself smaller and smaller to avoid provoking the red, hot shame. It was survival because maybe if I was less shameful all the time, I might be tolerated more. It’s sad to me but most of my life I felt like that’s what I was fighting for, simply to be tolerated. Not necessarily liked or accepted or loved but just to not feel like I was completely intolerable. I turned myself into pretzels all the time, just hoping to not inspire disgust and hatred and shame.

I’d love to say that, now that I’m older, I’m past all that, but I don’t know if that’s really realistic when it’s the air you breathe for so much of your life. I appreciated JC being real about this. I related hard to how she said a common defense mechanism is to tell ourselves “it doesn’t matter” or “no big deal” as a way of trying to protect ourselves. I think I do that a lot, not just in shame-inducing situations–it’s definitely something I say to myself after getting a writing rejection, which is such a huge part of the writer’s life–but also in anger-inducing situations. To avoid fights, I’ll tell myself it doesn’t matter, it’s no big deal, I can take it.

So I’m going to start watching for those phrases and dig to see what’s underneath.

Dealing with Criticism

First of all, I love this roadmap for dealing with criticism. It’s funny, in med school, I often got told that I was really good at receiving feedback, which is not necessarily how I see myself. We had these CSAs and OSCEs, encounters with standardized patients (actors) where as I liked to say, we played doctor and then had a debrief session with our actor afterward. In that setting, the actors told me often that I was especially receptive to their feedback.

Similarly, in my last day that I was on campus, for my last in-person activity, back in mid-February, we had a much more extended OSCE that involved multiple patients, inpatient and outpatient settings, and giving patient presentations. For anyone who’s seen Grey’s Anatomy or House or any other medical show, patient presentations are when the med student, or intern, or resident, says to the attending physician, “So-and-so is an X-year patient with a history of Y who comes in complaining of Z.” Learning how to give a good, thorough but not too thorough, cohesive, succinct, easily understandable patient presentation is a crucial skill. So we had to practice it before they let us loose for clinical rotations.

I had to present my patients to our Developing Human (aka reproduction, sex, pregnancy, child development, geriatrics) block director. She gave me a lot of feedback on what I needed to change after I did my first presentation and so I made some notes to myself before giving her my second one. She remarked that she was really impressed how readily I accepted the feedback and incorporated into my second patient presentation, which she thought went a lot better.

It made me feel really good because being good at accepting criticism is not necessarily how I see myself, or how I think others see me. I’m terrified of feedback. I think in some of these med school cases, I was just so relieved that people weren’t just straight up WTF are you doing here don’t you know you have a disability and therefore have no business in this profession.

But yeah, feedback terrifies me. Because I’ve had the horrible, mean-spirited kind she talks about in this section, and have felt crushed and paralyzed by it. I’ve had some that shines a light, too.

But most of the feedback I’ve received, especially on writing, is of a third variety that she doesn’t mention, and that’s the mostly useless. The kind of feedback that doesn’t aim to tear you down but also offers no substantial insight. The “I’m not interested in this topic so I’m not your target audience,” type replies, or the ones that want you to remake what you wrote into their image, or the ones that adhere to some strict writing rule–either real or just part of their own aesthetics and preferences–and spend the whole critique expounding on how you broke a rule.

Those are harder to deal with because they don’t offer any useful suggestions other than to write more like them, and they’re not outwardly malicious so you can’t write them off as being born of the critiquer’s own bitterness or bad day, and yet they still make you feel you did something wrong. Something amorphous and unfixable where the big problem is that you were you and not them.

I’m going to try to keep this roadmap handy, because I know deep down, that feedback scares the shit out of me, to the point that sometimes I avoid it altogether if I’m not in a state of being mental tefflon, which is never. Even when I see that my posts here are getting retweeted or posted, or receiving comments, I feel a jolt of dread every time.

Which takes me to the thought that this section needs to be updated for our vicious modern day. Because in a lot of ways, the internet is now just an endless stream of hate and death threats coming at everyone who does anything, and it’s a scary world. I don’t know how people face that and still live their lives every day without being too scared to breathe, but tons of people do every day.

I want to put my work out there but the cost to doing so is so much greater than it used to be and I wish the world wasn’t the way it is. In many ways.

Detective Work, An Exercise

This exercise is fairly long, with twenty sentences to complete. I did it separately from reading the chapter, the next evening. I say that partly to reiterate the point that there all kinds of ways to adapt working with this book to your needs. It was too much to read the whole chapter and to do this exercise in one sitting.

Some themes that emerged, none of them a surprise to me, were: I crave more connection to seasons and nature, I want to live at Camp Orkila, or at the least be able to walk its paths and shore on the daily (as this post and its pretty pictures addresses), I have some very ambitious writing projects I want to work on with the hours and energy of a medical residency, I want to write (more) movies, I want to play, write and record music, I want to make a whole podcast company and do my tarot podcast as well as other podcast ideas mentioned in that post), I want to do stand-up at least once in my life, and do more spoken word events, and I desperately long for a way to make this my life’s work and not just something I do around some job but the thing that takes up the center. But, you know, also not starve in doing so.

Another theme that came up was fear of disappointment in wanting these things because what good does it do anyone to know, so clearly, what you want if it can’t happen. It feels like it just hurts more and makes me sad and feel like I’m missing something. In many ways, it would be easier to not know myself so clearly. I know that’s not what I’m “supposed” to be saying while doing this book, but I want to keep it real, and this is a real feeling.

This section bolsters some things she’s said in previous chapters, specifically about how the process of discovering, uncovering, recovering your creativity may feel erratic and, at times, volatile. She reiterates the “easy does it” mentality too–to think of this like a marathon instead of a sprint.

The part about experimenting with solitude made me laugh because, well, quarantine. It’s been a long six plus months of experimenting with solitude.

She also suggests being kind to yourself in small, concrete ways. The first question she asks is if you’ve been feeding yourself well. I have, but with the local farmer’s market closed on account of unbreathable air, I wasn’t able to get my weekly haul of fruit. I’ve been getting a mystery box of berries and peaches each week for awhile now. Sometimes the occasional apple or pear is in there lately, but it’s mainly berries and peaches. I was kind of counting on putting that stuff in my oatmeal this weekend, and now that I can’t I’m kind of obsessed with wanting peaches. It’s a small problem, even as small problems go, but I WANT PEACHES.

Which makes me think of this song from my youth. I probably haven’t heard this song in twenty years, but apparently I still remember all the words. “Sun soaking bulges in the shaaaaade.”

So, I’m going to try to track down some peaches once it’s safe to go outside. And that will be my nice thing for myself. It’s kinda weird, I realize, but the heart wants what the heart wants, as they say.

