The Artist's Way's topics - tribe.net

Full text of critique

carlos-ity — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:48:55 GMT

i think this is the "full text" of my original critique. i don't know if i include the pages of the section to which i am mostly referring, but i think it was page 43-49 (in the "crazy maker" section).

i am re-posting this as apparently it has gone missing from the various places i posted it...hmmm...curious but not surprising.

Engineering opinion department: The Artist's Way

=============
'artists are the antennae...' --Ezra Pound
==============

(re-edited for clarity, January 2008)

The following were posted in a forum promoting the artists' workbook entitled "The Artist's Way" by Julie Cameron. i've edited it in a way to make it more readable for those who weren't on the forum.

For those of you unfamiliar with this book, it became *very popular* quite suddenly a few years ago amongst many creatives in the business art "community" (or lack thereof), and was touted as especially allegedly "helpful" for those whom have, for some supposedly "unknown" reason, found themselves experiencing the phenomenon called "artists' block" and related challenges to making more money and living the materialist life we've all been socialized to think is just dandy and even "responsible".

One might assume that this isn't *such a big deal* until you begin to understand that the naive artists whose attention is hooked by this book are *also* being hyped-up to separate themselves from fellow artists whom are labled in destructive ways like "crazymaker".

Typical of "self help" books that get plugged in mainline society as being "exceptional" these days we see a certain pattern where:

A) Contexts for situations can never be more thoroughly explored much less found to lie within the institutions and their constructs that we're to uncritically subordinate to, but only in those who are having a hard time adequately assimilating (for reasons which escape most well-indoctrinated folks in our thought-control-oriented suiciety).

B) Rational explanations for why others, say "Crazymakers", do as they do are not to be adequately understood; they are to be labeled, reduced, and excluded!

My original reply to one of the happy promoters of the book:

My response to D, a happy promoter of the book on the forum mentioned above who posted various links to help sell it... She asked what my specific problem with the book was, and whether i had actually read it. Here's what i said:

D, i had a big problem with the way [Julie Cameron, the author] reduces and labels a group of artists who are exhibiting the *very real* (and crucial) symptoms of living a colonized (i.e. systematically alienated) life. (Yes, I'm saying that *all of 'society'* is a colonization attack on all whom are put through it in compulsory or otherwise duped ways, i.e. "the manufacture of consent").

Further, the author labels as "bad" (i.e. "crazymaker") the most potentially threatening group (to the social order) and seeks to further separate these very sensitive *social antennae* from those creative people who are even less in touch with their intuitive rebellion (from the "normalized" situations of artists working to enhance the social order).

Instead of promoting deeper thought about how some people can become "crazy" in the face of art cult-ure and all of its superficialities (which act as tho this is completely "normal") Cameron works to isolate these folks she has labeled and the reader with various cheap shots. Of course, by that time in the book, everyone reading "The Artist's Way" has already been bedazzled by the formula that *fills a void* (which virtually no one adequately demystifies) so they quite easily go along!

Thus a Bandwagon effect is put into action, and rebellion --especially that which is not yet even close to being articulate--is blocked from even coming to the veritable surface!

No wonder her book was allowed to shoot quickly up to the "Best Seller" list! No wonder all the commissars of the art industry LOVE this book! This is what propaganda is all about! This is classic thought control hoodwinking a majority (of often mediocre artists, hence their ability to fit into the business at all) while scapegoating a minority!

Consider Noam Chomsky's remarks in the preface of his book _Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies_ (http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/ni/ni-preface.html ):
"A large part of this task is assumed by ideological institutions that channel thought and attitudes within acceptable bounds, deflecting any potential challenge to established privilege and authority before it can take form and gather strength. The enterprise has many facets and agents."

And only adding to divisions and alienation! Same old story!

Of course, such labeling and discrediting wouldn't have happened in communities, say, where intense folks are interpreted as *Gift givers* (i.e. shamans). Communities not fully "developed" like in Africa or other Native/indignous communities world-wide. Hadn't the Western Civilization art ghetto been already so deeply corralled (i.e. sensitives not being given any frame of reference to articulate their dissent from a profit-oriented, consumer art society, thus drinking away their pain), this wouldn't have so easily slipped past! (There may be challenges in the margins, but no "Art Magazine" "worth their salt" would publish serious dialogue amongst artists! No!)

