The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
For more than 30 years, millions of people have turned to the international bestselling book The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity to overcome their internal resistance and rediscover their creativity.
About the author
Author Julia Cameron, who is also a director, poet, songwriter, and playwright, assures readers we need not be a traditional artist for this journey. She says, “I have taught artists and nonartists, painters and filmmakers and homemakers and lawyers—anyone interested in living more creatively through practicing an art; even more broadly, anyone interested in practicing the art of creative living” (xi).
Cameron did not anticipate becoming a teacher of creativity, but when she had to learn how to write sober, her journey began. She mastered how to move past fear and connect her creativity with spirituality. Other blocked artists sought her out to learn this process, and she soon began teaching formal creativity workshops.
Format
The Artist’s Way is framed as a recovery process, much like Alcoholics Anonymous. Each week is focused on another aspect of recovery such as recovering a sense of safety, identity, and power to name a few. This book isn’t meant to be read in one sitting, but rather, it’s a 12-week journey that you can choose to do alone or with a group.
The book is packed with information and resources. It begins with a preface, introduction, a basic principles chapter, a basic tools chapter (which has a creativity contract), and 12 chapters, one for each week of the journey. Inspirational quotes can be found in the margins throughout and at each chapter’s end there are questions and activities for the reader to go deeper. The journey ends with an epilogue, question and answers section, creative clusters guide (for those who choose to experience this journey alongside others), two appendixes, and a reading list. The book totals 241 pages, not including the index.
While Cameron advises readers to participate in the chapter questions and activities, she acknowledges it may be difficult to complete each one, so she suggests prioritizing the two most important tools in the book—what she has coined as the Morning Pages and the Artist Date. The former is three pages written longhand every morning in a stream-of-consciousness, only-for-your-eyes way. The latter is dedicated time alone each week, whether that is a trip to a store or movie theatre, or even a walk outdoors, to refill and nurture yourself.
Impressions
I found Cameron’s writing style enjoyable and engaging. Her stories were compelling and had strong imagery that made me feel like I was in the scene. Her heavy use of metaphor made the concepts come alive and helped me commit them to memory. I always appreciate thoughtful reflection questions, so I looked forward to these at the end of each chapter.
Surprisingly, the required activities, the Morning Pages and the Artist Date, were not my favorite parts of the book. Since we all have unique personalities and styles, I’m leary of anything that is particularly prescriptive, and Cameron is adamant about the length, timing, and type of writing done in the Morning Pages. Trying to weed through hundreds of longhand written pages to find the jewels felt overwhelming. I prefer my usual method of journaling which combines gratitude, goals, encouragement, reflection, and a quick listing of anything I need to get on the page to clear my mind. Even so, I see the value in the Pages and how many gravitate toward that style.
The Artist Date felt a little forced at times, but I do see great value in refilling ourselves on a regular basis. I did have one particularly memorable Date experience that stoked my creativity while window-shopping at Pottery Barn.
All-in-all, I’m glad to have experienced this 12-week journey. Cameron’s urging to try new experiences and embrace things that feel interesting or beautiful to us, even if we’re not sure why, encouraged me to live a more vibrant life. For example, I finally purchased a long-awaited pair of clog sandals and am saving up for brightly colored glasses.
Insightful quotes from The Artist’s Way
(*Bolding in quotes is my own)
Down Time
“An artist must have downtime, time to do nothing. Defending our right to such time takes courage, conviction, and resiliency. Such time, space, and quiet will strike our family and friends as a withdrawal from them. It is.
“For an artist, withdrawal is necessary. Without it, the artist in us feels vexed, angry, out of sorts. If such deprivation continues, our artist becomes sullen, depressed, hostile” (96).
Faith
“Creativity requires faith. Faith requires that we relinquish control. This is frightening, and we resist it. Our resistance to our creativity is a form of self-destruction. We throw up roadblocks on our own path. Why do we do this? In order to maintain an illusion of control. Depression, like anger and anxiety, is resistance, and it creates dis-ease. This manifests itself as sluggishness, confusion, ‘I don’t know…’
“The truth is, we do know and we know that we know. Each of us has an inner dream that we can unfold if we will just have the courage to admit what it is. And the faith to trust our own admission” (193).
Fear
“Fear is what blocks an artist. The fear of not being good enough. The fear of not finishing. The fear of failure and of success. The fear of beginning at all. There is only one cure for fear. That cure is love” (152).
Humor
“In order to nurture our creativity, we require a sense of festivity, even humor: ‘Art. That’s somebody my sister used to date’” (196).
Pacing
“Too far, too fast, and we can undo ourselves. Creative recovery is like marathon training. We want to log ten slow miles for every one fast mile. This can go against the ego’s grain. We want to be great—immediately great—but that is now how recovery works” (29).
Security
“Creativity flourishes when we have a sense of safety and self-acceptance. Your artist, like a small child, is happiest when feeling a sense of security. As our artist’s protective parent, we must learn to place our artist with safe companions” (42).
The Creator’s Hand
“Once you accept that it is natural to create, you can begin to accept a second idea—that the creator will hand you whatever you need for the project. The minute you are willing to accept the help of this collaborator, you will see useful bits of help everywhere in your life” (119).
The Next Right Thing
“Most of the time, the next right thing is something small: washing out your paintbrushes, stopping by the art-supply store and getting your clay, checking the local paper for a list of acting classes . . . As a rule of thumb, it is best to just admit that there is always one action you can take for your creativity daily” (141).
Time
“Hatching an idea is a lot like baking bread. An idea needs to rise. If you poke at it too much at the beginning, if you keep checking on it, it will never rise. A loaf of bread or a cake, baking, must stay for a good long time in the darkness and safety of the oven” (195).
Trust
“When we are on our right path, we have sure-footedness. We know the next right action—although not necessarily what is just around the bend. By trusting, we learn to trust” (194).