Also, I’m now in a YouTube rabbit hole of ’90s songs. “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” from Deep Blue Something, “Desperately Wanting” by Better than Ezra, “The Freshman” by The Verve Pipe, “If You Could Only See” by Tonic, “Hemorrhage” by Fuel and so many more. And this too is a nostalgic balm.

“We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own or to other people’s models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channel to open.” -Shakti Gawain

This one reminds me of the quote I picked in last week’s post. Both speak to the theme of figuring out who we truly are instead of accepting others’ definitions of and for us. I’m drawn to these quotes because for me this is at the core of my struggle: to accept and be who I am.

The struggle comes from something I keep coming back to, that for so much of my life–especially but not exclusively in childhood and adolescence; it still happens now–I was told that everything I was or felt or thought or liked or was curious about or wanted or loved was bad and shameful, never to be admitted lest I lose whatever scant tolerance from others that I’d won for myself by stuffing myself down as completely as possible.

It’s a big hurt because it wasn’t one horrific incident, it was the air I breathed, and is often the air I still breathe. It’s hard to undo that or just snap my fingers and be over it when it’s decades of that kind of damage.

Five Childhood Accomplishments – these can range from the monumental to the mundane, and mine went mundane for the most part.

Solving math puzzles – in fifth grade, there was this math puzzle on the board: find the lowest number that’s divisible by 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10 and 12 and though that might not be hard for a more sophisticated student, to my ten-year-old self, this was an epic puzzle and I often thought about it before falling asleep and went through some iterations of wrong answers before getting to the right one (I’ll post at the bottom in case anyone wants to try it). Similarly, in sixth grade, we had this extra credit game where we had to fill in blanks to famous phrases and all the blanks were numbers. I guessed on some based on alliteration (the famous five, the secret seven) and others I knew, and tied for first place with (I believe) two other people in my class.
remembering the “secret passage” in our house in Buffalo – it wasn’t really a secret passage, something I spent all my elementary school days searching for with tips and tricks I’d picked up from Nancy Drew and Baby-Sitters Club books, but this little hidden crawl space type thing. One night, I just suddenly remembered that it existed, and later went into it by standing on the dryer and climbing up into it, and also convinced other people, I think my brother and a friend or two, to check it out too.
kicking ass on my high school chemistry class’s “element bee” and “ion bee” – GUYS I AM A NERD and that nerdy, science-y, mathy side is coming out this week.
This one time when we played Red Rover in Girl Scouts. Usually, I was always the weak link and easy target, but one time, after hearing the girls on the other team talking about going for me, and being newly emboldened by discovering rock music, I just decided I wouldn’t be scared and I wouldn’t let go. And I didn’t. I remember I ended up getting dragged really far, like all the way across the grass, but never broke the chain. I wasn’t the easy target after that. I was scrappy.
Getting my school’s nomination for the NJ Governor’s School of the Arts in Creative Writing

This task has a bonus – name five favorite childhood treats and I put: ice cream in a waffle cone with sprinkles, strawberry shortcake, dirt cake (anyone else remember this? I sometimes tried to trick people at birthday parties into thinking it was actually dirt), double chocolate cookies and apple crisp. We’re supposed to have one and given the season I’m thinking I’ll make some apple crisp once I go apple picking. I also really want cider, real cider. Wow, this post is developing a fruit theme.

Task 6 is to call a supportive friend, and Claire and I have a call on the calendar for tomorrow!

People You Admire – and what traits do they share?

My list was way more than five, and most were women. Women who don’t hold back, say waht they feel, are real about politics, life, sex, love, guys. Fearless, outspoken, loud, talented, good writers, intelligent, funny, have creative vision.

For a smattering of my list, I included Taylor Swift (yeah duh), Shonda Rhimes, Tori Amos, Rabia Chaudry, Fiona Apple, Mary Karr, and my other yeah duh, Chris Cornell.

People You Secretly Admire

This was harder to come up with, and harder to put in this post.

The first one was easy, and was always going to be who it was: David Foster Wallace. I feel guilty for liking him so much given some real problematic stuff that came out about him, and some of it directed at a writer I love who’s on the first list. But on the other hand, when you find your kindred spirit writer soulmate, it’s hard not to love what and who you love. And anyway, he’s been dead for twelve years and I legit talk to his ghost sometimes and I love his work (which is also pretty problematic) in a complicated but intense, fierce, full-hearted way, even when I don’t.

Courtney Love – I’ve loved her since I was a teenager listening to Live Through This and Hole’s MTV unplugged album, and probably always will.

Sinead O’Connor – that VOICE. And also, she was right about the whole priest sex abuse scandal thing.

Tasks 8, 9 and 10

Task 8 asks you to list five people you wish you met before they died. Mine is exactly the same as it was the last time I did, and probably the same as other iterations of going through AW (though one of these people definitely was still alive before these most recent AW journeys):

Chris Cornell
David Foster Wallace
Kurt Cobain
Layne Staley

Task 9 asks you to list five dead people you’d like to spend awhile hanging out with in eternity, and my list was pretty much the exact same. The only thing was since this one didn’t say “you wish you met before they died,” I put my grandma, Nana, in there. I couldn’t think of who I’d take off the list so just made it six people.

Looking Ahead

Next week’s post will look closely at the Synchronicity section of this week, which gets a post all its own because it’s a tough one, and how I experience it has changed a lot over the many years of working with this book, and has been especially loaded for me lately.

I’ll also do some of the tasks next week as well. Since Week Three is split over two weeks on here, the tasks might as well be too.

PD: The picture at the top of the post is my new Morning Pages journal. It’s a small one, so will go get used quickly. It has a light blue cover with a tree with colored leaves, and some of the leaves are falling.

And the answer to the math problem is 840.

The Artist’s Way Reflections is a weekly column reflecting on the 1992 book on discovering, recovering and reconnecting with creativity, The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron. Each week, I reflect on some aspect or tool or exercise or essay from the book.