And so thought control continues hardly challenged. And dissidents told to "get therapy" or be labled with these increasingly hostile reductions (let's not forget "Oppositional Defiant Disorder", now reportedly being used on adults as well as kids).

Every institution --including "the art world"-- which wants to continue having "a seat at the table" of *privileges* has to play this meta game. And it's no biggie scapegoating those minorities whom can't fight back. That's "normal" in thought control societies like ours.

i'm a working artist as well, yet my face has been repeatedly slapped with reality to a point where i was "lucky" to begin stumbling upon various subjects around institutional analyses which have similar patterns between them. Not a far stretch, then, to apply such to the art "community", especially when one sees the very real politics happening!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "As domains of experience become more alien to us, we need greater and greater openmindedness even to conceive of their existence."--R.D. Laing in _The Politics of Experience_ from: http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace

posted in The Artist's Way - 4 replies

another form of thought control, re: The Artist's Way?

carlos-ity — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 03:09:00 GMT

What I mean to ask is, why and how did The Artist's Way suddenly become so popular?

Who funded the idea? Did the author *really* work her way up the hard road that most authors are forced to work up into to even be heard of in significant places?

Was it published by a visionary with a few blind spots? (we all have them, after all)

Was it suggested to be published and a certain author assigned to write it? (these things *do* happen, after all)

The reason i ask is because i'm wondering what makes ideas superficially New Age and what doesn't. You may think this question has little value, but growing numbers of those being colonized by "our" society (in the "Western World" as well as everywhere else) are rising up and articulating that there's a big problem with portions of the information and ideas we're digesting --often without adequate critique.

And i agree with this motion, since i already have had challenges with a certain part of The Artist's Way.

But perhaps you don't think of The Artist's Way as New Age?

Why not? It is certainly giving us a pathway to follow towards an allegedly "new" way of seeing ourselves and others (and yes, i do challenge portions of those ideas).

New Age or not, in your feeling, would anyone be into a dialogue on this?

posted in The Artist's Way - 5 replies

New Moderator

lobocita — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:23:01 GMT

I was really into this book in past years, but not so much now.

Anyone want to take over moderatorship of this tribe? I would like to clear it off my tribe list.

posted in The Artist's Way - 1 reply

A Note From Julia Cameron

xcess — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 01:18:18 GMT

This is Julia.

I want to share
with you a note I
wrote to one of your
tribe mates.

Joss and j have graciously
allowed me to use their account
to post this message and the note
to j I wrote this afternoon.

Joss and j both embody creativity in their
own very distinct ways. I encourage you to
get to know their work individually and together
as these two become 'one.

Thank you for your interest in my work. I hope you
achieve the mastery you hope to attain.

http://people.tribe.net/xcess/blog/4560abd7-03b1-43a6-87fc-b0c522fb884b

All the best,

Julia

Julia Cameron
February 26, 2007

posted in The Artist's Way - 9 replies

an initiation ceremony for the crazed and channelling

carlos-ity — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 23:56:36 GMT

I would like to envision, with your input, possible "initiation ceremonies" for those who are labeled crazy amongst us, and usually encouraged or coerced to seek so-called "professional help". The more creative your vision, the better. The more outlandish, the more possibly inspiring, brainstorm-style!

i got this particular idea after reading the following:

"Instead of the degradation ceremonial of psychiatric examination, diagnosis and prognostication, we need, for those who are ready for it (in psychiatric terminology, often those who are about to go into a schizophrenic breakdown), an initiation ceremonial, through which the person will be guided with full social encouragement and sanction into inner space and time, by people who have been there and back again. Psychiatrically, this would appear as ex-patients helping future patients to go mad."

from:
http://www.laingsociety.org/colloquia/peaceconflict/divisions.levine.htm

There is some really good reading here. Here are some excerpts for the expected skeptics to think about:

"In the opinion of Dr. Thomas Szasz, psychiatry may be the new secular religion in an age of pseudo-science:

"The discerning reader may detect a faint note of familiarity here. Modern psychiatric ideology is an adaptation-to a scientific age-of the traditional ideology of Christian theology. Instead of being born into sin, man is born into sickness. Instead of life being a vale of tears, it is a vale of diseases. And, as in his journey from the cradle to the grave man was formerly guided by the priest, so now he is guided by the physician. In short, whereas in the Age of Faith the ideology was Christian, the technology clerical, and the expert priestly; in the Age of Madness the ideology is medical, the technology clinical, and the expert psychiatric.

