The Artists' Way

I and a group of friends have now moved onto Walking in this World. I did most of TAW, but not every single exercise. I definitely feel it’s improved my creativity.

Since I have already walked through The AW once, and since I want to focus on my upcoming travels and helping my mom through her surgery, I am going to move this to my done list. When the spring is really here, I will pick it back up and see this book through fresh eyes. I believe that once an artist breaks through, he/she is always walking the artist’s way. I have learned not to fight my morning pages and today I realized how far I have really come toward writing Don’t Talk to Strangers. I am encouraged, artistically, and know that I may have to move this book back to my list again at some point, but I am ready to set it aside for now.

I have already walked through this book, one chapter a week, once and I am on my second trek through it. After that, I don’t think I am going to go through it again for awhile. I tend to use reading about art as a way to avoid DOING art.

I just changed the goal to an Artist’s Way goal with more people on it. That way I’ll get to see more entries.

1. Morning Pages 7/7 – I wrote every single day, although the morning pages happened late in the day 3 times. I’m glad I made the effort to write daily though. This week I find myself writing action words in the morning pages instead of the rambling sentences that normally come out.

2. Artist Date. This didn’t quite happen the way that I had wanted it to. I had planned to take photos outdoors. First my camera battery was dead and I had to wait 2 days to get into the city to buy a new one. Then it was -30C so going outside to take the pictures didn’t really happen. My AD consisted of buying the camera battery and the childhood treat that was mentioned in one of this weeks tasks. The treat was fun at the beginning but then led to a 4 day long sugar binge. Not good.

3. Synchronicity. Yes, a few things have happened that probably fall into this category. A dilemma was unexpectedly solved. As soon as I mentioned it to someone, she said “Oh, I used to have the same problem. I can help you out for now.” Its a short term band-aid solution, but it works for now.
I also saw an interview with two people who created the movie “The Secret”. It seems to be all about synchronicity. I want to see it or read the book.
This week I got an email from my best friend about something “freaky” that happened to him. It really wasn’t freaky, it was synchronicity. I emailed him back to try to explain it from a different angle. I hope it made sense to him and didn’t sound crazy.

4. Other significant issues in my recovery – I threw out some old artwork that really wasn’t that good. I was hanging on to it simply because it had taken me a long time to create. I think I wanted it to be good art, so I kept it. It felt good to let go of it.
I have had a few good ideas come to me with little effort. I haven’t translated those ideas into reality/art yet though.

1. Morning Pages 7/7 (Although one day they turned out to be evening pages.)
One day I was writing, wondering when the Artist’s Way exercises would actually be about making art. I later read through all of the tasks in the book and realized that no one was going to tell me “Go make art now.” It was after that realization that I started to feel my first true urges to make art again.

2. Artist Date. Yes.
I went to three different art galleries on Tuesday. One of the shows was very inspiring. The artist worked in several different media. It made me feel hopeful that someone could be successful while having such a diverse body of work. I always used to feel that working in so many different types of art would work against me.
I find the Artist Dates relatively easy. I spend most of my time on my own these days, and I’m not working so I don’t have any difficulty time making time for the ADs.

3. Other changes I’ve noticed this week: I find that I’m reaching out and asking for help a little more than usual, and I’ve been rewarded each time I’ve asked.
The sign at the end of the “Rules of the Road” list: “Great Creator, I will take care of the quantity. You take care of the quality.” This idea is powerful for me. I keep reminding myself of it.
I picked up my pencil and sketched this week. It felt good.
I didn’t get through all of the tasks this week. I didn’t actually read the chapter or the tasks until Wednesday, so I was a bit behind. I will make sure to read the chapter on Sundays in the future.

1. Morning Pages 7/7
It was hard to write so much every day. Three pages is a lot more than I thought it would be. I feel like a lot of what I wrote was a negative rant. I guess its good to get that out.

2. Artist Date. Yes.
I did two things. One was inspired by Task #8 – Imaginary Lives. I listed one of my imaginary lives as being a super fancy cake decorator, so I bought some marzipan and food colouring and did a little bird sculpture with it. I liked playing with the marzipan altough I think it would help to have some little sculpting tools.
The other part of my Artist Date was when I took a walk to photograph the mountains which I can see on the horizon. The pictures didn’t turn out, but I enjoyed just standing there looking at the scenery.

3. I noticed that I am starting to become a little bit more patient with myself. I’ve been reminding myself that this is a learning process and that I don’t have to do everything perfectly all the time.

I started my Morning Pages on Nov 12th, so I’m only three days into the program. Everything that I’ve read so far makes sense to me so I have faith that the program will help me.
I’m currently working on my affirmations. Its hard to be confident about it, but I’m working on the assumption that if you say good things to yourself eventually you’ll start to believe it.

Wow. I am way behind.

Despite fighting my way to keeping up with doing MPs even while traveling, the week before last (20-26) was just a mess. I did 2/7. I don’t know what happened.

It’s been a fight to get back on track. I did 5.5/7 this past week (none of them first thing in the morning) and none of the exercises. I don’t even know what week of TAW I’m supposed to be on—I’ll have to go back in my notebook and see which exercises I did last.

I don’t know what’s going on. Resistance, I guess. I have forced myself to start doing the MPs again, because I think they are useful, even if they’re a little bit like brushing my teeth at the moment. (Something I never miss doing, but I don’t actually look forward to.)

In positive developments: I wrote my first short story in over 10 years, the first writing I’ve done with a new character and story in a long time. (I’ve been working on a novel for a while, spending too much time with one voice, I think.)

Week 6 Check-in

Morning Pages: 6/7. I spent one day traveling in the current airport hell. No time for writing.

Artist Date: Not really. I did go on a trip, but I was with people the whole time. Still, traveling always shakes things up for me.

Synchronicity: Little things. Wondering if so-and-so has made a movie recently and the next commercial is a movie trailer for so-and-so’s new movie, which I hadn’t heard a word about. The universe has not yet showered me with coincidences.

Other issues: I’m definitely wanting to write more! So if nothing else that makes doing this worth it.