Here are some previous posts from The Artist’s Way Reflections column:

Jumping Back into the Blogging Ring – where I first introduce this column
My The Artist’s Way Origin Story
The Basic Tools: Morning Pages
The Basic Tools: The Artist Date
Re-Starting the Journey
Preview Digression on Spirituality
Week One: Recovering a Sense of Safety
Time Travel – Creative Monsters and Champions
Week Two: Recovering a Sense of Identity

Schedule for the Rest of 2020

September 24 – Synchronicity
October 1 – Week Four: Recovering a Sense of Integrity
October 8 – Week Five: Recovering a Sense of Possibility
October 15 – Week Six: Recovering a Sense of Abundance
October 22 – Week Seven: Recovering a Sense of Connection
October 29 – Week Eight: Recovering a Sense of Strength
November 5 – Goal Search
November 12 – Week Nine: Recovering a Sense of Compassion
November 19 – Blasting Through Blocks
November 26 (Thanksgiving) – Creative Goal Setting (for 2021)
December 3 – Week Ten: Recovering a Sense of Self-Protection
December 10 – Setting Bottom Lines
December 17 – Week Eleven: Recovering a Sense of Autonomy
December 24 (Christmas Eve) – Week Twelve: Recovering a Sense of Faith
December 31 (New Year’s Eve) – End of Book Wrap-Up

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The Artist's Way Workbook Paperback – Import, May 9, 2007

For the millions of people who have uncovered their creative selves through the 'Artist's Way' method, here is a workbook and companion to the international bestseller. With its life-changing twelve-week programme, The Artist's Way has touched the lives of millions of people around the world. Now, for the first time, fans will have this elegantly designed and user-friendly volume for use in tandem with that book. The workbook includes: More than 110 Artist's Way tasksMore than 50 Artist's Way check-insA fascinating introduction to the workbook, in which Cameron shares new insights into the creative process that she has culled in the decade since The Artist's Way was originally publishedNew and original writings on Morning Page Journaling and the Artist's Date, two of the most vital tools set forth by Cameron in The Artist's Way

Print length 176 pages
Language English
Publisher Souvenir Press
Publication date May 9, 2007
Dimensions 9.65 x 0.55 x 12.13 inches
ISBN-10 0285637932
ISBN-13 978-0285637931
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Souvenir Press; Main edition (May 9, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0285637932
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0285637931
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.75 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.65 x 0.55 x 12.13 inches
#1,592 in Scientific Reference
#2,532 in Popular Psychology Creativity & Genius
#333,223 in Reference (Books)

About the author

Julia cameron.

Julia Cameron has been an active artist for more than thirty years. She is the author of more than thirty books, fiction and nonfiction, including her bestselling works on the creative process: The Artist's Way, Walking in This World, Finding Water, and The Writing Diet. A novelist, playwright, songwriter, and poet, she has multiple credits in theater, film, and television.

Latest endeavor: Julia Cameron Live, an online course and artists' community led by Julia. It is the most comprehensive discussion she has ever done on The Artist's Way, and the first time she has allowed cameras in her home. www.juliacameronlive.com

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The Artist's Way

38 pages • 1 hour read

The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

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Chapters 9-12

Epilogue-Reading List

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Chapter 1 summary: “week 1: recovering a sense of safety”.

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The Artist's Way Writing Challenge in 4 Steps

Co-founder of One Month. Faculty at Columbia University.

1. What is The Artist's Way? The Artist's Way is a creative writing method divided into 12 week workbook

2. How does The Artist's Way work? Author Julia Cameron suggests that you read one chapter (roughly 15 pages) each week, and perform a series of exercises along the way.

3. How do you get started?

There are two exercises you can start with: The Morning Pages (each day) and The Artist's Date (once a week). Here's how it works:

The morning pages: write roughly 750 words each day. This isn't anything you need to share with others, it's just you writing in a stream of consciousness each day.

The artist's date: go outside of your routine, and reward yourself each week. For example, you can take time to cook, go for a walk, paint, or listen to music. Something that allows you to experience and enjoy life.

4. What was my biggest takeaway?

5. How did I keep myself accountable throughout the 12 weeks? There's no silver bullet. For one, I taped a sticky note on my wall to reminded me to "Write!" I also send myself a text reminder with this Aristotle quote, once a week:

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle

I used IFTTT to send the weekly text. It's a free service that works great for reminders!

For a more in depth summary, listen to Episode #22 of the On Books Podcast , and buy the book The Artist's Way .

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Rita E. Gould: An Artful Sequence of Words

Writer. Editor. Reader.

Reviewing The Artist’s Way: A Challenging Week 4

Recently, I posted a review on my first three weeks working on The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, a self-help book aimed at teaching its readers to embrace their creativity. Week 4, which I’m discussing here, proved to be challenging enough that I felt it needed its own post. Because it contains an exercise that many find difficult (something Cameron also acknowledges), I want to emphasize that there’s always something valuable to learn in such cases—but patience and perseverance are attributes you might want on hand as well.

Allow me to explain.

Getting to Know Me

The snowflake pattern of your soul is emerging. Julia Cameron

Week 4 focuses on reflection, specifically considering how previous lessons help us become our more authentic selves. While it runs a tad long, this discussion notes how these changes may manifest and affect us before reminding us to use our affirmations to deal with these feelings as we work through our various artistic blocks. The two main exercises focus on learning more about that authentic self and its preferences. “Buried Dreams” explores past interests to provide some activities to try during the second exercise. While the connection between tasks was clear, restating how they relate to the chapter’s theme would be a useful addition.

The second and more challenging exercise is called reading deprivation (now renamed media deprivation ). For one week, participants must not read, watch television, or go online—similar to digital or social media detoxes. In The Artist’s Way , Cameron argues that reading and other media distract artists from self-examination. Removing such distractions let us (1) get in touch with our feelings and thoughts (introspection); (2) connect with our inner voice (inspiration); and (3) refill the artist’s well by experiencing the sensory world. With our time freed up, Cameron first predicts we’ll become productive but eventually will shift to playing once we run of busywork. Play is important, because it lets creative grow (eg, the artist’s date). With this tool improving our understanding of ourselves, our creativity should increase as blocks dissipate.

Understanding the Challenges

Problems with persuasion.

This lesson unfortunately includes some elements I found counterproductive to getting onboard with media deprivation. As observed in my previous review , Cameron occasionally hints at a topic before she talks about it. Week 4’s introductory page contains one of these spoilers, as it urges readers to use the “reading deprivation” tool. Inserting this brief admonition before the lesson, detrimentally shifted my focus onto this alarming development. If preparing readers for this concept is a must, it’d be better to mention that we’ll later encounter a tool that assesses media’s impact on creativity where reading blocks are first mentioned in conjunction with filling the artist’s well (“Basic Tools,” p. 23 in the 2020 edition).

But the commentary itself also creates some barriers to reader buy-in. It’s difficult to summon enthusiasm for using this tool when the essay first characterizes words—my artistic medium—as a cross between tranquilizers and junk food. Some claims made here also seemed questionable (eg, that artists are “addicted” to reading [*] ). Beyond the rhetoric lies the real problem: people eschew the hard work of examining their feelings and thoughts, using media as a shield. Starting with this point and connecting it to reflecting on our authentic selves could avoid creating more resistance to an already challenging exercise.

