Category: Julia Cameron

The Dilemma

It never fails to amaze me how I can do such a good job of Not working. Just amazing. I thought for sure I’d get something done the last couple of days. Did I? I did not. Slacker. 

I sure do talk a good one, though, don’t I?

Shells ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis
Watercolor on Arches

Maybe Julia Cameron was right? In her book The Artist’s Way, she says Don’t Read. You know what happens when the brain hears the words “don’t read”? The brain doesn’t hear it the way we think it will. The brain hears only the word ‘read’ totally ignoring the ‘don’t’ part.

And what happens? I end up reading everything I get my hands on.

The moral of the story is reading leads to Not Working. Did you get that? I’m doing all kinds of reading: newspapers, email, blogs, junk, among the how to break through resistance. Isn’t that nice? Reading about moving past resistance, instead of just moving past resistance.

It’s a dilemma.

Some Kind of Wordless on Wednesday

Dodging Mr. Resistance isn’t easy so I try to hide out, but once in a while he finds me and aims his barbs when I peek over my shoulder. 
If I’m not careful motivation is out the window and that’s that with that.
Since reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, I am well aware of resistance and learned a few tricks to beat it quickly.
One of those tricks is to keep moving any way I possibly can. Either I can clean up the studio, doodle with my granddaughter’s crayons, dig in the garden, or whip out the camera. Something mindless usually works. 
In between paintings, thinking things, and hunting for inspiration, I headed out into the garden. 
A garden visitor

Looking for painting subjects in those old photographs allowed a chink for resistance to slip in. Bad move.

Out in the garden to follow the butterflies with my camera helped put a stop to that.

Thought for Thursday

“Judging your early artistic efforts is artist abuse.”~Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way Hmmm.

Interesting. I always thought it was a good idea to go back and look at where our work began to shift, but since reading this quote I’m not so sure.

 Do we tend to judge the work rather than study and learn from it? Do we end up saying to our artist-self “You idiot, What were you thinking when you painted that?” Chime in here. I would really like to know what other creatives think about this.

Thought for Thursday

“Whenever we indulge in what might be called ‘paint by numbers’ art, we are engaging in cynicism and skepticism.  We are on a subtle level out to ‘fool’ people.  We are looking down at our audience and saying ‘If I just feed them what they are used to getting, I can fool them.’  Does this mean that we must always and willfully break the mold?  No..we are always engaged in a delicate balancing act. We both know how things ‘are done’ and we must strive to listen accurately to see if that’s how our particular piece of art wants to be done.”

        ~Discovering A Sense Of Authenticity, Walking In This World, Julia Cameron

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.

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….