Complete "The Artist's Way"

I’m just finishing up week 3, although I’m finding that this doesn’t really make a lot of sense as a “program” in the strict sense of the word. The exercises can feel a little silly at times, or confusing in the way they’re written. I’ve definitely been digging the morning pages though. As someone who journals pretty regularly, it’s not all that much of a revelation, but it definitely gives me a reason to wake up in the morning, and I find myself hearing my alarm and getting almost excited to grab my notebook and write. I still can’t quite figure out what it is that I’m supposed to be “finding” in the pages. Maybe just because I tend to be pretty introspective and I feel that I already know myself pretty darn well, so nothing very earth shattering has surfaced as a result of the morning pages. Still, it’s good practice and it’s at least allowing me to spend some time sorting out my feelings and attitudes about this process in particular.

Artist dates, on the other hand, don’t come as easily. I think and think and think about what I’m going to do for my artist date, and in my head it becomes too big of a deal and I then I freeze up in a panic about my options. Like right now I’m just writing this to avoid going out for my artist date because I just don’t know what to do.

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 ;)

I feel like I’ve started this a bunch of times and haven’t gotten anywhere. Summer is probably a good time to do it – it’s easier to get out and do things, like artist dates, since I don’t want to spend my life under blankets anymore. Twelve weeks is a long time though, a big commitment if I’m going to do it right. If I’m honest with myself, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to do it in just twelve weeks. It would be fine if I didn’t have things like work, weekend trips, fixing up the house, etc to worry about.

...in the week to get everything done. As a result I’m feeling like I’m slacking with this. I think a better way to deal with it isn’t necessarily week by week, but chapter by chapter. Instead of moving onto the next chapter prematurely, I’m going to make sure I complete all the tasks before I move on. That might mean that one chapter will take 3 weeks, but I feel that it’s important not to skip anything. So I guess that means I’m technically still on Week 1, since I haven’t even had an artist’s date yet!

Even though I half started this a few months ago, I’m officially starting this week! I just went through and wrote out some of the exercises for this week’s task list. Tomorrow I need to start back up with my artist pages (which I was pretty good with for a few weeks but then started sleeping too late!), and I need to go on an artist date.

I’ve already carved out two nights a week in my schedule for “craft time”, so I can use one of those nights to complete some of the tasks.

Looking forward to diving into this and gaining the courage to be more creative!