Creative Concerns

Turning to those challenges, there’s the matter of motivation. Usually, people who limit their media consumption (as I generally do) voluntarily do so, placing Cameron in the unenviable position of warding off her students’ displeasure [ †] while encouraging them to undertake an unwanted challenge. Others understandably worry about how they’ll manage their obligations with such restrictions. These are the prime reasons some find this assignment frustrating. I also identified some other potential obstacles. The introspective among us might not need more time for self-scrutiny. Others who find media inspiring may find it puzzling/upsetting to be deprived of that inspiration. With these latter points, clearly stated goals [‡] might diffuse some resistance here, as these persons could focus instead on other goals such as exploring alternate sources of inspiration.

Getting Some (Online) Guidance

Cameron does respond to the more obvious concerns involving reading deprivation in The Artist’s Way but provides minimal instruction. Being told to procrastinate when it came to work or school struck me as unhelpful, as that’s not always possible. Because I previously found an online resource for this book, I consulted it and discovered that Cameron had been calling this tool media deprivation since at least 2012, which made me wonder why my book from 2020 didn’t reflect this. Regardless, Cameron’s website does advise her students to limit their inflow of media as much as possible without being irresponsible or getting fired. Her online description of media deprivation as a form of “conscious unplugging” also appealed to me more, convincing me that checking my media consumption couldn’t hurt.

It is a paradox that by emptying our lives of distractions we are actually filling the [artist’s] well. Julia Cameron

Mixed Results

Less internet, more doing.

With my plans in place and the household informed, I grumpily undertook the requisite week of media deprivation. I quickly discovered my mobile phone was a problem. For a device I spend half my life trying to find when I need it, it felt uncomfortably handy when I didn’t want it. While I couldn’t switch it off, [§] I could relocate it to a nearby room (something I plan to continue doing). With my phone out of reach and apps keeping me focused, my time on my computer was more productive. I also zipped through my to-do list efficiently and finished some projects lingering in my backlog.

Bookless and Bored

Not all my results were rosy. For example, I felt left out when my spouse and child watched television while I tidied up again (apparently, that supply IS inexhaustible). While I hardly missed games and television, losing some family time due to an undesired obligation was difficult. I also missed my reading time. Putting aside a great book (Lulu Allison’s The Salt Lick ) was tough but receiving THREE more books in the mail that I also wanted to read (including Sarah Tinsley’s just released debut novel, The Shadows We Cast ) felt unfair. The occasional boredom here wasn’t great, nor was having the time to dwell on it helpful. But I have to say, heading to bed instead of fuming was a good solution.

An Unexpected Twist

Ultimately, the promised boost in creativity never occurred, because my grudging efforts ended with deprivation. I could not summon any enthusiasm for hobbies, new or old. Afterwards, I struggled with understanding why I’d been so angry, given that I’ve chosen on numerous occasions to put aside books and other media for weeks with far less difficulty. The Artist’s Way , as it may surprise you, did help here.

In week 3, Cameron explains that we should pay attention to our anger, because it tells us something. My subsequent interrogation here was illuminating. I realized that this assignment unwittingly resurfaced memories of being too exhausted to read while caring for my then newborn, which was a painful instance where I briefly lost “me” in motherhood. This contributed to my resistance, as lacking sufficient reason to set aside books kept me unmotivated. Exploring the source of this reaction or looking for some way to make this exercise meaningful to me might have produced different results. Putting in a more since effort with the other activities, too, may have helped.

One of bigger takeaways of this week is that The Artist’s Way might benefit from an update that modernizes it in general and specifically brings it in line with Cameron’s current thinking. I found the more recent descriptions of media deprivation more appealing as they avoided hyperbole and provide more guidance. As for me, media deprivation proved to be more of trade off than a trade up, but I still learned things about myself (eg, buy-in is critical for me). Knowing what I do now, I’m seriously considering giving this another try, as I’d like to see whether I finally reap those rewards.

TLDR: Trying new things is hard, especially with a bad attitude. Staying positive and finding purpose in doing things differently might help.

Author: Rita E. Gould: anartfulsequenceofwords

Writer. Reader. Editor. View all posts by Rita E. Gould: anartfulsequenceofwords

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elena’s Substack

The Artist's Way: Chapter 1

Dear friends,

Welcome to our first weekly check-in.

We have made it through our first week of The Artist’s Way ! Many struggles have been encountered along the way — staggeringly long train delays, crazy work schedules, the general busyness of life in our twenties — but we have arrived, and we are so very excited to share this first official episode of our podcast journeying through Julia Cameron’s guide to reigniting our innate creativity.

In the first chapter of The Artist’s Way , we recover a sense of safety.

In The Artist’s Way , Julia Cameron encourages three practices: daily morning pages, a weekly artist’s date, and a weekly check-in to evaluate your progress. While you can absolutely conduct your weekly check-in with just yourself, we’re holding our check-ins together — to keep ourselves accountable, to encourage each other, and frankly, because we think it’ll be quite fun!

We hope you’ll enjoy following along with us, regardless of whether or not now is the right time for you to journey through The Artist’s Way — and if you have decided to pick up Julia Cameron’s book, we can’t wait to hear how your first week has gone!

This is what our week has looked like.

Elena’s morning pages update, week one:

My experience with the morning pages this week has been — shall we say —mixed. I have (previously) prided myself on my long-running morning pages tradition, which I started perhaps six or seven years ago, before Julia Cameron was ever on my radar. I found journaling by hand tedious; I wanted to let my thoughts race across a page and keep my fingers moving across the keyboard, no matter what. So, I started keeping a Word document for every month of the year. Nearly every day, I would open up the document, note the date and the place I was, and start pouring out whatever was in my brain onto the page. Key words here: nearly every day.

I didn’t think the jump from nearly every day to every day would feel so difficult! I was surprised by how much I felt like I was slogging through the pages, and I missed a day entirely — and morning pages became more like afternoon or evening pages. So! My resolution this week is to do my morning pages (1) daily, and (2) in the actual mornings. More on that in the episode!

Additionally, I unfortunately made a fairly abysmal effort at actually completing Julia’s exercises in the first chapter. I did have the wildly embarrassing experience of completing one of her assignments — to write “I am a brilliant and prolific [insert type of creative you are]” ten times, which prompted “blurts” that I am attempting to replace with “affirmations.” There is nothing like having to say something exceptionally positive about yourself to remind your brain of all the things about which you are insecure!

Joy’s morning pages update, week one:

I’m afraid my morning pages report this week is rather grim. I was down South for teaching in London, and between various train delays (more on that in the podcast!) resulting in very late nights, I got out of routine. In general, I find it hard to keep up healthy habits when traveling, which is something I’m going to think about more deeply this week as the upcoming semester involves a fair amount of back and forth between Scotland and England, and I want to find ways to do that that are sustainable. All this to say, I’m afraid I only managed two morning pages this week.

Mea culpa, Julia, Elena, et al!

