Category: The Artist’s Way

I’m Stuck, Where’s my Crayons?

Did you ever get stuck?  I don’t mean stuck by the monotony of everyday life and looking for an adventure.  What I’m talking about is the stuck in the middle of too many things on my need-to-do list and no time for what I like doing.  I get paralyzed when I can’t decide. 

Play with the paints or vacuum the carpets.  Doodle at my desk or do the food shopping.  As a home-based artist I always have the little nagging feeling that the family and house comes first.  The distraction of deciding could take up the day leaving no time for playing!  I want to play all day and I can’t and it makes me angry! (Stomping my foot and holding my breath until I’m blue.)

So I’m reading The Artist’s Way, still.  There it is in black and white, that the inner-child artist needs to play, or else.  The “or else” could become self destruction!  And play is less scary than work.  Artist’s use distractions as excuses not to work because the idea of the resulting outcome is a scary idea. 

It’s fear.  We’re afraid the outcome won’t be any good.  Will anyone like it?  And if they don’t like it, will I question my talent?  It’s all so scary that we avoid doing everything but art.  If I don’t keep at it some one else with less talent than me will get ahead because they know how to talk it up and they keep at it.  Sure, those kind of people have no fear!  Arggh!

The book says it’s the job of the artist-adult to allow the inner-child artist to rant and gently turn the situation around, a creative U-turn.  Just hand that “child” crayons and paper.  Ignore the tantrum.

It’s the process that is important, not the outcome remember?  Yeah, I remember.  It’s the dream of the artist to be painting all day, but it’s not a reality I guess.  Ok, I’ll find some time between laundry loads to doodle.  Sorry, I forgot.  Okay, I had my tantrum, I feel better now.

I was Right, it’s the Process, Stupid

As I mentioned before, I’m working toward more art and less housework by reading The Artist’s Way.  Remembering to do the tasks is an effort. It’s not that the tasks are difficult, not in any way. I just can’t remember to do them. I think about it while I’m writing the Morning Pages, which is 3 pages of journaling and has become a habit I’m enjoying.

Being able to empty my thoughts on paper has helped declutter my brain-junk. You know all that yapping that goes on in there? Well, I’ve got alot of it.  Do this, did you do that, why, is it, isn’t it, you idiot, and on. Journaling helps that, but somehow the tasks escape me.

This week I allowed myself time and now I’m in Week 8, “Recovering a Sense of Strength.” As I read yesterday I was having “Aha!” moments. The author writes, “Creativity occurs in the moment..” She suggests that we not pay attention to the final form and don’t ignore the fact that “creativity lies not in the done, but in the doing.”

So I’m reading this thinking about my post yesterday and how I wrote the point of my painting was the process not the result! I really didn’t care about the painting I ended up with. The objective was the action of painting, using the materials and tools, getting the thoughts on the paper in color.

The idea that you need to have something to show for your effort stops that excitement to create. Focusing on the process allows that little sense of adventure. If I let myself  think I have to come up with a masterpiece, I’m done. Just playing with the paint or cleaning the desk area helped me to take a small step rather than a scary leap!

To read these ideas in a book that just yesterday were my thoughts was a revelation to me. I feel like I’m on the right track. Another painting session is on the horizon, as long as I’m not distracted by laundry, which is a whole other ball of wax.

Tune in, Drop Down

“Art is an act of tuning in and dropping down the well. It is as though all the stories, painting, music, performances in the world live just under the surface of our normal consciousness. Like an underground river, they flow through us as a stream of ideas that we can tap down into. As artists, we drop down the well into the stream. We hear what’s down there and we act on it — more like taking dictation than anything fancy having to do with art.”

-Julia Cameron, Week 7 in The Artist’s Way

Errand day, again

I like Mondays.  Everyone goes back to their usual schedule.  I can enjoy the quiet of the morning with my newspaper and coffee before I get myself together.  On Monday’s I help my husband in his business, doing the things he doesn’t want to do can’t make time for. 

I don’t mind and have been helping him for 20 something years.  Yes, the artist as secretary/bookkeeper, lots of fun!  Since the early years, the job holders have evolved from myself, to my very competent sister, to my pro-bookkeeper mom.  Everyone has had their chance to help. I do some things from home, discuss the office end of the business by phone, but Mondays I show up in person.  Secretly, they call me “Big Boss.”  I think that’s funny.

