Work through The Artist's Way (Julia Cameron)

i read through some of my entries and am thinking about adding more soon.

I started The Artist’s Way about 8 years ago and have worked through the book about 8 times! Every time something new comes up, releasing old blockages and making room for more a more creative approach to living.

It’s taking me two weeks to properly get through each chapter – even 3 sometimes but it means I’m doing more of the exercises and thinking things through properly instead of doing each week poorly.

Week 7 took me two weeks, yet I feel I’ve really done well with it. I did exercises 1,2,5,7 and 10. A thoroughly good selection. I loved the collage particularly and have it up in pride of place in my sewing room. I’m looking forward to showing it to Richard this evening.

I’m still loving the morning pages. Love, love, love them. This week again I was a little vague about my artists date. It was either my cycle to Mile End, or Highgate. Possibly both. Both were fabulous and energising, empowering and so much fun. They’re helping to put my strong woman clearly in focus.

Money has been a constant issue this week. So learning about my own strength is wonderful. I feel very alive as I begin this new week.

This week is a ‘reading deprivation’ week according to week 4’s chapter. I didn’t think I read much these days – but I’ve been surprised at how tricky it is not to read anything at all. I’ve extended the deprivation to non-structured TV or Radio as I think I use them as background static just as much, the radio perhaps more.

A long bus journey on Friday became a business planning session and I’ve enjoyed the extra head space a lot. Not creative necessarily but interesting. The author says eventually I’ll run out of things to do and get playing instead. My to-do list however is pretty endless. Still I’ve gained an insight into my use of time and avoidance tactics that alone has been very worthwhile.

I didn’t get to the reading deprivation exercise in the book until Thursday. So I’m officially extending this week till next Sunday. It gives me two weeks to do the exercises and this is a hectic fortnight so that’s very helpful.

I have done my morning pages every day which I’m loving! Surely nothing this enjoyable can be good for me?

I’ve worked through The Artist’s Way once as part of a group. I really want to get back to writing Morning Pages but I’ve just been blocked, I guess. All I’ve been doing is working long hours in tech support lately.

I had begun going through The Artist’s Way about eight years ago, and then stopped. It’s hard to find the time to do the Morning Pages, and to set up the Artist’s Dates. But it is so very worth it! Working through the Artist’s Way is inspiring, and helps me focus on my creative goals.

I design and create one-of-a-kind jewelry, paint, knit, crochet, and do a lot of needlework. I also like to read, and to cook. I find cooking to be a very creative endeavor, and quite rewarding. I am looking forward to using my inborn gifts more and more every day because of doing the Artist’s Way.

Morning pages 7/7
This seemed easy to me – other than keeping my eyes open at 5:30 and focusing on the page. It threw up a few intresting points and was fun to do. Mainly all that vapid writing gave me a chance to focus on creativity and the pursuit of it, first thing in the morning which was really useful.

Artists date – YES but only just.
This was extremely revealing. I found it almost imposible to set time aside for something frivoulous (yes even now I’m using negative words unintentionaly). When I twigged just how I was viewing it I got up at 6:30 on Sunday and made myself get on with it. But the guilt and the excuses were coming thick and fast. For a couple of hours enjoyable relaxing quilting this was more like restling a tiger. It’s obviously something I need to work on over the next 11 weeks quite hard.

All kinds of revalations came from the excersises but I’m going to put those thoughts on LJ locked to my fellow Artists. Have any of you read the section at the back about groups working through the book together – The Sacred Circle?

Perhaps we can all use locked group posts on LJ to share anything we feel comfortable discussing from the course.

xx

Well, I have managaged to maintain my morning pages even though I did the Monday morning dash earlier on. I must admit though that I didn’t manage to read Week 2 yesterday so will have to do that this evening. I have another artists date lined up which again means visiting a gallery. Might do that today as there is a tom Philips exhibition down the road. I will also try to have another date though which involves doing or making something rather than a visiting and looking thing. I might dig out the old paints. Maybe do a sand painting – haven’t done one of them in years and the best thing about them is the fact that you have no idea how it is going to look until the sand is dry a few days later and you brush it off. (I’ll explain sand painting later)

The first week has been very interesting – 7/7 on morning pages, a couple of exercises and perhaps the first Artist Date in history that involved a fast get away?

Reading ahead to week 2 I have noticed the defintion of a “crazymaker” and the behaviour of yours truly over the last couple of decades match rather too closely. Let me aid my recovery then by apologising to everyone unreservedly.

Ok – Week 2, here we go …

I’m afraid I let the team down on Monday when I woke up late and didn’t manage to finish all my morning pages. But on Tuesday I did 6 pages – mainly because I decided that my book is too small, but this may also have been penance for my shoddy behaviour on Monday. Today, I wrote 3 A5 pages and I have decided that this is enough, unless I have more to say.

Some interesting thoughts have been coming out during the writing and affirmations – I have been thinking about people and occasions that I completely forgot about for years. It’s too early to say yet whether this will make a change for the better, but it certainly explains some negative associations that I have, not so much with art, but with success in general.

I have found the exercises for this week quite difficult. I don’t think I had that many critics of my creativity – as I remember, people generally didn’t focus on it at all, instead concentrating on my academic leanings. But maybe as the week continues I will go deeper into the past and remember different things.

For the exercise where you are supposed to try living one of your other dream lives, I am going to be Landed Gentry. This will involve light gardening, afternoon G&Ts, and hopefully a visit to a stately home of some kind.

I am undecided about my Artist’s Date as yet, although I will have to decide quickly or the week will be gone!