The Artist's Way Wednesdays

On Wednesdays I am going to be sharing with you as I read through the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. I originally started this blog to document my progress through the book. I was going through it by myself and was having a hard time staying on task. I asked several friends but no one was as excited as I was. I decided to continue working at my own pace BUT then a couple of weeks ago I found a woman who was interested. Tah Dah! I am very excited to be meeting together every other Tuesday to discuss the book. I will share with you what I have discovered or made recently. Feel free to follow along with us.

The Introduction: She discusses the lay out of the book. The daily morning pages and artist's date. Often times we want to be more creative but we simply don't know where to start. The author assigns morning pages as a way to unblock our creativity. For 15 minutes every morning I am supposed to write down anything that comes to mind. It can be what I need to do that today, what I am feeling, or a short story. It is completely up to me.

Cameron talks about how we have a censor. The censor is the voice we hear when we venture to do something creative. "You call that writing" "You won't be any good why try." "it's too late to start now."

In the morning pages she encourages the writer to identify that voice. She asks the question: What negative experiences have we had with others that has stifled our creativeness? These experiences only serve to strengthen our censor voice. By writing about these experiences we are able to be more aware and in being aware we take away the power of that voice.

"We tend to think, or at least fear that creative dreams are egotistical, something that God wouldn't approve of for us." Julia Cameron (our censor voice can even parade itself as spiritual)

Another part of the assignment is to go on artist dates with myself. This is a time to refresh myself and feed my creativity. "Spending time in solitude with your artist child is essential to self-nurturing. Our creativity will use this time to confront us, to confide in us, to bond with us, and to plan." Julia Cameron
She encourages the participant to be present to themselves in these moments, using their senses to take in the moment. "Art is born in attention. The artist's language is a sensual one, a language of felt experience." Julia Cameron