Sixteen of us join together this week to start on a journey toward creative recovery. By this time you will have read the Introduction and the sections on Basic Principles and Basic Tools in The Artist's Way, and you have made a decision to commit to the program Julia Cameron lays out. I hope by the time we arrive at the end of The Artist's Way (the book), the same sixteen will still be here, moving forward on The Artist's Way (a path to a richer creative life)!
Thanks for signing in and introducing yourselves last week. It's been a pleasure to reconnect with old friends and meet new ones. By joining this group, you have become a member of what Cameron calls a Sacred Circle. Remember that we gather here, in the author's words, "in the spirit of a sacred trust."
"Art is an act of the soul, not the intellect," she writes. "We are the carriers of the truth that spirit moves through us all.... We are meant to midwife dreams for one another. We cannot labor in place of one another, but we can support the labor that each must undertake to birth his or her art and foster it to maturity. By drawing and acknowledging the Sacred Circle...we invite a spirit of service to the highest good and a faith in the accomplishment of our own good in the midst of our fellows."
In that spirit, every Saturday morning I'll publish a new post to give those of us who are willing to do so a place to check in with one another as well as with ourselves.
One last word from Cameron: "The Sacred Circle is built on respect and trust.... The image is of the garden. Each plant has its name and its place.... Each bloom has its unique and irreplaceable beauty. Let our gardening hands be gentle ones. Let us not root up one another's ideas before they have time to bloom.... Let us never be hasty to judge, reckless in our urgency to force unnatural growth. Let there be, always, a place for the artist toddler to try, to falter, to fail, to try again..."
In this "pilgrimage home to ourselves," let us be gentle with one another, and let us especially be gentle with ourselves.
This Week's Comments:
After reading the introductory material, I'm interested to hear three things from you: 1) your reaction to Cameron's idea of the artist "forging a creative alliance, artist-to-artist, with the Great Creator," whomever or whatever you perceive that to be; 2) your experience at this point in your creative life of the internal "Censor" that "keeps up a constant stream of subversive remarks" about your creative potential; 3) what made you hesitate (if indeed you did) to sign the contract at the end of the Basic Tools chapter committing to writing morning pages, keeping artist's dates and completing each week's creative recovery tasks.
I look forward to hearing from you!
last night i just finished reading the first HW assignment--the intro, principles and tools...
ReplyDeletei've decided that my crochet class would come under "filling the well, stocking the pond" :-) i've also decided to be open on what lost dreams i might want to rediscover...and i've asterisked the three excuses "it's too late," "dreams don't matter and i should be sensible," and "family and friends will think i'm crazy." i'm kinda interested to see where this will lead :-) (and wondering whether dreams change with age and circumstances cuz i'm 54 and i've been teaching hs for 20 years)
well, i hate to admit it, but i'm a little worried about the time commitment for the reading, morning pages and the artist date as i'm teaching 6 periods/4 classes with 250 hs students...plus physical therapy after work from recent knee surgery...and a house that's a fixer-upper mess (ok, ok, i know that everybody is busy and it's no excuse)
btw, reading about the artist brain and the logic brain reminded me that i sometimes have my students take an easy L/R brain exercise...and ask 'em whether they can make the dancer change direction, so i'm gonna ask you the same question :-) i find that if i look at the dancer right after looking at art or right after doing a math problem, she'll go in a different direction depending on the preceding task:
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/weird/the-right-brain-vs-left-brain/story-e6frev20-1111114577583
here's my thoughts about my censor: i was just asked to illustrate the cover of an education book (for free, just credited) and i said no, i was too busy (which is true) and doing published work, pay or no pay (with a deadline) always stresses me--later i was wondering, should i be proud of myself for saying no to a task i didn't want to do, or was i afraid that i wouldn't be good enough? and i've decided that (unfortunately) both are true...
being unfamiliar with cameron, i googled her and was surprised to see that she was married briefly to martin scorsese!
thanks, barb, for leading me in an interesting new direction,
:-) julie
ps re the alliance with the Creator, this reminded me very much of the Friends "Inner Light!"
ReplyDelete:-) julie
Julie, I know the time commitment can be daunting! Spend as much time as you feel you can and don't beat yourself up for what you can't do. Whatever level of participation you can give is right for you.
ReplyDeleteYes, I googled Cameron too and had forgotten she was married to Scorsese! (Speaking of creativity--just saw Hugo last week--marvelous!)
And yes to Cameron's sense of the spiritual being similar to the Quaker Inner Light, what they also call "The God Within" or "That which is God in all of us." I agree. I attended a Friend's meeting in Portland for several years, and I remember a conversation I had with the minister (and my friend) some time ago. He asked me what I wanted for my life and I told him I wanted to be a co-creator with God of something beautiful. I remember it because HE remembered it and brought it up to me again many years later because he had used the concept in a sermon. So Cameron's idea of artists forging an alliance with the Great Creator really resonates with me.
