Artist Dates

 The Artist Date (hear Julia Cameron’s own description of it here) is the idea of making time for yourself, once a week, on your own, to do something ‘enchanting’. Artist's Dates are described as "assigned play"!

Ideas for Artist's Date:


Go to Cindy's Ranch to see the baby horse
Create jewelry to sell
Sit on the dock at Ray Roberts Park in the sun
Get a massage
Got to a park and have quiet reflection
Color
Get pictures for dream board
Visit art museum alone
Cook a flavorful soup
Work on vision book
Cook for 40 people
Go to quilt store
Work on collage
Go to lake
Go to Museum
Go to Craft store
Listen to music
Get watercolors and play
Be creative in my room
Go to fabric store, bead store or hobby lobby
Going out to shoot photos
I am taking walks
I am cooking one special meal, enjoying grocery shopping, table setting, etc
Watch a Smartflix art video
Do yoga
Go to a movie
Listen to Joni Mitchell

Artist's Date Ideas

AWers...Let's see how many more we can add to this list! (Just click edit post and add to the top of the list. Put your name next to it)

Go for a bike ride; include the steep hill you loved to fly down as a child

Go to the circus

Take a walk during your lunch break and really notice everything around you

Listen to your favorite music while sipping on a cup of hot cocoa or cappuccino

Take a long soak in a hot bathtub

Browse a craft gallery -- the stores that sell what other crafters/artists make

Fly a kite

Make a snow creature

Take a walk while it is snowing and listen for the gentle sound of the flakes coming to
rest, make a snow angel before you go inside for a rest by the fireplace or a mug of cocoa or soup

Color in a coloring book

Read aloud several children's books to yourself; have fun creating different voices for the different characters or adding expression to your reading

Watch the sun rise or set

Go to an art museum or art fair

Meditate to the sound of a water fountain

Visit an artist’s supply shop.

Spend some time outdoors with your journal, sketchbook, craft supplies, etc.

Go for a walk, and take your camera with you to document the experience.

Stop by the library, and check out some CDs.

Set a timer, and spend an hour working on something you’ve been putting off.

Create an artist’s workspace in your home.

See an Oscar-nominated movie or a foreign film.

If you don’t have an artist’s blog, start one.

Visit a “creative” shop that has nothing to do with what you actually do–an art supply store, a fabric shop, a music store.

Grab a stack of magazines, and clip whatever looks interesting or cool to create your own inspiration board.

Support the local arts scene. Go to a local festival, music event, art show, play, museum exhibit, etc.

Plant something. Start your own herb garden. Butterfly garden. Plant a tomato or some bulbs. Try a “guerilla garden,” and scatter seeds randomly somewhere to see what grows.

Spend an hour going through your books. Pick ten to read or re-read and ten to donate to charity.

Go to a thrift store. Give yourself 5$ to spend and find something really great that you can do something creative with.

Take a walk on a nature trail. Take your camera.

Write a letter - longhand, on pretty paper - to an old friend.

Give yourself a beauty treatment - a cuticle treatment, a foot soak, exfoliation, hot oil treat, etc.

Go sit at the pond and play in your sketchbook.

Visit all of your childhood playhouse and fort sites.

Sit in the driveway and make designs with pretty rocks. Sing campfire songs.

Sit in the porch-swing and lean your head back as far as you can and look up at the tree branches backward. Think of as many Shakespearean poems as you can while you are doing this.

Artist's Way- Basic Tools

The Artist’s Way --

A Living Channel: The basic Tools

1) The Morning Pages:


Simply, three pages of longhand writing, strictly stream-of-consciousness. There is no way to do the Morning Pages wrong. They are the primary tool of creative recovery and are non-negotiable. Just write anything until you have three pages.


2) The Artist’s Date:


Simply, a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist. You do not take anyone with you but your inner artist/creative child. This is a sacred time commitment, and a way to open to your imagination-at-play, which is the heart of all good work.


This is a two-step, two directional process: out and then in. doing your morning pages, you are sending out. Doing your artist’s date, you are receiving in. Doing your morning pages, you identify problem areas and concerns. Doing your artist’s date, you being to hear solutions.