"Thus psychiatry, like the nuclear family, becomes an instrumental motive force in the creation of the total social institution; through a process of mystification, both define normality and mould the individual into the one-dimensional shape of social utility. Laing calls this mystification a political act of "violence masquerading as love". "

and:

"'From the moment of birth, when the Stone Age baby confronts the twentiety-century mother, the baby is subjected to these forces of violence, called love, as its mother and father, and their parents and their parents before them, have been. These forces are mainly concerned with destroying most of its potentialities, and on the whole this enterprise is successful. By the time the new human being is fifteen or so, we are left with a being like ourselves, a half-crazed creature more or less adjusted to a mad world. This is normality in our present age.'

"Some people can adapt to this system. We call them normal. "Society highly values its normal man. It educates children to lose themselves and to become absurd, and thus to be normal," Laing tells us. "Normal men have killed perhaps 100,000,000 of their fellow normal men in the last fifty years." But some cannot adapt to this imposed normality. They break down. Instead, they devise a strategy to deal with their inability to hold their invalidated experience ant their sense of themselves together. As Laing puts it, "it seem to us that without exception the experience and behaviour that gets labeled schizophrenic is a special strategy that a person invents in order to live in an unlivable situation".

"Though, in [David] Cooper's phrase, the schizophrenic may look like someone whose "logic" is "ill", he is, in reality, someone, who has been made an invalid because his experience has been invalidated. For Laing and Cooper, schizophrenia is no 'something happening in a person but rather something between persons". Thus when one psychiatrist calls schizophrenia "a failure of human adaptation", Laing responds that it may as well be "a successful attempt not to adapt to pseudo-social realities". It all seems to be a matte of perspective: "Schizophrenia is a label affixed by some people to others in situations where an interpersonal disjunction of a particular kind is occurring. This is the nearest one can get at the moment to something like an 'objective' statement, so called."

"The validity of a definition is ultimately determined by the identity of the one who is defining. It is in this context that Laing argues: "There is no such 'condition' a 'schizophrenia,' but the label is a social fact and the social fact a political event." Seen from this radical perspective, all our definitions may have to be turned upside down ant inside out. "What we call 'normal' is", according to Laing "a product of repression, denial, splitting, projection, introjection and other forms. of destructive action on experience.... It is radically estranged from the structure of being." No wonder, then, that "the condition of alienation, of being asleep, of being unconscious, of being out of one's mind, is the condition of the normal man." On the other hand schizophrenia may be seen as an alienation from this alienation, where, "even through his profound wretchedness and disintegration", the patient may be "the hierophant of the sacred". Finally, "madness need not be all breakdown. It may also be break-through. It is potential liberation and renewal as well as enslavement and existential death."

"In _The Politics of Experience_, Laing describes how, in some instances, breakdown does become break-through; transforming the "schizophrenic experience" into a "transcendental experience". As depicted by Gregory Bateson, the schizophrenic embarks upon a voyage from the "outer" world of the "ego" to the "inner" world of the "self" -and back out again. He regards it as an archetypal journey that bears a close resemblance to descriptions of religious experience:

"It would appear that once precipitated into psychosis the patient has a course to run. He is, as it were, embarked upon a voyage of discovery which is only completed by his return to the normal world, to which he comes back with insights different from those of the inhabitants who never embarked on such a voyage."

posted in The Artist's Way - 0 replies

Artist Date Ideas

Awen — Sat, 25 Jun 2005 20:19:35 GMT

- Cook noodles with tomato sauce listening to napolitan folk music
- See picture books of Aquariums and Underwater life
- Listen to a live choir
- Make a mask with papier macher
- Present a journalistic newsflash in front of the mirror
- Write a letter to a personal hero that has already passed on
- Go to the airport with a big bag full of flimsy and artsy and un-necessary stuff. No, you're not gonna fly. It's just because.

