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Recovering a Sense of Power: The Artist’s Way Month Three Recap (Chapter Three)
Hi! If you’re new here: I’m doing a year-long series where I work through Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and document it here on the blog. This is the third post of the series, all about recovering a sense of power; you can find the explanation for this series here and the previous post here.
Recovering a sense of power: anger
The first few words of the chapter really hit home for me: “Anger is fuel .. Anger is meant to be listened to .. Anger shows us what our boundaries are.” I remember being much younger and having a therapist tell me something along the same lines. She said: “Anger is our body’s reaction when one of our boundaries has been crossed.”
Cameron talks about anger in terms of it being a message: when we get angry about someone’s art (say, “I could have made that”), that’s anger telling us we want to be the one creating. I can see this, though I’m not sure I’d call that anger—maybe jealousy—and I know I absolutely used to do this. Now, though, I can recognize that feeling as being “I need to be creating.”
However, I can see how following our anger (or jealousy) can help us in recovering a sense of power—by creating, rather than wishing we were creating, we start to take control of our practice again.
Recovering a sense of power: dealing with criticism
One of the later sections in the chapter has to do with dealing with criticism, specifically how, if the criticism is pointed, it can actually offer the artist a sense of relief; it gives them a sense of “Oh! So that’s what’s wrong with it.”
I’m not certain I agree with this, as I’ve never felt relief upon receiving criticism, even if it is accurate. When I receive criticism, I need it to be constructive and to point out what could be better, but the problem is is that art is so subjective! Everyone will have different ideas of what could be improved upon. And beyond this, a lot of the time I’m not looking for criticism—for me, creating is about having fun. I don’t always want to strive for perfection or improvement.
And for me, recovering a sense of power is not accepting criticism and doing art for my own sake.
Recovering a sense of power: growth
The final section of this chapter speaks to growth and its erratic nature, and how “easy does it” should be our mantra when creating. Cameron also talks of how part of growth is being kind to yourself in small, concrete ways and to experiment with solitude.
In this, I can see how growth can help in recovering a sense of power. By being kind to ourselves and learning to be on our own, we sink into ourselves and, through this, start to grow (both as a person and as an artist).
I don’t need any more excuses to be in solitude—I truly do love being alone—but I’ve also never thought of it in this way; that to be alone is to grow.
Morning pages
Morning pages written this month: 24/31
For those of you unfamiliar with The Artist’s Way or morning pages: morning pages are a daily writing exercise where you dump everything in your brain onto the page. You’re supposed to just write—no stopping or reading back on what you read—for three whole pages. If you don’t know what to write, you write “I don’t know what to write” until you do.
Personally, I’ve never been all that good at following rules or instructions (no surprise to anyone who knows me in real life!). However, I do take these as guidelines. So, for the first few days, I was writing my morning pages by the book: three pages, no stopping or looking back.
But, aside from my morning pages, I have a journal where I write every day: thoughts, ideas, what I’m planning for the day. Basically, morning pages, but smaller. And because I didn’t want to give up this journaling practice, and I also didn’t want to do three morning pages and write in my journal, I ended up combining them, which has worked so well for me.
This month, I wrote less of my morning pages. I’m not really sure why—I think I’ve just been so busy, and my mornings look a little different now. But I’m going to try to get back on track for December!
Artist dates
Another pillar of The Artist’s Way is artist dates, where you (the artist) take yourself on at least one date a week. This could be anything from writing in a coffee shop to visiting an art gallery to making art in the park. The goal of this is to “nurture your inner artist,” as Cameron states in the introduction of the book.
You can read about how I’ve bent the rules to this in this post.
During November, I took myself on ten artist dates:
- Wrote/made art in coffee shops (solo and with friends) x5
- Read at the library (solo) x2
- Walked around a nearby lake (solo) x2
- Visited a monastery one town over (with my partner) x1
Tasks
In every chapter of The Artist’s Way, Cameron outlines a list of tasks for the reader to engage in. Each chapter’s list is extensive, and so I choose just a few to do. This month, I chose:
“Describe your childhood room. What was your favorite thing about it? What’s your favorite thing about your room right now? Nothing? Well, get something you like in there—maybe something from that childhood room.”
“Describe five traits you liked in yourself as a child.”
“List five people you admire. Now, list five people you secretly admire. What traits do these people have that you can cultivate further in yourself?”
—Above quotes are taken from The Artist’s Way, Chapter Three
Some important creative things of note for this month:
- I didn’t write much on my novel this month at all! But I’ve made it to 48,245 words.
- I wrote several poems! This is the first time I’ve written poetry in a long time, and so it feels really good.
- Edited my most recent poetry book (almost done!).
- Finished knitting a pair of mittens and started a second pair.
- Worked on printables for my online shop.
- I’m also working on a *secret project* and all I’ll say about it is I’m VERY excited to show you all.
How did you make time to be creative this month? And what did you create?
xoxo
Catherine
Thank you for reading! There’s no new printable this week, but you can see all the printables I’ve made previously in my shop, Toad in the Attic.
Some more posts you may like
The Artist’s Way Month One Recap. Chapter One: Recovering a Sense of Safety
The Artist’s Way Month Two Recap: Chapter Two: Recovering a Sense of Identity
But what is art therapy? The three most common questions I get as an art therapist
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