The Artist’s Way: Week Nine
Overview:
In Chapter nine, Julia Cameron talks about recovering a sense of compassion. There are five main categories:
Fear
Enthusiasm
Creative U-Turns
Discouragement
Blasting Through Blocks
Most blocked artists are blocked from their own fear - fear of failure/success/abandonment. Fear of failure seems easy to understand, but why would we fear success? This is what morning pages are for - to work your way through why you might be afraid of success. As Julia states throughout the entire book, we usually are our own block. We’re so afraid of what success looks like and which doors that would open (and what new things are lurking in dark corners) that we find things within ourselves, or without to prevent us from moving forward.
Julia writes that enthusiasm is more important than discipline when it comes to creativity. When we think of work for example, we have certain tasks that need to be managed and we use habits or routines to get us through a lot of it. When it comes to art, or creativity, you need to feel it. You can’t just pick up your paint brush because your planner says to - you need to tap into an energy supply that is within you.
Julia says that it’s easier for the blocked artist to remain blocked because they gather more sympathy. Rather than doing the things and getting out into the world, they would rather bemoan the fact that they can’t do anything creative. It’s easier just to sit there - hence, they are self sabotaging. This is referred to as a creative U-turn.
It’s easy to get discouraged - say for example, you’re on the right path and someone criticizes your work. Say it’s a family member. They might not know the first thing about art, but whatever they say makes you feel bad and you get discouraged - maybe you were never good enough in the first place. It’s ok to feel this; the trick is to keep going and keep pushing through, and above all, don’t give up. The only way we learn is from mistakes - no one ever produces their best work from their first try anyway.
Lastly, Julia gives some tips on blasting through the blocks. Resentments, fears all need to be listed out. If you don’t start now, what will you gain or lose? Obviously, if the answer is gaining nothing, maybe it wasn’t a worthwhile project in the first place. Then you should go back to the beginning and brainstorm up something even better.
Morning Pages
My experience:
I have still been enjoying the act of writing morning pages. I don’t judge, and I just let the words flow onto the page. I don’t stress or worry that my writing isn’t good enough - it probably isn’t. But this writing is only mine.
This is technically part of the tasks, but I was required to begin reading my morning pages. I did start, and I did actually find some insights to record. You are supposed to use two highlighters - one for insights you find and the other is for action items or tasks you want/need to complete.
Remember, I started morning pages on June 3, 2025 - some time prior to beginning this project. I am currently at the end of week 10 at the time of writing this blog, and I still haven’t completed this task. I will stumble along though - when I’m done, I will report back on this regardless of which week it actually is.
Artist Date
My experience:
I truly didn’t do an Artist Date this week. Not that I didn’t want to, but again, I was busy. I literally fall dead asleep as soon as my head hits my pillow at night and I’m finding it hard to wake up again in the morning. It’s a very hard adjustment going back to school!
I will try to do some singing practice and dancing in my living room next week. Also, I might break out the brush pens and do some more hand lettering practice. Even though I consider myself pretty good at hand lettering, there is always room for improvement.
Tasks
My Experience:
I chose four out of the four tasks that were listed. My most memorable ones though - firstly, as I stated above, reading the morning pages that I’ve already written is a big feat. It’s going to take me some time - longer than just one week. But, I feel like it’s going to be worthwhile. I also feel a little weird about it - at the beginning, Julia Cameron stated that morning pages are not meant to be read - even by yourself. I kind of feel like I’m eavesdropping on someone’s private conversation. But I will continue on in hopes of learning something new that I didn’t pick up on at the moment of writing.
The other thing that I just love is that we are supposed to pick an artist totem. I actually have one sitting on my altar. I gathered this little treasure many years ago now - when the first Trolls movie had been released. I can’t remember the name of it, but I keep this little troll doll with the rainbow hair and the paint splatters all over her face. It reminds me that I’m an artist, so, actually very fitting for my special artist’s totem. I knew even way back then that there was something special about it and I needed to keep it for some reason.
Conclusion
This week was enjoyable - even though I didn’t actually finish the work of reading my morning pages (yet), I’m interested to see what I’ll find by reading them back.
Also, in regards to my artist’s totem, I sometimes wonder why I have gathered the special knick-knacks that I have. I sometimes pick something up and feel a certain way about it. Sometimes I hear a voice saying that I need to keep it, but there’s no rhyme or reason to it. It’s at moments like this that I hear and see the synchronicity - maybe it is true that everything that happens in the universe is meant to happen, but we will find out the reason when it’s time or when we’re ready to. ❤️
Thanks for reading and we’ll see you again next week at the end of Week 10!
❤️Sandra