...what else?

posted in The Artist's Way - 12 replies

Vein of Gold

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 22:18:35 GMT

I'm wondering if anybody in this tribe has read Julia Cameron's book "Vein of Gold" and if so, what do you think about it. I've only finished the first section and like what I've read.
For those who don't know...it looks to me... like an extension of the Artists Way.

posted in The Artist's Way - 1 reply

Morning Pages piling up!

Awen — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 18:22:12 GMT

Hey guys, what do you do with your old Morning Pages, after you have read them and took notes? Do you get rid of them, or do you keep those tens of notebooks forever??

Cheers,
Awen

posted in The Artist's Way - 7 replies

Anyone redoing or just starting The Artist's Way?

Sean-Michael — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 22:28:00 GMT

This group looks like people haven't been posting of late. Is there a more active TAW tribe I should join, or are there folks restarting or newly starting (like myself) who would like to discuss what they're experiencing?

Sean-Michael

posted in The Artist's Way - 3 replies

Call for Creative Recovery group!!

Awen — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 12:17:20 GMT

Friends, morning pages procrastinators, peers and passers-by,

I am planning to start another round of 'the Artist's Way' this month (March), and I thought of inviting people who would like to go through it as a group. If everyone interested agrees, I suggest we to start on March 12th, but we might start this weekend as well. I'm totally open to suggestions and I have started a group on Yahoo to discuss our stuff privately.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/awenscreativerecovery/

Anyone who wishes to join the group is welcome! The sooner we get a quorum, the sooner the fun starts!!

posted in The Artist's Way - 5 replies

my favorite place to write

SunsetGem — Sun, 14 May 2006 08:10:05 GMT

is any kind of natural setting... anyplace I can truck my journal and a pen... but my absolute favorite place is the deck at this Sierra house, surrounded by tall trees, absolute silence, rays of sunshine on my face and on the blank pages. There's usually a light breeze, some birds singing somewhere. I feel absolute clariy an amazing energy here, and I imagine this place when I'm stuck or feeling down... How lucky am I!

Where is your favorite place?

posted in The Artist's Way - 1 reply

Artist's Circle in the Bay Area

SunsetGem — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 03:49:50 GMT

Hello everyone -- new to this tribe, and new to being an Artist's Way alum.

I didn't know there was an Artist's Way tribe and was going to start one until I found this.

Where are people in the process?

Is it helpful to share gripes and ideas and challenges and inspirations?

I completed the 12-week course in January and am seeking an active Artist's Circle to keep my activities going... haven't had any luck yet locating such a group in the SF Bay Area, but would be willing to start one if there is some interest. Perhpas a women's only group, if that'd work.

Introductions? Suggestions?

posted in The Artist's Way - 0 replies

New Year's Resolutions

emmag — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 14:52:10 GMT

Does anyone have any related to the Artist's Way? If so, what are they? I'm in the process of creating mine, so I'll post as soon as I figure them out!

posted in The Artist's Way - 3 replies

SF Bay Area folx

funmoore — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 23:48:10 GMT

Anyone interested in working the course together, live, in-person like?

posted in The Artist's Way - 2 replies

spring 2005

lobocita — Sun, 15 May 2005 19:05:25 GMT

shall i delete this tribe, or is there any activity worth discussing here?

posted in The Artist's Way - 3 replies

'the Artis's Way' group starting next Sunday!

Awen — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 00:00:11 GMT

Hello everybody!

I'm proud to invite you all to pursue Julia Cameron's 'the Artist's Way' coursebook with us starting this October 31st, with the blessings of All Hallows' Eve!! In case you don't have the book yet, hurry up, you have one week to get your copy! You're only half alive without it! It doesn't matter if you've taken the whole course already -- all of us are taking it for the second, third or even fourth time! Just come add your own unique, beautiful Energy to the vortex. Let's nurture, inspire and challenge each other to bloom more fully and fulfill our own Artistry sharing mutual support!

The group is gathering here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/artistswaywork

I hope to see everybody there with us!

posted in The Artist's Way - 0 replies

New in here...

griselda_tello — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 05:11:00 GMT

Hello there, I am an artist, a painter and a Spiritual Art, doll maker.

