I’m starting this in earnest. Now that the summer is here, it’s more conducive to being out and about on artist dates and generally less oppressive to my mood than winter.

The thing that’s tricky about the Artist’s Way is that the book is sort of all over the place. It’s really hard to decipher the actual activities from the reading. For example, there will be a heading like, “This Week’s Exercises” except then sprinkled throughout the chapter in other places she’ll give directions to do things – like, “Write down all your blurts” or “Read through these principles every day”. And generally it’s a little incoherent and not a strict “process” per se. Not that her ideas aren’t great – I find myself wanting to highlight every other sentence. But rather than a step by step process, it seems more just like a general book of affirmations arbitrarily split into chapters and exercises.

I’ve also already started this like three times, so I have a couple of lists already of my artistic enemies, my letter to the editor on behalf of myself, my other lives, etc. So the start is a little anticlimactic. I don’t know why I haven’t been able to keep up with it – I think the Artist Date always foils me. But like I said, now that the weather is warm I can see myself getting out by myself more.

So if all goes according to plan, I’ll be ready to quit my job and open a gallery by September ;)