Bliss Habits Book Club: The Artist’s Way, Intro & Tools

Welcome to Tuesdays with Chel.

ART IS A SPIRITUAL transaction. Artists are visionaries. We routinely practice a form of faith, seeing clearly and moving toward a creative goal that shimmers in the distance— often visible to us, but invisible to those around us. … Art is an act of faith, and we practice practicing it. Sometimes we are called on pilgrimages on its behalf and, like many pilgrims, we doubt the call even as we answer it. But answer we do.
– Julia Cameron

Welcome to the Bliss Habits Book Club! For the next several weeks, we’ll be discussing and working our way through The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron.

The discussion is continued on Facebook, as well. Please join us.

First and foremost, some of our book club members already started Week One, so in an effort to keep things moving, I announced on Facebook in the middle of last week that we’d be covering the Intro and Tools section *this week* (pages 1-24). For next week, October 16^th, we’ll be discussing Chapter One/Week One. (pages 25-40). So read up to page 40 for next week.

Let’s just dive in.  These are some of the passages that stood out to me, personally, and some passages that I thought might spark good discussion. I’m genuinely interested to get your thoughts on these things, so *please* feel free to chime in the comments or our Facebook page. If I there was something you found that I don’t bring up, please feel free to start your own discussion via Facebook or comments- I would love to chat about it with you!

Introduction & Spiritual Electricity

In 1978 I began teaching artists how to “unblock” and “get back on their feet” after a creative injury. – J. Cameron

What is “creative injury”? For me, it’s any sort of setback- a project that didn’t go as planned, loss of momentum, even the whole thing of not having created since childhood. I think the term is uber-dramatic (I might say this a lot about Cameron’s writing… please bear with me) but in general, I think it’s anything that might some love and attention and the space to heal a little bit.

Every year I worked taught me that creativity was open-ended. There was no upper limit, although some growth was slow. Faith was the required ingredient. … Higher powers stand ready to help us if we ask. We must remain ready to ask, open-minded enough to be led, and willing to believe despite our bouts of disbelief. Creativity is an act of faith, and we must be faithful to that faith, willing to share it to help others, and to be helped in return.  – J. Cameron

Okay, the faith thing. I get this, I really do. I like the idea that our creative voice is sort of a gift to us. But I also know from a lot of neuroscience reading and research that creativity IS actually a force in our brains, a series of connections that are made in our neural pathways.

Creaticity is a CHEMICAL “organ” inside us, much like love or passion or desire or well-being or anything else that you can feel inside of you, but you can’t pinpoint the exact location of (like a heart or a lung or a kidney). But it’s there. It’s happening.

But spiritually, I do love the idea of creativity being an energy that flows through us, that we get to shape and mold and influence before it flows back out of us. I like the idea that we MUST let that energy out or it will much about inside us, not because I like the idea of anything mucking about inside me, but that creativity is a natural force that is like love or passion or conscience – it just EXISTS in most humans as something we can’t exactly put our finger on, but something that must be paid attention to and nurtured.

Three passages that stood out to me about this were:

I have come to believe that creativity is our true nature … What you are doing is creating pathways in your consciousness through which the creative forces can operate. Once you agree to clearing these pathways, your creativity emerges. In a sense, your creativity is like your blood. Just as blood is a fact of your physical body and nothing you invented, creativity is a fact of your spiritual body and nothing that you must invent.  – J. Cameron

I learned to get out of the way and let that creative force work through me. I learned to just show up … [creativity] became more like eavesdropping and less like inventing a nuclear bomb. It wasn’t so tricky, and it didn’t blow up on me anymore. I didn’t have to be in the mood. I didn’t have to take my emotional temperature to see if inspiration was pending. … In retrospect, I am astounded I could let go of the drama of being a suffering artist.  – J. Cameron

We tend to think, or at least fear, that creative dreams are egotistical …. After all, our creative artist is an inner youngster and prone to childish thinking. If our mom or dad expressed doubt or disapproval for our creative dreams, we may project that same attitude onto a parental god. This thinking must be undone.  – J. Cameron

Do you feel being creative is a LUXURY? A selfish desire? Because even though I consider my artwork to be my *work* work, I still feel very selfish doing it. Maybe because I do enjoy it. Because so many of the tools I use to express creativity are the same exact items my daughter has in her “toybox”, the same tools I spent hours using as a child when I was “playing”.

However, my husband doesn’t have the same guilt about his creativity- he’s a software engineer, and he LOVES to write code. But he never feels guilty about going to do work, even though he enjoys it and thinks about it when he’s *not* working. So what’s the deal? I think we need to redefine creativity for ourselves. Lately I have been telling Gracie and Tom “I need to go get some work done” as opposed to “I need to make some jewelry for the shop” or “I need to write an article”. For some reason, that word “work” changes everything. And it makes ME take it more seriously, as well.

 

THE BASIC TOOLS

Okay, so lets talk about the tools. First and foremost, Cameron says:

There are a number of ways to use this book. Most of all, I invite you to use it creatively. …Frustrations and rewards exist at all levels on the path. Our aim here is to find the trail, establish our footing, and begin the climb.  … Think of it as a journey with difficult, varied, and fascinating terrain. You are moving to higher ground.  – J. Cameron

And:

THERE ARE TWO PIVOTAL tools in creative recovery: the morning pages and the artist date. … When people ask, “Why do we write morning pages?” I joke, “To get to the other side.”  – J. Cameron

THE MORNING PAGES

Okay, I’m going to go ahead and say it: I don’t believe in the power of the Morning Pages as the exact practice that Cameron says is “non-negotiable”. I’ve practiced them and they DID NOT WORK FOR ME. But let me explain why:

One thing I have learned from neuroscience is this: we are all wired WAY differently from one another. That’s what makes us human- we are NOT manufactured, we are all organic and our brains are each completely unique systems overseeing complex physical and chemical bodies.