I am new in here but not to The Artist Way, I have started this process a couple of times before, I would love to do it again...alas...I need to find my book or buy a new one...but somehow...I feel this will be a good time for me, not only for my art, I find the morning pages to be a good disipline. I am looking foward to finding out what is hidding inside, and ready to make a few changes.
Wishing for everyone love and light.
Gris
www.griselda.com

posted in The Artist's Way - 1 reply

difficulty

lobocita — Wed, 04 Feb 2004 06:42:29 GMT

this is harder to start than i thought...

posted in The Artist's Way - 14 replies

rebirth of this tribe!!!!

Thu, 22 Apr 2004 11:17:33 GMT

reading the book for the 1st time & have decided to go through the program by myself and then form a group and go it all again. i'm on my first week, and anybody who is still interested in creative discussion of the book and its exercises, premise, or the like should re-animate this tribe with me :)

if i can do it, anybody can.

posted in The Artist's Way - 12 replies

w1: checkin

lobocita — Sat, 07 Feb 2004 21:05:44 GMT

post your comments on week 1 here.

posted in The Artist's Way - 10 replies

Do you think it is ok to...

taramonster — Mon, 15 Mar 2004 17:57:31 GMT

If you are doing your morning pages daily, and your artist date weekly, do you think it would be ok to take two weeks to complete every one week in the book.

Do to very real time restrictions I only seem to be able to get through half of the weekly exercises in a weeks time. But that is also because I have been putting a lot of real thought and energy into each one task as well.

So I know this will mean that it will take me 24 weeks to complete this, but I feel ok with that and I feel like I will get more out of it for myself if I do it this way, rather than rushing through each exercise in order to complete it by weeks end.

So, I wanted to see what you guys thought about this idea. Thanks.

posted in The Artist's Way - 2 replies

So I am behind you guys but...

taramonster — Thu, 11 Mar 2004 18:44:35 GMT

I am doing it. I really officially started this week.

On top of that I have taken the contract very seriously and I have been taking excellent care of myself, eating well, getting exercise, and trying to get enough sleep (I have been dealing with bouts of insomnia since I really started to delve into this stuff, but it is ok, I am ok).

I have been thinking seriously about my negative blurts about myself and really trying to work through them, and now it is time for me to really face my monsters and demons. I am a little worried about it, but I am also excited about it.

I have also been keeping a live journal. Know, my morning pages are still written by hand in my notebook, but my live journal is more a way for me to publicly work through this stuff. This way my nearest and dearest can see what it is that I am trying to affect in my life, and what exactly I am going through to get there. So far I have gotten a lot of really good encouragement from those I love that have been reading along.

And that really helps to quelch that damn negative voice that tells me that nobody really cares.

So the main reason for posting in a live journal is because if I make this whole process that I am undertaking public, then it really motivates me to see it through till the end, because now those closest to me know exactly what I am trying to do, and if I allow myself to stop and atrophy and stagnate, I will have to answer to them about it.

I am so grateful that the artist way exists. I have needed to do this for a long time, and this recovery process has become essential to me, a right of passage into actualizing myself into who I really am.

I know that this journey will not always be easy, and it is certainly not effortless, but I am taking it very seriously.

So, I just wanted to share all of that with you guys. Thanks to Lobicita for giving us a place to share with each other.

Love and encouragement to each of you on your path!

P.S. If any of you are interested in reading my lj, there is a link to it in my profile, I am an open book with nothing to hide, and since you guys are undertaking the same process, I welcome any feedback and encouragement that you can offer.

posted in The Artist's Way - 0 replies

w5: comments

lobocita — Sun, 29 Feb 2004 18:57:39 GMT

eeks! i am behind! please move on, i will catch up!

comments here, por favor!

posted in The Artist's Way - 2 replies

Week 4 - Recovering Integrity

Crystal — Wed, 25 Feb 2004 17:24:16 GMT

I hope I'm not stepping on any toes, but since no one has started a thread about week 4, I thought I'd share my week.

I'm still doing the morning pages, off and on, but this is fairly habitual for me, as I've been journal-writing for most of my life.

