The Artist's Way - Week 2

Reflections on week 1 and my game plan for Week 2

Disclaimer: I have largely written this post by dictating it into the Substack app on my phone. In other words, I’ve written it by speaking it into my phone because I have been out of town and decided not to bother bringing my computer. I have done my best to proofread it, but please forgive any typos! And consider them signs of my humanity ;)

Also, I am posting a day early because I did not understand how publishing via the iPhone app worked and I can’t schedule for tomorrow, and I don’t want to have to remember to hit publish tomorrow. Next week I’ll use my computer!

Week 1 Recap

As I said, I’ve been away this week, and that made week 1 very easy. No home routines or chores or obligations! And my hubby was largely occupied helping his father with some work on his sailboat so I had quite a lot of hours to myself for introspection and my artist date.

On artist dates: do they have to be solo?

Here’s an interesting question that came up this week: Do artist dates have to be done all alone? This question came up when my writing buddy, Steph, who doesn’t want to follow the artist way this summer, said she’d be nonetheless game for doing some artist dates with me. My other friend, Stephanie (I am blessed to have an abundance of Stephanie‘s in my life.), who is doing the artist way with me this summer objected because artist dates are supposed to be solo.

Well, according to Julia Cameron, yes, these are solo adventures. She specifically says you’re supposed to go alone.

That said, as long as I’m making my own rules, I think for me they don’t have to be. I am extremely good at going places all alone, I have even been known to take entire vacations all by myself. Most of these vacations I have called “writing retreats“ but really it’s just me in an off-season beach hotel, taking walks and writing. I even took a two-week solo vacation to England and Scotland, and that one I called a painting trip, and I sketched everywhere I went. In other words, I might already be really, really good at artist dates.

Now I don’t think it’s a good idea to take one spouse or children on an artist date. However, I think if you’re going with another friend who is also an artist who wants to take an artist date, you’re basically taking a double artist date, and that is entirely acceptable.

For my first artist date, I went to a garden in Osterville on Cape Cod. I had read about the location on the Trustees website, and as a trustees member I like to visit lots of trustees properties. The website made a big deal about how it’s a really large public garden with this new water garden and so I expected something along the lines of a botanical garden, but it wasn’t quite that. Basically it’s a lovely spot for a picnic and there is a small lawn garden and a little Koi pond, but it wasn’t really worth the 40 minute drive and it didn’t scratch my garden itch. Still, I hung around for a while and didn’t experimental sketch of a dogwood tree, and then I walked around the little village, which is absolutely adorable before heading to a garden that I knew would satisfy, the Heritage Museums and Gardens in Sandwich.

Probably the moment that was most like what Cameron considers a true artist date was when I rode the carousel. Yes, I, a nearly forty- six-year-old woman, rode a carousel all by myself. And I even bought a sticker that says, “I rode the carousel.” I had a great day, but as we have already covered, I’m really good at having a perfectly fine time all by myself so no surprises there.

Morning pages

I did work on my morning pages this week. And I was surprised to find that I enjoyed it. On Wednesday, I actually had to force myself not to write morning pages just to prove to myself that, in fact, I don’t need to do them every single day, and that it is OK for me to do the bare minimum that I have laid out for myself. I am a real all-or-nothing person, and that’s a habit I’m trying to break. So it was actually important for me to say I only need to do this four out of seven days, and then actually take a day off.

I didn’t really do any of the exercises that were in week one of the book this week. They just didn’t appeal to me and I didn’t need them to keep myself moving through the morning pages so I didn’t bother.

Other thoughts

I’ll be honest, my primary thought as I worked through this week was that I might not need a 12 step program to be an artist. The artist’s way is essentially modeled after things like the 12 step programs of AA or any other 12 step program. As I talked about last time, I am not a blocked artist, I am very much an active and engaged artist just looking for some guidance to better articulate what it is I do and why I do it. Since week one is all about recovering a sense of safety, this stuff in the book didn’t seem super relevant to me because I’m really lucky and I already have a sense of safety. I’m hoping that some of the exercises spark more ideas as we move forward through the weeks but we shall see.