On the happier side, I’ve done two things to motivate myself to do morning pages : I have a new cute little notebook and I got myself a fountain pen! It is funny the little things that keep you motivated, isn’t it? The longer I go in the discipline of writing, the more I believe that I am not above Pavlovian motivations to stay in good habits. If I associate writing with things I like (yummy tea, pretty notebook, pleasing pen), I do them. Simple as! I saw Emma (one of the readers on my Substack) talk about a website that sends you little badges for doing your daily exercises. Whatever it takes!

What has been fruitful for me in this week’s chapter has been thinking about my “monsters” and “champions” of my artistic self. I feel mildly bad writing about the monsters because, for the most part, I actually don’t bear them any ill will, but it was helpful to identify where I picked up negative messages about my capacities, or what things were worth pursuing, or what to do when you come against things like nepotism. For more on that note, take a listen to our first episode!

Consider this your first check-in, too!

If you’ve started The Artist’s Way this week, or plan to start the first chapter, we hope you’ll consider this your weekly check-in too! How are your morning pages going? What did you do for your artist’s date? What did you find frustrating, or exciting?

And, on a practical note: our podcast should very shortly be available on Spotify, Apple Music, etc. Hooray!

Elena & Joy

Ready for more?

Why Everyone You Know Has Read “the Artist’s Way”—and 5 Things You Never Knew About the Author

When I finally gave the The Artist's Way a chance, more than a decade later, it (shockingly) lived up to the hype. It was like therapy and a brain reboot and a writer's retreat, all in one very structured, prescriptive package. Short version: The book takes you through a 12-week program of journaling exercises and other specific "assignments," including the hallmark of her system: daily "morning pages"—where you write three pages by hand the minute you wake up, reputedly to clear out the mental cobwebs and get your creativity flowing—and weekly "artist's dates" that you have to go on by yourself.

If this is all sounding familiar to you, it's because you probably have at least two friends who have read the book and done the program—and begged you to do it, too. (Guilty.) But, as much as her method is talked about, Cameron herself is somewhat of a mystery, or at least a rare breed: a publicity-shy self-help guru.

More than 25 years and 4 million copies later, Cameron's book is still very much in the zeitgeist, with love letters from The New Yorker (score), as well as odes from people who despise her actual writing (from The Cut: " This terrible self-help book is actually making me a better artist "). When even your haters are helping you sell books, you've got something special—but what is it?

Here are 5 things you probably didn't know about Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way .

1. She was married to Martin Scorsese

Even more surprising: She met him on assignment for nudie mag Oui, according to a Cameron profile The New York Times published this weekend . (Hey, it was the '70s!) They were only married for about a year, but have a daughter together, Domenica.

2. And then there was Andy Warhol

Warhol escorted Cameron to the premiere of Scorsese's New York, New York— made during her marriage (and breakup) with the director—and described her in his diary as a “lush,” according to her 2006 memoir Floor Sample . Later, trying to get treatment for alcoholism, she says she sought help from a doctor who told her she's just a “sensitive young woman.” ( Sounds familiar .)

3. Her fan club is full of famous faces

The Times story name-checks everyone from Alicia Keys to author Patricia Cornwell and productivity guru Tim Ferriss . And Elizabeth Gilbert says that without The Artist's Way , there would be no Eat Pray Love.

4. She reads no newspapers or social media

Yeah, Cameron was "unplugging" way before it became a millennial rallying cry. " Media deprivation " is a weeklong practice if you're doing The Artist's Way program, the idea being that if you limit the flow of ideas into your brain, you'll make room for ideas to pop up from your brain. The Times reports that an assistant runs her Twitter and Instagram accounts, so that Cameron can do low-grade "deprivation" all the time.

5. She still does Artist's Way exercises—and she lives exactly where you imagine she would

Yes, Cameron does her morning pages every day—and an exercise in her book inspired her to move across the country. After decades in Manhattan, Cameron now lives in "a spare adobe house in Santa Fe, overlooking an acre of scrub and the Sangre de Cristo mountain range," according to The New York Times (because of course she does). The move west came after she did an exercise from her book, where you list 25 things you love. “I wrote juniper, sage brush, chili, mountains and sky and I said, ‘This is not the Chrysler Building,’” she told The Times .

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The Artist’s Way Summary

1-Sentence-Summary: The Artist’s Way is an all-time, self-help classic, helping you to reignite your inner artist, recover your creativity and let the divine energy flow through you as you create your art.

Favorite quote from the author:

Audio Summary

Listen to the audio of this summary with a free reading.fm account*:

The Artist’s Way is a classic example of someone choosing themselves . Long before Amazon was around and self-publishing became standard practice, Julia Cameron self-published this book after it was turned down by a publisher. It picked up steam fast and so in 1992, was published again by what today is called The Penguin Group .

It outlines a 12-week course to help you spark the light of your inner artist again, even if you haven’t created much art since doodling stick figures in second grade.

Here are my 3 favorite lessons to help you find back to the artist’s way:

Write Morning Pages to freely let your creativity flow.
If you feel stuck, ask other people for prompts.
Think of yourself as a gardener, who takes care of ideas.

Ready to sing, dance, doodle, draw, paint, spray or whatever you used to love way back when you were an artist (=kid)? Time to reignite!

If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.

Lesson 1: Give your creativity the chance to run freely by writing Morning Pages.

Creativity, much like most other things which are confused for being the result of pure talent , is a skill you can practice like any other. Real artists, real musicians, real writers, they don’t lie around nine months of the year, waiting for inspiration to strike, and once it hits they jump up, write for 90 days straight and then hand in yet another bestseller .

They just show up to practice their creativity. A little bit. Every day. Performance ebbs and flows, as it does in most other aspects of life. But over time, their creative accomplishments compound.

However, if you’re just starting out, you won’t have the fierce determination of a long-term writer, like Steven Pressfield, who soldiers through hours of writing every day .

A good way to start slowly, but steadily is to write what Julia Cameron calls Morning Pages. First thing in the morning, sit down, let your thoughts wander and just write down what comes to mind . Make it a page or two, nothing big, start small.

See this as meditation – a way to just let your creativity flow without building barriers around it. Do this for a week and watch as magical things start to unfold.

Lesson 2: If you have writer’s, singer’s or painter’s block, just let other people give you prompts.

I love coming up with headlines for new articles. The scary part is what comes afterwards: writing the article. Even for someone who’s written half a million (that’s 500,000!) words in 2016, starting with a blank page is still daunting.

And I’m no exception. World-class writers struggle with this. A great tip from Seth Godin is to write like you talk. That helps, because nobody gets talker’s block .

Julia Cameron has another great idea and it works for any kind of block: writer’s block, singer’s block, painter’s block, you name it. It’s as simple as it is efficient: let other people give you prompts .