But I just wanted to share the "artist date" that I had last night. I signed up for a stained glass workshop about a
week before, that was for only 3 hours.I learned the very basics of glass cutting, and the grinding and welding part of the art...It felt like I was FINALLY starting to do something that makes me glad to be alive. It felt very comfortable and familiar, like I'd come home. Three hours was not nearly enough, and I plan to take a more in-depth course, soon.

I'd be interested in other's experiences, those "budding artists" out there...Anyone else have stories?

posted in The Artist's Way - 2 replies

w3: Task 4: Habits

lobocita — Tue, 17 Feb 2004 06:11:08 GMT

[Note: I loved every task on the list this week, so I may add a few more for us to do as a group. I hope you liked them all too!]

Habits: Take a look at your habits. Many of them may interfere with your self-nurturing and cause shame. Some of the oddest things are self-destructive. Do you have a habit of watching TV you don't like? Do you have a habit of hanging out with a really boring friend and just killing time (there's an expression!)? Some rotten habits are obvious, overt (drinking too much, smoking, eating instead of writing). List three obvious rotten habits. What's the payoff in continuing them?

Some rotten habits are more subtle (no time to exercise, little time to pray, always helping others, not getting self-nurturing, hanging with people who belittle your dreams). List three of your subtle foes. What use do these forms of sabotage have? Be specific.

So, we are looking for:
a) three obvious rotten habits;
b) three subtle foes.

posted in The Artist's Way - 6 replies

w2: Check-in

lobocita — Tue, 17 Feb 2004 06:05:27 GMT

How was last week for you?

1. How many days did you do your morning pages?
2. did you do your artist date this week?
3. Were there any other issues this week? Please comment on this tribe, as well!

Let's hear from everyone this week, okay? I think we all need to feel a sense of group involvement here. Thanks!

posted in The Artist's Way - 6 replies

w3: Recovering a Sense of Power

lobocita — Tue, 17 Feb 2004 06:06:23 GMT

This is where the going starts to get tough...

sorry I am late in getting this week started, the holiday threw me off! But let's get started on the week:

Lots of exercises in the chapter... Receiving criticism was discussed... and the detective work exercise was insightful.

This is a section for us to discuss the chapter...

How was it for you to go through this chapter? Let's discuss!

posted in The Artist's Way - 0 replies

w2: Task 2: Where Does the Time Go?

lobocita — Wed, 11 Feb 2004 16:54:54 GMT

Where does your time go? List your five major activities this week. How much time did you give to each one? Which were what you wanted to do and which were shoulds? How much of your time is spent helping others and ignoring your own desires? Have any of your blocked friends triggered doubts in you?

[note: in rereading the chapter again (see post: "inspired"), it occurred to me that we might try to do this exercise as a group]

posted in The Artist's Way - 5 replies

inspired

lobocita — Wed, 11 Feb 2004 16:52:20 GMT

yesterday i had a mini breakthrough:

i reread the chapter. and i took a long walk.

those two things helped me to see that i might be putting too much pressure on myself right now. and also to realize that i have this friend who has been offering me help with my art project, he is encouraging me... and i have been deflecting it. the chapter, of course, talks about those whom we should avoid.. but rereading it made me realize that i should not be avoiding those who are good for me! (it is an oversized piece that i need help sourcing some of the raw materials)

the walk helped. letting myself reread the chapter and take another stab at getting this to work helped.

[we won't talk about morning pages]

posted in The Artist's Way - 0 replies

w2: Task 6: More Imaginary Lives

lobocita — Sun, 08 Feb 2004 16:24:42 GMT

Return to the list of imaginary lives from last week. Add five more lives. Again, check to see if you could be doing bits and pieces of these lives in the one you are living now. If you listed a dancer's life, do you let yourself go dancing? If you have listed a monk's life, are you ever allowed to go on a retreat? If you are a scuba diver, is there an aquarium shop you can visit? A day at the lake you could schedule?

posted in The Artist's Way - 4 replies

Roll call!

lobocita — Wed, 28 Jan 2004 14:46:10 GMT

Everyone is welcome into this tribe, we are all artists/creatives in our own way!

