The Artist’s Way: Week One
Good morning! Well, I made it through the first week! I found this chapter to be a bit irrevelvant for me. I think this chapter is meant for people who haven’t explored their creativity and artistry, or, people who have always wanted to be artists, but were told by others they should explore other career options (meaning they’re not good enough).
I have always plowed ahead with whatever I wanted to do - whether that was my science and teaching degrees, my art, or learning how to drive standard. I’ve never been told I’m not good enough - for me, the opposite is true. People that I love and trust want me to explore my art in more detail because they feel I have the ability to make a lot of money there. I feel that way too, but my kids come first at this point in my life - not the other way around.
However, the chapters in this book are really short, so I wanted to finish the reading and the tasks because I think all learning is good. I kept an open mind and tried to imagine what it was like being in the position of someone told that they should give up on art and focus on a “real job”. It made me feel really sad, and there could be a lot of missed opportunities for people who don’t have enough confidence in themselves. I think if you want to do something, you should go ahead and just do it. Don’t let other people hold you back. This is your life and you should live it.
Morning Pages
My experience:
This week I still struggled waking up early. Julia Cameron advises to wake a half hour early to start your pages. I already struggle to get up at 5:00am - I’m pretty sure 4:30am is not going to happen!
We are currently on summer holidays - at least my kids are, so you would think it would be easy to wake up earlier than them. One day this week, I got up at 6:00am and my two year old woke up at 6:30am!
There were three days this week in total that I did morning pages in absolute silence. Those days were wonderful! Along with getting my morning pages done in record time, I highly treasure and value that quiet time with my coffee, notebook and paper.
I managed to do morning pages every single day, but some days it happened in the afternoons. I also struggled a lot when my kids were awake. It’s really hard to concentrate on writing when you have kids in your ear talking about video games.
My Thoughts:
At the beginning, I looked forward to morning pages so much. There never was a time I wrote “I don’t know what to write”. I have a never-ending flow of thoughts constantly going through my mind, so that’s never a problem.
There did come a time, however, when I felt like morning pages was a chore. That may have been on the days when I had a lot to do, and my kids were awake as well. When you are a busy working mom of three, trying to find an extra 45 minutes a day amidst everything else can be a very daunting task.
Artist Date
My experience:
I was not able to take a dedicated artist date for myself this week. Did I feel disappointed? Yes, I did. I will try again next week. Would scheduling this into my day help, like I mentioned last week? Probably…
My thoughts:
It’s easy for me to say that I work creativity and artistry into my daily work life because I do. It’s also easy to say that can be my artist date, but I don’t feel like it is. It all comes down to the reason for doing it. Me being creative and artistic in my work is for my business. I want to do something fun and creative for myself. I want intended time that is not work time - I want play time.
Tasks
My Experience:
I found it quite easy to get through the tasks. I picked six out of the ten options (this included morning pages). I had some that I enjoyed and others that were a bit more difficult where I had to think a little harder on the answer.
My Thoughts:
I enjoyed these tasks. All of the tasks actually worked to affirm my creativity and artistry; not the reverse. Even when I thought back to any negative experiences I had, I always knew in my heart that I am an artist. There was never any question over that. There may have been jealousy with my peers and friends over my artistic abilities, but I knew even at a young age that different people have different talents, and being artistic is and always will be one of mine. I have always felt very committed and settled in my creativity - maybe that came from my parents who are (and were) also very artistic. After all, when you get your work critiqued, it’s a normal aspect of creation - I always took any criticism and made my work even better. I never let that deter me from my course. I was always very confidant in my artistic ability - my works always started out questionable but then became something beautiful.
Conclusion
I am still feeling very positive with this course. I am keeping an open mind; some parts of this book may not apply to me, but I am imagining what it would feel like to be in someone else’s shoes.
I will still push myself to wake up early to write my morning pages, because I feel very happy and confident in my day when I can get them done before all my other work. Besides, when I wake up early, I tend to get a lot more done.
Thanks for reading and we’ll see you again at next week’s check-in with Week Two!
Sandra