Go to a friend, family member, or ask your audience: What do you want me to write about? What song should I sing? What motif should I paint?

And then do just that. It can be wonderfully liberating to not have to think about what to create for a while, and once you’re done, you’ll be in an entirely different place, ready to take on what’s next!

Lesson 3: Ideas are already out there – as an artist it’s merely your job to take good care of them and watch them grow.

Michelangelo didn’t create David. He said he found him. Isn’t that humble? One of the world’s greatest artists and he takes zero credit. Just says he found the idea and happened to be the one chiseling away at that block of stone at the right time to make it happen.

But this is more than humility. It’s a tool. The minute you stop thinking of yourself as an idea generator and instead see yourself as a vessel that ideas just happen to flow through as you find them out in the world, you take all the creative pressure off.

A gardener doesn’t create a tree. A gardener plants a seed and then he takes good care of it, hoping it’ll one day bloom and turn into a big, beautiful tree. Being a gardener of ideas is all you have to do as an artist.

Find them, take care of them, help them grow and watch what happens. It’s quite often in these situations, where you give up control, that the universe conspires to present you with great opportunities.

Be a good gardener, okay?

The Artist’s Way Review

The Artist’s Way was probably one of the first self-help books for artists. I didn’t know about it until recently, but I instantly saw why it was such a big deal at the time – the ideas are transformative. Julia really takes the pressure off being an artist. Nowadays, we often think we have to make a full-time living in a creative way, just because we can. But often it’s only thanks to the creative freedom we have because we don’t pay the bills with our art that we really make something remarkable . This is a great reminder of that.

Who would I recommend The Artist’s Way summary to?

The 23 year old project manager, who has lots of different things to coordinate and could use a creative outlet to manage her ideas, the 45 year old hobby writer, who spends more time staring at blank pages, than actually writing, and anyone who thinks they have to come up with something super creative to justify calling themselves an artist.

Last Updated on August 6, 2022

Niklas Göke

Niklas Göke is an author and writer whose work has attracted tens of millions of readers to date. He is also the founder and CEO of Four Minute Books, a collection of over 1,000 free book summaries teaching readers 3 valuable lessons in just 4 minutes each. Born and raised in Germany, Nik also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration & Engineering from KIT Karlsruhe and a Master’s Degree in Management & Technology from the Technical University of Munich. He lives in Munich and enjoys a great slice of salami pizza almost as much as reading — or writing — the next book — or book summary, of course!

*Four Minute Books participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising commissions by linking to Amazon. We also participate in other affiliate programs, such as Blinkist, MindValley, Audible, Audiobooks, Reading.FM, and others. Our referral links allow us to earn commissions (at no extra cost to you) and keep the site running. Thank you for your support.

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$100 Million Gift Paves Way for Affordable Artist Housing in San Francisco

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A computer rendering of a 17-story building, on a street with people and cars.

A new San Francisco development that would provide affordable housing and studio space for artists took its first step toward completion Friday.

Buoyed by a $100 million gift from an anonymous donor, two nonprofits, Artists Hub on Market and Mercy Housing of California , filed plans with the city for 1687 Market St., the current site of the McRoskey Mattress Co. showroom.

The plans call for a 17-story building with 100 affordable apartments for artists, as well as studio space, practice rooms, a community center and a 99-seat black box theater. Though the construction price is not finalized, the gift was “based around the initial estimate” for such a project, according to Randall Kline , the president of Artists Hub on Market.

Kline said the project was inspired by the ongoing exodus of artists priced out of San Francisco as rents have skyrocketed and spaces closed.

“When I came to San Francisco almost 50 years ago, I was an aspiring artist, and I could live quite cheaply here,” he said.

“I think everyone’s in agreement that this would be a really great thing for the benefit of artists and the cultural life of San Francisco,” said Kline, who as founder and former director of SFJAZZ shepherded construction of the $64 million SFJAZZ Center, which opened in 2013 at Franklin and Fell Streets, six blocks from the proposed housing.

According to Kline, both Mayor London Breed and San Francisco’s planning department have so far been enthusiastic about the project, known simply as 1687 Market. The project would be fast-tracked by Assembly Bill 2011 , approved in 2022, which encourages affordable housing on commercially zoned land.

The hope is to begin construction in late 2025, with completion sometime in 2027. Overseeing the project is San Francisco architect Mark Cavagnero , whose projects include the SFJAZZ Center as well as the nearby San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

It is “far too soon” to provide an estimated monthly rent for space at 1687 Market, Kline said. Applications for artist housing in San Francisco are typically subject to a lottery, though that process has at times been onerous .

As an inspiration for 1867 Market, Kline cited New York City’s Manhattan Plaza, an artist building that has been home to many jazz musicians, as well as singer Alicia Keys, writer Tennessee Williams, actor Timothée Chalamet and others.

“There’s a building older than that, also, called Westbeth,” Kline said, referring to the downtown New York building that has housed jazz guitarist John Scofield, visual artist Nam June Paik, choreographer Merce Cunningham and actor Robert de Niro.

The existing McRoskey Mattress Co. building would be demolished to make way for the new housing. Building owner Robin McRoskey Azevedo sold the mattress company, which was founded in 1899, to Fresno-based Pleasant Mattress in 2018. In its factory loft, the building has hosted events with the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, for which Azevedo is a board member.

The project is coming about thanks to a combination of AB 2011, support from the city and a central location, Kline said, as well as his decision last year to step down from SFJAZZ . The anonymous donor, meanwhile, was crucial.

“I mean, what a gift to the city,” Kline said. “This is really a person who doesn’t care about notoriety, but does care about the artistic and cultural life of the city.”

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Early horses list and odds for the 2024 Preakness Stakes

In the 2024 Kentucky Derby , Mystik Dan defied the odds and emerged victorious by a nose in a heart-stopping photo finish. This triumph has positioned Mystik Dan as the frontrunner for the upcoming Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the prestigious Triple Crown .

The Preakness Stakes , a race steeped in history and tradition, is set to take place on May 18 at the iconic Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. The draw for this momentous event is scheduled for May 13, marking a crucial step for the preparation in the journey towards the title.

Looking back at the previous year's Preakness Stakes, it was a memorable victory for National Treasure's jockey John Velazquez, who jockeyed Fierceness in the 2024 Kentucky Derby. Despite entering the race with 3-1 odds, National Treasure defied expectations and claimed his first Preakness Stakes victory, a testament to the unpredictable nature of this event.

With just over a week to go, the anticipation for the 2024 Preakness Stakes is building. Here are the early odds for the race, adding to the excitement around this prestigious event.