Now, let's do a quick rollcall of who is participating in the 12-week workbook group (begins Sunday, February 1).

Name
Location
Art genre
Top reason for participating in the 12-week workbook now

posted in The Artist's Way - 20 replies

w1: Task 8: Imaginary Lives

lobocita — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 18:04:00 GMT

FROM THE BOOK:

"Imaginary Lives:

If you had five other lives to lead, what would you do in each of them? I would be a pilot, a cowhand, a physicist, a psychic, a monk. You might be a scuba diver, a cop, a writer of children's books, a football player, a belly dancer, a painter, a performance artist, a history teacher, a healer, a coach, a scientist, a doctor, a Peace Corps worker, a psychologist, a fisherman, a minister, an auto mechanic, a carpenter, a sculptor, a lawyer, a painter, a computer hacker, a soap-opera star, a country singer, a rock-and-roll dummer. Whatever occurs to you, jot it down. Do not overthink this exercise.

The point of the lives is to have fun with them--more fun than you might be having in this one. Look over your list and select one. Then do it this week. For instance, if you put down "country singer", can you pick a guitar? If you dream of being a cowhand, what about some horseback riding?"

POSTING TO THE GROUP:

As she says, be spontaneous and post a list of five things! Don't need a reason or a justification, just list five! ("Do not overthink this exercise") Then, just before you hit the SUBMIT button, pick one that you will do this week. Then log off and go do that!

posted in The Artist's Way - 14 replies

w1: Comments on the chapter

lobocita — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 18:09:16 GMT

"Week 1: Recovering a Sense of Safety"

This week brings a chapter of reading, as well as introduces us to new tasks we will do on a daily and weekly basis. And it introduces the "Creative Affirmations."

posted in The Artist's Way - 2 replies

International Artist's Way Meetup Day

lobocita — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 21:04:38 GMT

Tuesday, February 17 @ 8:00PM
in your city

http://artistsway.meetup.com/

posted in The Artist's Way - 0 replies

Lots of good articles

fishninja — Sat, 31 Jan 2004 22:01:57 GMT

http://www.artbusiness.com/artists.html

posted in The Artist's Way - 0 replies

Prepping

lobocita — Wed, 28 Jan 2004 14:25:39 GMT

Our 12-week workbook begins Sunday, February 1.

Things you can do to prep:

> Get ahold of a copy of the book. Buy, borrow or steal.

> Read the book, without doing the exercises. Just to familiarize with the premise, content, style.

> Plan for your morning pages. You will be writing every morning, so prepare for a space, time, and place to do so. This can be buying a journal, some special paper/folder, or even (blasphemy!) preparing a blog location to write your morning pages. (Blogging not recommended for the following reasons: the book requests handwritten pages, the book requests you not read your morning pages until months later).

> Emotional courage. As the beginning date approaches, I find myself wavering in my convictions. Perhaps you have similar negative/positive thoughts: this is ridiculous... i don't need this... i have too many other things to do... i don't want to bother doing this... So, silence the voices in your head, and prepare yourself to follow through on your original plan!

> Keep good company! Once again, take the time to invite a friend, fellow triber, or others who might later Bop! you in the head for not inviting them before this started. We all know creative people, why not reach out and at least offer them a link to this tribe, see if they want to participate in the 12-week workbook!

posted in The Artist's Way - 1 reply

Virtual workgroup: How this will work:

lobocita — Wed, 28 Jan 2004 14:43:38 GMT

I have put some thought to how this "virtual" Artist's Way group will participate together, and here is what I have come up with. Each week I will post new topic threads (titled with the week's number):

1. Sunday: Task of the week. Post your Task work to the group. Comment on others. Some weeks I may pick a few Tasks of the week, each will have it's own thread.
2. Sunday: Comments about the topic of the week. Each week brings about a new theme, some are easier to deal with than others.
3. Saturday: Check-in comments (from the end of the chapter).
4. Saturday: Reminder for the next week. Also, provide your feedback/suggestions (and encouragement!) here.

We will all be able to post under that thread, and it might be polite to keep the postings to those who are participating in the 12-week workbook.

posted in The Artist's Way - 0 replies

Morning Pages

lynnc — Sun, 11 Jan 2004 03:43:55 GMT

It's been at least 7 years since I read The Artist's Way. It was great helping me remember who I was during my divorce.