What works for me- what unblocks me and gets me “going”- is NOT going to be the same as what gets YOU going. It may be SIMILAR, but it won’t be exactly the same. It just *can’t* be.

Cameron is right- every single day, non-negotiable, we need to engage in something that allows us to unblock, tap into that “flow” of creativity (whether you think it’s a spiritual flow or a neuron flow is up to you!), and let go of the funk.

Writing three pages longhand first thing in the morning? No way. I did it for a long time a few years ago and all it did was make me angry and resentful. It did nothing for my creativity, it just made me dislike a lot of people in my life. It was an odd response and not at all positive. I decided I didn’t like feeling that way and if anything it was hampering my creativity. I am NOT really interested in my creativity or my thoughts early in the morning. What I am interested in is getting the errand-y, chore-y, and around the house-y stuff (including my swim and gardening) done so that my afternoons become sacred, hardcore creative time. And that’s just the way I work best, and I honor that after years of struggling against it.

I have a morning routine, and writing longhand is not part of it.

It may be useful for you to think of the morning pages as meditation… Anyone who faithfully writes morning pages will be led to a connection with a source of wisdom within.  – J. Cameron

HOWEVER, I DO have a “morning pages”-esque routine. But I do it in the afternoon, after I swim and do my stuff around the house and have a cup of tea and get ready to be creative. I sit down at my desk, and take the day’s mail, and make a free-form collage from it. I take all the junk and catalogues and pages from magazines I’m done reading and cut up the little bits that appeal to me- patterns, words, quotes, textures, photos, etc. and glue them down on a scrap piece of paper. Then I toss it out.

Seriously. And that works SO WELL for me. Seriously! Just the chance to sit down and get out the funk and get into the creative momentum.

I think the idea of Morning Pages is so revolutionary because the people who were taking this as a course before it became a book and a phenomenom were people who had NEVER could or would give themselves permission to take the time to do something with absolutely no purpose. That’s what Morning Pages sort of are. I mean, of course they serve a bigger purpose, but to a stockbroker who is trying to get in touch with his creative side? They are ground breaking. To me? They don’t work. But then again, I have no qualms about cutting up junk mail and pasting it down on scraps of paper. But I also know I HAVE to do it. I think the power of the Morning Pages is that they are a specific practice that people feel that they have been given orders to do. If you can find your own similar practice and stick to it that has the same effects, then that’s what you should be doing.

The Artist’s Date

Doing your morning pages, you are sending— notifying yourself and the universe of your dreams, dissatisfactions, hopes. Doing your artist date, you are receiving— opening yourself to insight, inspiration, guidance. – J. Cameron

But what exactly is an artist date? An artist date is a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist. In its most primary form, the artist date is an excursion, a play date that you preplan and defend against all interlopers. – J. Cameron

I may not be a fan of Morning Pages as Cameron writes them, but I feel VERY strongly about the artist date. I like that she doesn’t put specifics on it.

Three passages that I loved:

In order to have a real relationship with our creativity, we must take the time and care to cultivate it. Our creativity will use this time to confront us, to confide in us, to bond with us, and to plan.  – J. Cameron

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. I call this process filling the well. In filling the well, think magic. Think delight. Think fun. Do not think duty. Do not do what you should do— spiritual sit-ups like reading a dull but recommended critical text. Do what intrigues you, explore what interests you; think mystery, not mastery. A mystery draws us in, leads us on, lures us. … In filling the well, follow your sense of the mysterious, not your sense of what you should know more about.  – J. Cameron

The artist’s language is a sensual one, a language of felt experience.  – J. Cameron

This is all SO key.  When I take the time to sit down with my art books, to lose an afternoon just OBSERVING in the garden, to go out on a little adventure, to look at paint in bottles and not think about how to use it… I get so inspired. The little neurons in my brain start firing and making connections.

In order for those neurological connections to happen, to find the resources to connect one idea to another, there MUST be inspiration, awe, things that appeal to us in a deep and full way. So we have to take time from our daily routines, even if our daily routines are ALL about creativity, to “fill the well”.

Stop telling yourself, “It’s too late.” • Stop waiting until you make enough money to do something you’d really love. • Stop telling yourself, “It’s just my ego” whenever you yearn for a more creative life. • Stop telling yourself that dreams don’t matter, that they are only dreams and that you should be more sensible. • Stop fearing that your family and friends would think you crazy. • Stop telling yourself that creativity is a luxury and that you should be grateful for what you’ve got. … protect your inner artist.  – J. Cameron

Okay, for next week, let’s start Chapter/Week One! We can all read it together this week, discuss it as we go, and break out the “big guns” via discussion next Tuesday, October 16^th.

If you are catching up, don’t worry. I’ll be happy to chat about all aspects of the books at any point.

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Chel Micheline is a mixed-media artist, curator, writer, and avid gardener/reader/swimmer who lives in Southwest Florida with her husband and daughter. When Chel’s not making art or pondering the Bliss Habits, she’s blogging at gingerblue.com (come say hi!) or posting new things in the gingerblue etsy shop.