Looking ahead to Week 2

OK, so week two is all about recovering a sense of identity, which I take to mean being brave enough to boldly declare that one is an artist, even when people around you don’t yet see you as an artist, and even when maybe your own self-doubt is making it hard for you to boldly declare that you are an artist.

This is work I’ve been doing for myself since somewhere around 2009, so I feel like I have a pretty big head start. That said, there were a lot of little reminders in this chapter that resonated.

My favorite quote from the chapter is this: “[T]he recovering artist must avoid taking the first think.” (42)

I know that in order to be creative, the first thing I have to do is stop overthinking. And in fact, my favorite thing about drawing and painting is that the part of my brain that thinks with words seems to shut off completely once I sit down to the task. The hardest part is sitting down and getting started, but once I’m started, this intuitive part of me takes over and I get lost in the work. When I think with words, self-doubt creeps in too easily.

Other things that stood out in this chapter:

The advice to be aware of subtle sabotage from friends. Cameron writes, “Be particularly alert to any suggestion that you have become selfish or different.” (43) This is something I have definitely dealt with in the past, and I’m happy to say that I’m in a place now where I have such incredibly supportive friends and family that it’s not something I’m worried about, but I know you might be in a different place in your journey. Just remember, you’re not only allowed to change and be different, you must change and gradually become different. That’s what life is all about!

In addition, Cameron writes, “As blocked creatives, we focus not on our responsibilities to ourselves, but on our responsibilities to others. We tend to think such behavior makes us good people. It doesn’t. It makes us frustrated people.” (43) Yep, I have been that person. In general, I would say I have largely recovered from this, but I must maintain constant vigilance not to fall back into old patterns.

And do I have any crazy makers in my life? Yeah, of course I do. We all do, but I have learned to adopt the motto “let them.“ Let them be crazy and walk away.

While I feel pretty good about how far I’ve come in terms of cultivating relationships with people who support me and moving away from those who don’t, self-doubt is definitely an area where I still suffer. Even just a few weeks ago, I was wondering what I’m even doing out here painting,  pretending I’m an artist. It’s not like my art pays the bills. It’s not like I’m some amazing artist with incredible talent. I’m not the next Edward Hopper. This was my inner monologue.

I don’t know where these thoughts came from or why. I had been happily making art and teaching art. I was feeling pretty good about my art and then one day, boom! All that self-doubt came flooding in. But then, the universe opened some doors, as Cameron would say, with some new opportunities from the little ways I had been putting myself out into the world as an artist. I don’t love that I needed the external validation of those opportunities to quiet self-doubt, but I didn’t shy away from the opportunities.

In the past couple of years, I’ve tried really hard to replace the question “why me?”, as in what’s so special about me that I should succeed as an artist? with “why not me?” Why shouldn’t I succeed as an artist? It’s a process, and it takes a lot of repetition and reminding. Maybe that should be one of my affirmations.

And my final favorite quote from this chapter is the following:

“The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for the delight is the gift of paying attention.” (53)

Since I returned to painting a few years ago one of the things I’ve noticed is how much more attention I am paying to my daily existence. I noticed the little things. That is the true gift of making art. It’s all the things I noticed more.

Plan for week two

Is it just me, or is there a lot of homework in week two? I’ll be honest there is no way I’m doing all these tasks. Here are the ones I’ve picked out to attempt:

1. I will continue to do morning pages on most days.

2. I will go on an artist date.

3. From the list of tasks, I plan to do numbers one, three, four, five, eight, nine, and ten. That is: I will do the affirmative reading of the basic principles each day. I’ll make a list of things I enjoy doing, make note of when I lasted them, and pick a few of them to do this week. I will also write out affirmations each day in my morning pages. And I’ll make a list of 10 tiny changes and pick one of them to do.

What’s your game plan for this week? What stood out most to you in the chapter? You can share below in the comments or hop over to my subscribers thread in messages and chat about how things are going. I wish everyone a great week too. Let’s keep the creativity coming!