Discussion: The Artist‘s Way - renewing your creative energy

[mekare]

So, I‘ve heard of this book for long time but never got round to check it out of a library (my current one doesn‘t have it and interloan is reserved for academic books only). So I got the audiobook since that is what I can most easily fit into my day.

ETA: I forgot to mention the full title: Julia Cameron - The Artist‘s Way, first published in 1992

I have a couple of questions after having listened to the first chapter:

1. Has anyone here ever read/worked with the whole book?

While the tools sound useful, the time commitment per day and per week seems pretty daunting.

2. How do you recharge your creative energies?

The idea that I need to take a break after a challenge/deadline/larger piece with something simpler or less stressful wasn‘t new to me, but the idea of doing this very regularly somehow made me go: „huh“. Cameron compares our creative energy reservoir to a pond with big, small and medium fish (art ideas). We need to refill it regularly.

Here is the passage from the book:

Overtapping the well, just like overfishing the pond, leaves us with diminished resources. We fish in vain for the images we require. Our work dries up and we wonder why, “just when it was going so well.“ The truth is that work can dry up because it was going so well.
As artists we must learn to be self-nourishing. We must become alert enough to consciously replenish our creative resources as we draw on them - to restock the trout pond, so to speak.

Her idea is the “active pursuit of images to refresh our artistic reservoirs“. So, fun, mystery, magic, delight, doing what interests you. Changing known routes to work, or engaging the senses is also mentioned, as well as repetitive regular actions (rhythm being the key) like cooking, knitting, needlework, showering or driving.

What do you do?

Comments

[alias_sqbr]

I tried it like 15 years ago, and found it sort of helpful for a while but ran out of momentum.

The one thing I got a lot out of was the artist's pages, since I had exactly the kind of writer's block they help with, but those didn't help my visual art at all and I can imagine it being annoying if you're not also a writer.

The spiritual stuff rubbed me the wrong way, and in general it made a lot of assumptions about the reader's issues and needs that often didn't apply to me, eg it assumed the reader had a major issue with having been told not to do art by parents etc, when my parents always encouraged me. Obviously no book can work for everyone, but I think I'd have been less annoyed if it had been less certain of it's assumptions.

Overall, asides from the pages I've gotten as much help out of like...tumblr art memes.

[mekare]

in general it made a lot of assumptions about the reader's issues and needs that often didn't apply to me, eg it assumed the reader had a major issue with having been told not to do art by parents etc,

You just put your finger on something that was bothering me as well. My parents were also supportive of my art (up to a point) so that hasn‘t been the problem, like in the many examples in the book.

Re the spiritual stuff, that doesn‘t bother me so much.