Be peaceful at this work/play.

Artist's Way-Basic Principals

The Artist’s Way --

A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

Basic Principles


Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure, creative energy.
There is an underlying, in-dwelling, creative force infusing all of life – including ourselves.
When we open ourselves to our creativity, we open ourselves to the creator’s creativity within us and our lives.
We are, ourselves, creations. And we, in turn, are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves.
Creativity is God’s gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God.
The refusal to be creative is self-will and is counter to our true nature.
When we open ourselves to exploring our creativity, we open ourselves to God: good orderly direction.
As we open our creative channel to the creator, many gentle but powerful changes are to be expected.
It is safe to open ourselves up to greater and greater creativity.
Our creative dreams and yearnings come from a divine source. As we move toward our dreams, we move toward our divinity.

Week One- Recovering a Sense of Safety

The Artist’s Way --

Recovering a Sense of Safety


This week initiates your creative recovery. You may feel both giddy and defiant, hopeful and skeptical. The readings, tasks, and exercises aim at allowing you to establish a sense of safety, which will enable you to explore your creativity with far less fear.


KEY IDEAS:

Shadow Artists

needing a sense of support
harsh self-judgment
Protecting the Artist Child Within

baby steps – go gently and slowly
find and protect the artist child
be willing to be a “bad” artist to begin
Your Enemy Within: Core Negative Beliefs

fear of the unknown
list of reasons “not to” – beliefs, not facts
Your Ally Within: Affirmative Weapons

affirmations to achieve a sense of safety & hope
watch for the censor / objections / blurts
observe, reflect, dissolve negative blurts



Your Process of Creative Recovery

-- Read through to the end of Chapter One – feel free to make notes in the book.

-- Begin your Morning Pages tomorrow morning.

-- Plan and do an Artist’s Date this week.

-- Do the tasks at the end of the chapter (try completing at least half of them).

Week 2- Recovering a Sense of Identity

The Artist’s Way --

Recovering a Sense of Identity


This week addresses self-definition as a major component of creative recovery. You may find yourself drawing new boundaries and staking out new territories as your personal needs, desires, and interests announce themselves. The essays and tools are aimed at moving you into your personal identity, a self-defined you.


KEY IDEAS:

Going Sane -- Going sane may feel, at first, like going crazy

-- Making changes and accepting those changes

Poisonous Playmates -- Friends giving negative feedback may also be blocked

-- Blocked friends may find your recovery disturbing

-- Be careful to safeguard the newly recovering artist

Crazymakers -- These are personalities that are enormously destructive

-- Crazymakers sabotage you – destroy schedules, expect special treatment, discount your reality, spend your time/money, triangulate, blame, prioritize only their schedules, hate order, deny they’re crazymakers

Skepticism -- The secret doubt – “I can’t believe_____________________”

-- We keep our own thoughts about what’s possible and what’s not

-- Accept “coincidences” and flow with them

Attention -- Attention, not aimlessness, is a way to connect & survive your unfolding creative energies

-- The quality of life is in proportion to the capacity for delight


Read Chapter Two and do Tasks at the end
Read “Rules of the Road”, page 55.
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read created Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week

Week 3- Recovering a Sense of Power

The Artist’s Way --

Recovering a Sense of Power


This week may find you dealing with unaccustomed bursts of energy and sharp peaks of anger, joy, and grief. You are coming into your power as the illusory hold of your previously accepted limits is shaken. You will be asked to consciously experiment with spiritual open-mindedness.


KEY IDEAS:

Anger

“Anger is fuel.”


Synchronicity

“watch out what you pray for – you might just get it!”


Shame

“The act of making art exposes a society to itself.”


Dealing with criticism

“Artistic child abuse creates rebellion creates block.”



Detective work: An exercise

Page 73.

Growth

“Growth is an erratic forward movement: two steps forward, one

step back”


Read Chapter Three and do Tasks at the end (reserve tasks 8, 9, and 10 for the next class meeting)
Do the “Detective Work” on page 73.
Read “Basic Principles” daily
Read Affirmations daily
Write Morning Pages daily
Go on an Artist’s Date this week