My Censor tells me I don't have enough money, and I'm at a point in my life where I really need to be sensible. Plus, what would my friends and family think? ("You're far too emotional. You need to think rationally. Be sensible!")
My hesitation to signing the agreement came with a quick read-through of the chapter headings. There are a couple of things on the schedule I'm not sure I really want to deal with...
Anyone else?
BTW--it goes without saying--but I'll say it just in case--this week's assignment is to read Week 1--do your morning pages--go on a date with your inner artist--complete as many of the tasks in the chapter as resonate with you or you have time for. Next Saturday you'll have a chance to reflect on the week as a comment to a new post.
ReplyDeletei had hesitation in signing also, so i took a pen and amended it to what i felt comfortable signing (thinking of Matthew 5)
ReplyDelete:-) julie
Re: forging a creative alliance artist to artist with the Great Creator/higher power/...:
ReplyDeleteIt gave me permission and a sense of worth as an artist and writer. Before, my core values had me feel I might be wasting my time and/or avoiding responsibilities to others. Now I know my creative drives are part of the great creator's purpose for me.
Re: internal censor
I don't really 'hear' the internal censor, but I still find myself responding to other's needs first a lot of the time. I do cheer myself on when I follow through with one of my creative ideas before following through with coordinating this or that.
Re: contract
No problem. I was able to do all of Cameron's assignments almost on time when I did it before with one exception: the weekend artist's date.
Thank you again, Barbara, for pulling us all together.
1)My reaction to the idea of the Great Creator alliance is one of unease, but I do love journaling and the morning 3 is a great exercise and there is the feeling that one does tap into something higher up with that exercise
ReplyDelete2)My censor is always screaming loudly and I'd like it to shut up already
3)Time is an issue for everyone, as there never seems to be enough ever, so there is hesitation signing anything requiring commitment even when it appears to be in one's own best self interest
I was last to check in last week (did it just this AM) so let me briefly introduce myself here:
ReplyDeleteMy name is Kay Wolverton Ito and Barbara and I have become friends over the last year. I am still figuring out what I aspire to be/do, but I know it must be something creative. Maybe writing, maybe art/craft, but something. I am a sometime substitute teacher for K-8, mother to three boys ages 10, 13, and 15, and ready to get to work.
1. I don't see myself making a creative alliance with a creator, but with myself and other people. But I'm trying to be open-minded. I do think creativity can be very spiritual.
2. My censor tells me that I should do something that results in income (getting published or producing physical items that get sold--ideally for a profit). And I also tell myself that I'm too old to become an expert in anything. Then I think of Grandma Moses.
3. I hesitated to sign the contract only because I am thinking that I would like to lend this book to family and friends and wouldn't want to make them see a contract already filled in. I am very excited about this, but that could change in 15 minutes. Anyway, I did sign it, with my favorite pen, and so I'll just have to buy copies for others or let them see I was committed and they can be, too.
As I read the the intro, principles and tools and then the first week, I think how much Julia must have influenced me long ago when I first read this book and did the lessons and morning pages for three months. Much of what I hear her saying, is so much a part of me now that I feel it is mine and not coming from her.... how can that be???
ReplyDeleteI'm not a happy journal-er! I never have been, but I will do it faithfully. Last time I wrote the pages for three months and never really could figure any good it did me or that it changed me in any way, it doesn't matter. I will do it as a discipline and do it as best I can. I'm a painter, and I paint every day... this is so much closer to "journaling" than writing for me.
I love Julia's voice. I love her raw simplicity. It's nothing uppity or difficult. It's straight from her heart and I can hear it. For me, every page is loaded with solid, lovely, and precise insights... and I'm grateful for it.
Just today, I started morning pages. I don't hear an inner critic. I think it is something I gave up long ago... I'm not saying I never hear any at all... but I'll be more on the look-out for it once again. I'm pretty settled into my painting... and letting the painting talk back to me... not me talking to it. This is how I "critique"... letting it talk to me. I have to be quite to hear.
2012 is the perfect time for me to be reading this book again... more later....
Typo: That should have been, I have to be "quiet" to hear....
ReplyDeleteI love to think of myself as a co-creator with God.I am made in His image and whatever gifts I have are from Him and part of Him. I can't not use what He's given me.
ReplyDeleteMy "Censor" tells me I have lost my voice because of the demands on my time and because others around me have more "voice" and can say and do it better. I hope to silence that critter and get on a new track of creativity, both on the piano and with some writing.