Horse racing: Sierra Leone jockey Tyler Gaffalione could face discipline for Kentucky Derby ride

2024 Preakness Stakes horses and early odds

Early odds for potential horses ahead of the draw listed below via CBS Sports:

Horse: Muth | Early odds: 10-11
Horse: Mystik Dan | Early odds: 3-1
Horse: Tuscan Gold | Early odds: 5-1
Horse: Imagination | Early odds: 5-1
Horse: Just Steel | Early odds: 10-1
Horse: Seize the Gray | Early odds: 10-1
Horse: Copper Tax | Early odds: 16-1
Horse: Uncle Heavy | Early odds: 20-1
Horse: Informed Patriot | Early odds: 20-1
Horse: Mugatu | Early odds: 33-1

Preakness Stakes 2024: TV, streaming and where to watch

When: Saturday, May 18
Coverage starts : 10:30 a.m. ET
Post time: 6:50 p.m. ET
Where: Pimlico Race Course, Baltimore, Maryland
Cable TV: NBC
Streaming: Peacock ; YouTube TV; fuboTV

How to watch: Watch the 2024 Kentucky Derby with a Peacock subscription

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Artist Virginia Overton Takes Us Inside the Domino Sugar Sign Transformation

The sculptor and installation artist has given a brooklyn icon a new life..

An artist studio where a large industrial sculpture is being built

Earlier this month the celebrated artist Virginia Overton debuted Untitled (reverse virgule) (2024), a major new work at the Refinery at Domino, the former Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg Brooklyn. Artist commissions are tricky and often fail to resonate, but this new piece incorporates Overton’s themes about American industry and focus on materiality in impressive ways. Is this work too good for Williamsburg? We caught up with the artist to dance around that question and hear more about the project below.

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How did this project come about? How long has it been in the works?

I’ve been in conversation with the art team at Two Trees for several years, but the commission really took shape around May of 2023. At that time, after many engaging conversations, we all agreed that the Domino Sugar sign from 1967, the third in the series on the site, would comprise the materials for the project. The final placement of the work in The Refinery lobby was determined at this time as well. The lobby in the building is central to the entire campus of the former Domino factory, which is a public space and available to everyone. Since that time, the fabrication of this artwork has been the major focus of my day-to-day studio practice.

Could you take me through your process on this project? Did you know what you wanted to do with the sign right away?

My artmaking practice is often driven by specific sites and access to particular materials. For this commission, I knew that many months of the project would be spent disassembling the monolithic sign bolt by bolt and carefully salvaging each component to create the work for the lobby at The Refinery. The slow and methodical process of handling the materials and deconstructing the sign allowed me to familiarize myself with its components and think about how this material bounty could be used in a new site-related installation.

A lobby with a large yellow sculptural sign

You really wouldn’t be able to tell what these letters were without being told. Was that one of your goals, to abstract them completely?

I am interested in utilizing found material that may have lost its original use value, giving it a new purpose, a new way of existing. In this effort, the history of past use is embedded in the material and thus the artwork. Each scratch and rust spot occurred during a specific time, and the holes of varying sizes once served a particular purpose; these characteristics are intentionally incorporated into the overall design of the installation. I wanted to make a work that could stand on its own and be enhanced by the accrual of the sign’s long existence in the urban environment. The varied understanding of the artwork increases if the viewer is clued into where the materials originated. However, it is not necessary to know every detail about the materials’ past.

The potential for the materials to extend beyond a commercial advertisement and become an abstract wall relief is essential to me. The new “Domino Sugar” sign installed on the exterior of the newly renovated building and my sculpture in the lobby speak to one another. They provide a relationship between the old and the new; much like how the building itself was renovated with some new bricks brought in to repair old bits that were missing or damaged. There is great potential in the old and new existing side-by-side, informing and supporting one another.

This work returns to other themes you’ve explored surrounding American industry. What attracts you to these kinds of subjects?

I am attracted to the sheer potential of materials, especially discarded materials because there is still so much use left in them even when the original purpose is gone. The Domino Sugar sign was made of high-quality enamel and stainless steel. These materials have a long lifespan, and I am glad to have been able to extend their usage into this new context. I’ve always used and reused materials in my work, even to the point of disassembling existing sculptures to make new work. In some cases, such as during an architectural renovation, materials that don’t work as initially intended can be salvaged and utilized in a new way.

The sign feels a little like it’s been mounted on the wall like taxidermy. Is that reading way off base?

The work is an abstraction, so I am sure there are and will continue to be many different interpretations of it. This varied way of viewing is exactly why I made the work the way that I did. I want each viewer to experience it in their own way, from their own perspective.

What are your general feelings about Williamsburg Brooklyn?

It’s a lively neighborhood that has profoundly evolved in the recent past. The skyline and landscape have changed tremendously since I first moved here in the early aughts. There is a regenerative energy that people engage in when they inhabit space and re-envision architecture and the urban landscape. I’ve spent many hours along the waterfront in Williamsburg enjoying a unique view of the city. It is wonderful to now have a work situated in a place that is open to the public, that I know so well, and that fostered me when I moved here over twenty years ago.

Artist Virginia Overton Takes Us Inside the Domino Sugar Sign Transformation

SEE ALSO : Will Keen On Playing Vladimir Putin On Broadway in ‘Patriots’

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The Relentless Patriot

For 30 years Scott LoBaido has been a voice, fighting with you and for you on so many issues, promoting and celebrating Old Glory, those who serve, and our great American way, using art, hea... Read all For 30 years Scott LoBaido has been a voice, fighting with you and for you on so many issues, promoting and celebrating Old Glory, those who serve, and our great American way, using art, heart, and passion. Now it is time to tell his story, the good, the bad and the ugly that got... Read all For 30 years Scott LoBaido has been a voice, fighting with you and for you on so many issues, promoting and celebrating Old Glory, those who serve, and our great American way, using art, heart, and passion. Now it is time to tell his story, the good, the bad and the ugly that got him to where he is today, advocating as a giant voice for you, the American People, throu... Read all

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Is buying vinyl bad for the planet - and what can be done about it?

Rather than make records out of regular PVC pellets, over the last few years it has become possible to use renewable sources such as cooking oil or wood pulp - artists including Enter Shikari say this is the way forward.

Arts and entertainment correspondent @SkyKatieSpencer

Sunday 19 May 2024 03:38, UK

Taylor Swift's new album helped fuel the highest weekly vinyl sales in 30 years - but is our rediscovered love of owning records environmentally reckless?

PVC (poly vinyl chloride), the plastic from which records have traditionally been made, isn't great for the planet, and concerns have also been raised over packaging as vinyl sales have risen in recent years.

Rou Reynolds, frontman of chart-topping rock band Enter Shikari, believes leading artists need to shoulder some responsibility to "push forward" change.

"The bigger you are as an artist, the more influence you have, the more you can push things forward and accelerate progression," he says.

