No flourishes, perhaps...but much reflection.
"The Artist's Way is a spiritual journey, a pilgrimage home to the self."
Are you, as I am, finding your way "home to your self" as a result of the last three months we've spent on this journey? Have you gained clarity, purpose, joy? Are you playing more? Dreaming more? Do you know your self better? Are you able to express that self with greater authenticity in your life and art?
I decided to revisit The Artist's Way at this particular time in my life because I felt lost to myself--lost and confused and vulnerable. I knew I needed to reconnect with the child-artist I had pushed aside in order to keep an uneasy peace with someone I knew at some level did not have my best interests at heart. I needed to heal. I needed to reconnect with the dreams I had let go.
I knew that leading a group through this course would hold me accountable in ways I wouldn't do on my own. I am so grateful to all of you for being here with me and for allowing me to be here with you as you, too, have deepened your relationship with your selves and reconnected with your dreams. I am honored.
I like Cameron's description of the Artist's Way as an upward winding path. "As we pursue climbing it," she says, "we circle back on the same views, over and over, at slightly different altitudes.... The road is never straight. Growth is a spiral process, doubling back on itself, reassessing and regrouping.... A fog may obscure the distance we have covered or the progress we have made toward our goal. While the occasional dazzling vista may grace us, it is really best to proceed a step at a time, focusing on the path beneath our feet as much as the heights still before us."
I've seen glimpses of those dazzling vistas through the fog. Enough to inspire me to keep climbing! One step at a time...
"Art is an act of the soul, not the intellect."
I'm the sort who wants to figure everything out, wants to know, wants to understand why. This course has reminded me that there are different ways of knowing. I may not ever be able to understand intellectually why things happen as they happen. Reason, after all, has no answer for the unreasonable.
Soul understands we are more than reason. Soul taps into the undercurrent that flows through and between all of us and makes the unreasonable understandable solely because it is human. That's where my art comes from--not from intellectualizing but from letting myself relax into the flow.
I am fortunate, indeed!
"As artists, we belong to an ancient and holy tribe. We are the carriers of the truth that spirit moves through us all."
Why have we made such strong connections here? Is it because we are members of the same tribe, we are moved by the same spirit--a spirit we recognize in each other?
We have reached the end of The Artist's Way, but we have not reached the end of the Artist's Way. The journey never ends. We continue to move toward our dreams--to move toward our selves--as the stars continue to move through the sky. "Like neighboring constellations," Cameron says, serving each other both as guides and as company. I can say along her that "my deepest wish for you is the company of fellow lights and the generosity to light each others' ways."
Behold the light!
If anyone else has images you'd like to share, please email them to me. Celebrate your Artist!
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| Barbara: What I Want Is Who I Am |
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| Barbara: Artist Altar |
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| Nancy: picture book spread from PavoRatti |
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| June: Artist Altar |
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| Spread featuring June's picture book The Goodnight Train |
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| Ginny: Heart Treasures |
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| Pam: Splash |
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| Ann: Artist Altar |
These pictures of our art, our heart, are so beautiful! I am reinspired! Thanks, Barbara! Thanks everyone!
ReplyDeleteThanks Barbara for reawakening this journey in all of us!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE these images! Amazing body of talent represented here. I've been so busy trying to keep up with my A to Z Blog Challenge I haven't been over for a visit :_( Glad to see Platform 9 3/4 is still going strong!
ReplyDeleteScribblesFromJenn
Yes! Just love these images! As Ann said, I'm feeling reinspired! We certainly have some creative and very talented folks in our group!
ReplyDeleteDear Ones,
DeleteFinally I am going to try to put some thoughts here tho' it is late.
My pages came to a screeching halt and I found myself desperately missing them. A good sign, I thought. So back at them I am.
I met with a friend last week and asked her to mentor me through my commitment to three more months of this. I am pledging to continue MPs (they may just turn into my writing time which is fine by me) and to also continue with weekly Artist Dates. I am also recommitted to my blog.
The other exciting piece for me is that I am getting a place for just ME - a place to write that is away from the phone, the bills, and all the stuff I do for others. I cleared a space in an extra bedroom and hope to get the desk this weekend. I am looking forward to making it my own.
All of this is good and wonderful. However, I do feel a bit of sliding away already from that renewed sense of confidence and faith in myself I gained in this process. So quickly? ARGH! Feel like starting to read the whole dang book all over again. Sheesh.
But let me just say that I have so enjoyed having this blog to go along with this effort. Had it not been here, I am not so sure I would have been as successful as I was. And certainly, I would not have 'met' all you dear dear women. So deep thanks to you, Barbara, for your eloquent summaries at each week's end, your heartfelt responses to each of us, your encouragement, your honesty and your courage.
What a wonder we are - individually and collectively!
I've really enjoyed and have felt that I've learned a lot by doing the TAW AND reading how the rest of you have managed the journey.
ReplyDeleteI took TAW this time to see where I wanted to focus in my creative life as well as how to release more time for creativity.
Here are some of my results:
1)I've finally resigned from a task that I've done for at least five years for others. This will give me some more creative time.
2) I've decided that I'd rather do visual and tactile arts instead of the linear business with words. Regarding writing -- I've decided to write all day once a month and be more willing to play with the words: write in a stream of conscience instead of a plan. At least, I'll start a story that way and then with a critique's group help see where else it can go. For example, I just started a story with a natural disaster threat to two boys, thinking that I'd delve into how their relationship evolves, but on the way, I introduced a cat -- named Merlin -- who had a collar. Now the story will be a quest for Merlin's Magnificent Collar which disappeared when the tsunami hit.
So THANK YOU! for helping get to this point. I may not do morning pages EVERY DAY, but they are on my calendar every Tuesday. Once a week is certainly do-able. Of course, I can do more.
Pam W