💬 Let’s chat about Week 11 of The Artist’s Way
On recovering a sense of autonomy
Welcome to Life after Trauma; I’m Clare Egan. We’re currently taking part in The Artist’s Way, a community exploration of the intersection between creativity and recovery and it’s not too late for you to join us! Our goal is to explore our creativity in a gentle, low commitment way and to show up each week to cheer each other on. Here’s an overview of our approach if you’d like to learn more!
How did you get on this week?
I enjoyed this week’s chapter and tasks, especially the suggestion to build an Artist’s Altar which was this my Artist’s Date for this week. It was one of the most fulfilling activities of this whole process. I’d hoped to get mine ready in time to share a snapshot with you, but I’m feeling weirdly private about it. I don’t know why. I guess some part of me wants to keep this private, introspective space away from the harsh glare of the internet.
I really enjoyed (& relied upon) my Morning Pages this week. Sometimes, writing them feels like a chore and other times, it feels like a treat. This week, they felt like a important opportunity to tease through all my complicated feelings. I’m thinking about my upcoming wedding a lot, which I’m so happy and excited for. But I’m also anxious, nervous and sad. I’m missing my mother and trying to stretch into a new identity for this moment of my life: I’m gonna be a fucking bride! Anyway, I’ve been having a lot of feelings and my Morning Pages (together with therapy!) are helping me sort through them.
Over to you…
I’m curious to hear how you got on with your Morning Pages and Artist Date this week. These threads have gotten a little quieter over recent weeks, which makes me wonder if folks have dropped out of The Artist’s Way habit. If that’s you, I hope you still feel welcome here. If you’d like to share a little of your experience in the comments, I’d love to hear about it!
💬 Did you enjoy chapter 11? Are there any insights you’d like to share? As always, I'll get us started with some reflections on my tasks from this week.
A reminder: Our final virtual gathering will take place this Sunday, June 8th at 1pm Irish Time. Please let me know if you’d like to come along and I’ll forward the details.
Thanks so much for being here. It’s an honour to be in community with you 💕
P.S. If you’re new here, please review our community guidelines before participating too.
My favourite task this week was building my Artist’s Altar. I love the idea of devoting a tiny corner of my home to my creativity. My Altar currently lives on a window ledge near my desk, and makes me feel more like an artist every time I look at it.
I haven’t had the headspace to inventory how I’ve changed through this exploration of The Artist’s Way though I’m excited to do that over the coming weeks. I’m in the unique position of reviewing it both as an individual, and as the host of this community so stay tuned for a post on that!
How did you get on this week? I’d love to hear!
I’ve been very behind in posting my favourite quotes and take aways from The Artist’s Way the last few weeks. I finally caught up and have updated week 9 through 11 on Clare’s Friday posts.
Week 11 Recovering a Sense of Autonomy Week of June 1st
Acceptance
“… the ways in which success must be handled in order that we not sabotage our freedom.” Not that long ago I didn’t understand the importance of this.
“I may need a different mix of stability and flow from other people.” I loved the feeling of permission this gave.
“I must experiment with what works for me.” The mindset of experimentation is playful, freeing and centers the artist’s needs.
“An artist’s cash flow is typically erratic.” As much as my parents always supported my creativity the was a fear they wove into my fabric, the need for stability and the underlying tone of a foolishness if one intentionally pursued something erratic when something with stability was available.
“I have to free myself from determining my value and the value of my work by my work’s market value.”
“I must learn that as an artist my credibility lies with me, God, and my work. In other words, if I have a poem to write, I need to write that poem-whether it will sell or not. I need to create what wants to be created.” This is my next six-month priority. I’ve committed, my stomach flip flopped, but if I’ve gotten anything out of the past 11 plus weeks, it’s that I’m out of excuses, I’m out of patience and I’m ready.
“What it means is letting the artist have quality time, knowing that if I let it do what it wants to it will cooperate with me in doing what I need to do.” I can experiment with this.
“Certain friendships will kick off my artistic imagination and others will deaden it.” It was interesting how certain names immediately came to mind that fell cleanly into each category. It was an instance of once you see it you can’t unsee it.
“As an artist, I write whether I think it’s any good or not.” Morning pages have helped me take this to a new level. My goal now is only get words out. Editing can happen later.
As an artist, my self-respect comes from doing the work.”
“I show up at morning pages and write about my ugly curtains, my rotten haircut, my delight in the way the light hit the trees on the morning run.” So simple, so cathartic.
“As an artist, I do not need to be rich but I do need to be richly supported.” The longer I live, the more I agree.
“As an artist, I can literally die from boredom.” It sounds melodramatic, but I can also see the truth in this statement.
“There is a connection between self-nurturing and self-respect.” I respect myself enough to care for myself like I would another precious being.
“If I sabotage my artist, I can well expect an eating binge, a sex binge, a temper binge.” And the list of choices goes on and on like a veritable smorgasbord.
“Creativity is oxygen for our souls.”
“To be an artist is to acknowledge the astonishing. It is to allow the wrong piece in a room if we like it. It is to hang on to a weird coat that makes us happy. It is to not keep trying to be something that we aren’t’.”
“To kill your dreams because they are irresponsible is to be irresponsible to yourself. Credibility lies with you and God-not with a vote of your friends and acquaintances.”
Success
“In other words, just when we get there, there disappears. Dissatisfied with our accomplishments, however lofty, we are once again confronted with our creative self and its hungers.”
“’Can’t I rest?’ we wonder. In a word, the answer is no.”
“It is this willingness to once more be a beginner that distinguishes a creative career.”
“We can at least be willing.”
“We insist on a straight and narrow when the Artist’s Way is a spiral path.”
“Creativity is not a business, although it may generate much business.”
“IT is tempting to guarantee what we cannot deliver: good work that duplicates the good work that has gone before.”
“What is more difficult and more critical is for us as artists to continue to meet the inner demand of our own artistic growth.”
The Zen of Sports
“Rather than scotch a creative project when it frustrates us, we learn to move through the difficulty.”
“We do learn by going. We learn we are stronger than we thought.”
Building Your Artist’s Altar
“Morning pages are meditation.”
“We are meant to celebrate the good things of this earth.”
“Your artist is a little kid, so…”
I already have a little writing/reading space that could be considered an altar so it's been fun to revisit it and update it a bit and thinking of it as an altar has rather elevated the experience.
My Artist’s Date this week was set up my next month’s goals journal and I realized that some of those vision board exercises I did are starting to find their way into my goals.
I intend to write and mail an encouraging letter to myself. I have a beautiful notebook my daughter gave to me and quite regularly I write a letter of encouragement to myself. But getting the letter in the mail sounds like a fun twist. I think I’ll find some beautiful stationery for the occasion.
While The Artist’s Way is far from perfect, it has provided a meandering path through different terrain that is leading me ultimately to some interesting places on my creative travels.
I’m honestly having a hard time believing that we are into the final week. An unexpected personal situation has made the few weeks a bit of a blur and having The Artist’s Way to work through has been a cathartic consistent activity while I sort through everything else that’s been going on. Julia Cameron is correct about the morning pages often being the hardest to commit to when you need them the most. She’s also right that they build consistency, and this last while, consistency and doing what I need to do even when I don’t really want to – has been exactly what I needed most.