When I joined the Tribe last night, I was trying to remember something...anything... from the book. What I recalled was spending $5 to buy my spirit a present.

So this morning waking up I was thinking about The Artist's Way, got out my notebook and pen and began my morning stream of consciousness dialogue with myself. I had filled 4 pages before I remembered where I got the idea to write like this in the first place. A-ha!! The Artist's Way strikes again. Remembering specifics or not, it had carried over into my "now".

Patterns become apparent, choices become obvious and questions get answered in my morning pages.

What do your morning pages do for you?

Lynn

posted in The Artist's Way - 13 replies

Tell A Friend

lobocita — Sun, 11 Jan 2004 22:01:18 GMT

Whether you have done The Artist's Way before or not, I bet you know at least a few people who might want to join the tribe and do the 12 week process with us.

I encourage you to spread the word, post an invite in some of your other tribes, or send an email invitation to those you know about this tribe.

Come mid February, when you are raving about how *great* it is that you started the 12 week process with this tribe, you will not want your friends and acquaintances saying "I wish you had told me about this in advance!"

posted in The Artist's Way - 1 reply

Excited

Jenny — Fri, 09 Jan 2004 23:43:39 GMT

I'm excited to be invited to this tribe. I've been picking up the Artist's Way intermittently over the last year, always when I'm really needing some inspiration, and finding a lot there. I always wanted a group to help me keep on it.

By way of introduction, I have an art degree but never really "put it to use". I've worked for other artists and supported group artmaking but I've had a hard time since art school creating anything that could be described as art for art's sake. I can stem the fear of artmaking by calling the process something else, telling myself I'm making a present for someone else, or making something for a specific function. But the minute I think of it as "art" I am like a deer in the headlights. anybody else feel that way?

- Jenny

posted in The Artist's Way - 5 replies

Artist Way

Quichemarie — Thu, 15 Jan 2004 21:47:09 GMT

Hi fellow Artist Way-ers. I just realized that there is another Artist Way tribe here (this one). I opened an Artist Way tribe myself today, after doing a tribe search and not finding an Artist Way tribe here! Needless to say, now there are two. I would like to participate in both, if you would also, please join the other Artist Way tribe. I am sure we could benefit from each other. I will post a listing for mine... please also post yours in my tribe. Thanks. Let me know if this is a problem.
~Q~

posted in The Artist's Way - 0 replies

Buy the book

lobocita — Sun, 11 Jan 2004 22:05:03 GMT

In anticipation of the upcoming 12 week process, I encourage you to, like Lynn from this tribe, begin reading your Artist's Way book in advance. The book itself encourages you to read the book in advance, but you don't have to do the exercises, that will begin Feb 1

If you already own a copy, great, dust it off and start browsing!

If you are going to purchase, I encourage you to buy from a local independent bookseller. If he does not carry it in stock, you have just enough time for him to order it.

If you are short of funds, consider borrowing the book from a friend or the local library. Or ask here in tribe, someone might have an extra copy (haven't we all bought this book more than once?) or knows someone who is willing to part with/lend theirs.

posted in The Artist's Way - 0 replies

12 week schedule

lobocita — Sat, 10 Jan 2004 00:09:38 GMT

So, although it is not a requirement for this tribe, it would nice to conduct a full Artist Way session with our members. I know the book provides information on how to conduct a group Artist's Way process, and I am hoping we can try to use it for a virtual group as well. I have never lead an Artist's Way group, but I have done the 12 week process once. (Like many, I have dabbled in it for many years, but only once took it all the way through. Very powerful stuff!). If we find a tribe member who has led a group, I would hope they would volunteer to try to lead us in a virtual group.

Since it is such a long process, I am thinking we could all do our best to recruit everyone who might be interested, and set a date to start, say Feb 1 (a nice clean start of the week) and be focused on this instead of boring old taxes this late winter/early spring.

Now that we have more than three people in the tribe, we are listed on the Tribes list. Any ideas of where I can post this listing to? All suggestions welcome!

{jo}

posted in The Artist's Way - 0 replies