Today is Tuesday.  Tuesday ends up being errand day!  As hard as I try, I cannot make Tuesday an art day, all day.  The farmer’s market is Tuesday, I need to visit the post office, bank, sales at the drugstore, pick up/drop off dry cleaning, decide on dinner, load the laundry, empty the dryer, and on and on.  By mid-afternoon I’m surprised the day has flown by and I couldn’t get to the art. 

My next target for an artist’s date is Wednesday, which could be a problem, so I might look at Thursday. 

In The Artist’s Way I’m still in week 7 when I should have moved on by now.  I haven’t done the tasks I was required to do.  The “teacher” will not be happy and I’m going to be left back in this course! 

I think I need a secretary.

It’s Wednesday. Want to make something out of it?

Remember yesterday when I said I didn’t want any surprises?  Well, as soon as I say I don’t want something, I get that which I didn’t want, an annoying surprise.  The Universe doesn’t hear the word “don’t” and gives it to me anyway.  Go figure. 

Nothing big happened.  Just a little thing I found out about a “Crazymaker” I know and it just gets my goat!  Arggg!

However, in reading The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron writes that “anger is a map”.  She suggests that anger points the direction, anger is a tool, anger is meant to be acted on not acted out.  When acted on, anger is use-full.

Today I’m using that emotion to push ahead to do the things I’m thinking about doing.  Instead of thinking I’m doing.  Today is the day for action.

On with The Artist’s Way

Each week I try my best to get with the program here in The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron.  Each week is a challenge.  Somehow I get sidelined by things I can’t seem to put aside.  I don’t plan the date, forget to do the tasks, and errands galore present themselves.  I hope this week is different.

After a horrible, rainy, cold weekend, this week the weather seems to be leaning towards warm and pleasant.  I’m going to plan to be out in it on my “date” on Thursday, the most agreeable day weatherwize.  My errands are scheduled and I’ve decided to put my small travel art supplies in the car today. 

I don’t want any surprises, do you hear me Universe?

The Artist’s Way or No Way

I’m well into the 12 week course of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.  Some artists I’ve discussed this book with swear by it and others don’t, suggesting other avenues to rehabilitate the “inner artist”.  All I can say is that I think it’s working for me.

Cameron instructs the artist to journal each and every morning for three pages in long hand.  Remember using a pen and paper, anyone?  Now that every thing is on computer, going back to writing long hand in a book is like a new discovery.  She insists these “Morning Pages”, as she calls them, be written without fail and is crucial to the artist’s recovery.  I’ve been journaling for a few months before I found this course, so to continue for three pages, well I can do that! 

Cameron asks to pay attention to a slight shift in attitude by one and a half pages and I think she’s right.  By then I’ve rehashed all the stuff of my day floating around in my brain and really get to the heart of creative thought.  As another favorite book, The Science of Getting Rich, by Wallace Wattles suggests, thought becomes the thing thought of.  The tasks for each week eventually lead the artist to their art.

At least it’s working for me.  Today is going to be a day of art, after the errands, farmer’s market, laundry, bed making, vacuuming….

Time

Time is fleeting.  We keep wasting it, trying to make it up, see stretches of it, and watch  it just fly by.  We spend most of it just doing nothing.  But if we’re the person at home, the one responsible for house and family, the CEO of the household, we’ve got to figure out how to spend that time very wisely to get things done. 

I stink at it.  I get so sidetracked by the every day stuff, that I miss opportunities of time to be my creative self.  What’s up with that?

Somehow I have to schedule in the “me” time.  Time to make my art.  Time to be just me.  I like “just me” too.  I’m very comfortable being alone with my own self. 

Lately, I’ve been reading The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron.  Her book is a 12 week course on finding the artist within that’s been lost along the way while having a life.  More than a course, it’s a recovery for artists who need to find their way in the creative world, again.  It’s very interesting for me.  I’m up to week 3.  Cameron suggests making time for an “Artist Date”, spending time with the inner artist to do something fun, no third parties invited.  Ok, sounds good, but when do I have this date with myself?

Let it be said right now, I should be at week 5, but as usual, I can’t find the time to do the tasks and move on. 

Ok, so I’m trying, right?