In an interview with Billboard in March, Billie Eilish criticised how "wasteful it is" when "some of the biggest artists in the world" make "40 different vinyl packages", each with "a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more".

"Its reasonable criticism," says Reynolds, "but I think it'll basically dissipate as soon as it becomes the standard to use BioVinyl, for instance - that will really take away the possibility of criticism".

Rather than make records out of regular PVC pellets, over the last few years it has become possible to use renewable sources such as cooking oil or wood pulp.

Enter Shikari at Slam Dunk Festival North in Leeds in 2023. Pic: Graham Finney/Cover Images via AP

"Traditional vinyl is an oil-based product," Reynolds explains. "No one really wants to support the extraction of any more fossil fuels."

Enter Shikari now insist all their records are made using BioVinyl, and Reynolds is optimistic that if more artists make demands about what their records are made from, it would become the new norm.

"A lot of independent artists, like myself, we can light these fires, then it spreads and before you know it, it will become the industry standard."

'The advances are incredible'

Leading voices within vinyl production want the music industry to listen.

"Along with the Vinyl Alliance and the Vinyl Records Manufacturers Association, we're looking at the whole manufacturing chain," says Karen Emanuel, chief executive of Key Production, the UK's largest broker for physical music production.

"I've been in the business probably about 35 years and the advances that have been made, it's incredible. A lot of the big plastics companies, for PVC they've found a way replacing the fossil fuel elements [which] could mean as much as a 90% reduction in the carbon footprint of the vinyl."

The catch, at the moment, is the cost.

"It's a bit more expensive to manufacture but if enough people manufacture with it then the price point will come down... it's something that we're really trying to push people towards."

Would fans be happy to pay more for a greener product?

Lee Jeffries, from Sonic Wax, in Leicestershire

Lee Jefferies, the owner of Leicestershire-based vinyl pressing plant Sonic Wax Pressing, is such a big vinyl lover, he spent £100,000 buying the world's most valuable Motown record.

"Ultimately everything works from retail back," he says "And with retail prices already being quite high on vinyl it's very hard for people to have the extra money to buy biodegradable vinyl."

But a recent survey conducted by Key Production found more than two thirds (69%) of vinyl buyers indicated they would be encouraged to buy more if the records were made with a reduced environmental impact.

The findings also revealed that the vast majority, 77%, of regular vinyl customers are willing to pay a premium for reduced impact products, signalling a significant market demand for eco-friendly alternatives.

Is there a bigger problem?

Ultimately, either the consumer, artists or labels will have to shoulder the cost if vinyl is to be made more sustainably.

But while a big old hunk of PVC might feel like the least green option, are we getting ourselves in a spin when we should also be looking in another direction?

Figures from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) put global vinyl sales for last year at about 80 million - using the IMPALA indepdent music companies association's music emissions calculator, that works out at producing around 156k tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Read more: UK vinyl sales at highest level since 1990 Vinyl added to typical shopping basket used in inflation calculation

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If you compare that to streaming, with Spotify alone - responsible for about a third of the market - its own estimates for its global carbon emissions were 280k tonnes last year, with vast amounts of electricity being used to power its data storage servers.

For Enter Shikari's Reynolds, the potential to make vinyl greener is exciting.

"It has the same quality, the same appearance, you really wouldn't notice the difference, which is incredible," he says. "I think it speaks to, you know, a lot of the time people think that the transition society is about to go through, we think we're going to lose luxuries... but I think this is just an example of why that's not the case.

"You know, all it takes is some thought and some adaptation, and then some adoption... it's super exciting."

Perhaps now it's time for the music industry to take note.

‘Oh, Canada’ Star Richard Gere Says ‘Artists Will Find a Way to Communicate’ in the Face of Oppression

Cannes 2024: Gere, Uma Thurman and director Paul Schrader talked about inspiration and impact at the press conference for their new film

“Oh, Canada” premiered to a four-minute standing ovation at the 77th Cannes Film Festival late Friday night, signifying a defining moment for legendary director Paul Schrader. For his latest film, the “First Reformed” filmmaker adapted the novel “Foregone” by the late Russell Banks about an American man who flees to Canada during the 1968 Vietnam War draft.

When Schrader was confronted at the Cannes press conference on Saturday for the movie about his advice for young filmmakers protesting for their right to freedom of expression in countries that don’t always allow it, he said, “You only have what someone else doesn’t have: Your own narrative.”

Actor Jacob Elordi, absent from Cannes, portrays the draft dodger in 1968 sequences that are weaved together with his older self, played by Richard Gere, in 2023. The film explores confessions to lies buried for decades and the confrontations of unjust wars by heroes who don’t always believe they did the right thing along the way.

At the press conference, Richard Gere added to his director’s comments by noting, “Artists will find a way to communicate. It’s not a question of money, it’s a question of having something to say.”

Getting into character wasn’t a difficult process for Gere, it seems, as he channeled his real-life experiences to portray a man confessing his truths while staring death in the face.

“My father passed away a few months before Paul [Schrader] came to me to make this project,” the actor said. “He was in a wheelchair and he was clearly on his last days. But his mind was coming in and out of many different realities and many levels of consciousness. I think that’s what I related to pretty much in the script. I wanted to capture that for this movie.”

The first collaboration between Gere and Schrader since 1980’s “American Gigolo” made the former a movie star, “Oh, Canada” also stars Uma Thurman as Gere’s long-suffering wife. The “Pulp Fiction” actress praised Schrader’s immense knowledge of film: “His film literacy and his leadership is palpable and a pleasure.”

Though Elordi was absent from the press conference as well (he’s shooting Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein”), his presence was still felt. Even if Elordi and Gere don’t look alike, especially considering Elordi’s towering height of 6’5″ and Gere’s 5’10” frame, that didn’t stop Gere from praising the young Australian talent.

“We had a reading of the script. He reminded me very much of my son, which was great. He has an incredible warmth to him and a humility to him. He’s genuinely sweet and he works hard and comes to work hard.” He laughed, “I’m much taller than him.”

Thurman, always eager to compliment her costars, noted, “I did notice Jake captured the old Richard Gere strut.”

Bringing the conversation back to the themes of “Oh, Canada,” Schrader was asked if he intends to reveal his own secrets later in life. “I suppose you don’t know until that moment comes. When you say ‘I’ve lived this lie long enough. Before I die, I’d like to tell the truth,’” he replied.

The press conference also turned to the impact of Schrader and his ilk — the filmmakers who defined the 1970s and 80s cinema like Martin Scorsese, George Lucas and fellows Cannes competitor Francis Ford Coppola. When asked if he thinks they changed cinema, Schrader replied simply, “Yes.”

“Oh, Canada” is currently seeking distribution.