The Artist’s Way
A Book Review of The Artist’s Way
by Julia Cameron
During a season of my life when I was deep in the weeds of mothering, I picked up this book, recommended to me by a friend. Little did I realize that I had an artist hiding inside me that needed to come out. Julia Cameron believes that everyone is born creative, but most neglect their artistic leanings as they get older and are told that making art doesn’t matter or should not be made a priority.
This book is unique in that it starts with a contract. The contract says “I ______________ understand that I am undertaking an intense guided encounter with my own creativity. I commit to weekly reading, daily morning pages and an artist date every week for the next 12 weeks. I ______________ commit to excellent self care, adequate sleep, diet, and exercise during the duration of the course.”
I signed the contract and decided to give it a try.
The Morning Pages. I was familiar with journaling, but never every single day, and never with the assurance that nobody else would read what I wrote. The pages were to be destroyed upon writing. There was a freedom in knowing that my thoughts didn’t need editing and didn’t need to pass through a people pleasing filter.
The Artist Date Cameron describes artist dates as a 2 hour chunk of time once a week spent pleasing your “inner artist child”. My artist dates included hiking, going to museums, thrift shopping, and cooking. The first few times, 2 hours seemed like a long time and felt extravagant and selfish. I was tempted to shorten my time and do something more “productive” like grocery shopping or errands. With time and practice, I realized that 2 hours is the perfect amount of time and occasionally a whole day is more fitting, depending on the activity.
I highly recommend the Artists Way. If you want to get the most out of it, try going through it with a group or asking one person to keep you accountable to the contract of morning pages and artist dates. It is harder than it sounds. I only did the morning pages about half the days and an artist date every 2-3 weeks, but the message of the book changed me, and I will be forever grateful to Julia Cameron for writing it.