I had no trouble signing the contract. I want to do this! I am determined!
1) I am encouraged to remember, thanks to Cameron’s work, that creativity is a natural part of me. Even when I feel disconnected from my creativity, it is still there inside of me. It’s a relief to know that it does not go away -– and that when I am opening my life to my own creativity, I am in cahoots with God.
ReplyDelete2) My internal censor has been working overtime for the past five years. Lately, I’ve been freeing myself a bit from its grasp, but that’s a day-to-day struggle, so dependent on the balance in other areas of my life. I’m trying to keep the censor away even when I’m sleepy, even when I’m disorganized, even when other obstacles stand in my way.
3) My hesitation to sign the contract: Will I be able to do morning pages? How? I have a baby who wakes up for a 4:30 feeding many mornings, and other mornings she sleeps through that feeding but is ready to get up at 5:30. How will I do morning pages when my husband (the 5:30 baby-care go-to guy) is out of town? I just had to accept that my morning pages will not be perfect. If the baby disrupts them, then I’ll finish them when she goes back to sleep. I had to accept that 50 percent of the time I’ll be doing Modified Morning Pages. Also, the artist dates have always confounded me. (I did an Artist’s Way group in 1994 [!] and did not always follow through with the artist dates because I didn’t always know what to do with myself.) This time, I’m going to try harder to make those work.
1. Thinking of myself as spiritual and fascinated with the mystical, I find the concept of the "Great Creator" both exciting and comforting. Exciting because the idea of tapping into a rich cache of creativity seems like great adventure. Comforting because being a conduit of that creativity, as opposed to having to pull ideas out of my arse (if you'll pardon the expression) takes a lot of pressure off.
ReplyDelete2. As for my internal "Censor." It is definitely alive and kicking. But the beast does seem to get smacked back by the stream of consciousness writing of the morning pages. The pages help me get to ME, although it took me a while to realize this spiffy benefit. But now, years later and still doing the pages, I find them to be a very effective and necessary tool in my life.
Now I need to work on the artist dates. I see their potential but never gave myself the permission to keep up with them in the past.
3. Signing the contract: I'm not really sure what caused me to hesitate in the past, but hesitate I did. Perhaps one of the reasons I never got all the way through TAW the last 4 times I attempted was my lack of total commitment. A lack I never realized until I saw my book had remained unsigned all these years. I even thought of signing in pencil this time. Didn't want to mar the book. But finally pulled out the pen and signed the heck out of that contract!
I think between the act of signing the contract and the "Sacred Circle" we are now creating here, I'm finally going to get to the finish line!
Sorry to be so late in coming. I was out of town over the weekend, and am only now reading these posts.Thanks everyeone for sharing--I just wish we could meet every week in person, but online will have to do!
ReplyDeleteI have no problem connecting my creativity with a Creator ... like Barb I think that we are co-creators with God. And I believe that by being creative, we reflect that aspect of the divine to the world.
My internal critic is very LOUD. Always has been although I am getting a little better with age. I find that when I do my morning pages, I can talk back to my critic ... it helps somehow to get my self-criticisms down on paper and to combat them. It helps shut the critic up for the day--something desperately needed!
I didn't sign the contract either. I intend to follow-through and I plan on writing morning pages as often as possible, but if I don't get them done, I don't get them done and I am not going to beat myself up about it.
I am holding back a bit from being totally committed to the process. I tell myself I have too much to do as it is, and too little time. Perhaps that is something I need to explore (in my morning pages!)Why would I not do something for myself that I find life-giving?
Love having you on here, Liz!!
DeleteI am really enjoying revisiting The Artist's Way. I started doing the morning pages a few weeks before this class started and the effect is transformative. I feel I am more focused in all aspects of my life. Now to answer the questions:
ReplyDelete1) I guess I am more pragmatic than Cameron. I see my creativity as being connected to sitting in my chair and doing the work. However I believe that when I am submerged in the process I conjure up the muses who inspire me unexpectedly.
2) Doing the morning pages, I have no internal critic. I just write and write, keeping my hand moving regardless of the nonesense that might flow out of my pen. When I am doing my other writing, the internal "Censor" pops up intermittantly like a gopher. I am never plagued by a stream of subversive remarks but I think a little self doubt is healthy. I found the exercise to confront your enemies of self worth very helpful. I also enjoyed acknowledging my champions and was pleased to see my 2nd & 5th grade teacher (same one) was still with me.
3) I had no hesitation signing the contract. Such a good way to start the new year!
I had my artist's date yesterday and did a few collages. I find it difficult to do my morning pages the minute I wake up as my dog and husband get in the way!