The Basic Tools

As the book cover say, The Artist’s Way is a spiritual path to higher creativity. Traveling any path requires work. If nothing is ventured, nothing is gained. There are two basic tools that guide this work, Morning Pages and Artist’s Dates. They are described in detail in the chapter, The Basic Tools. In the paragraphs below, I will give my own thoughts on what these two tools mean to me.

I have been writing Morning Pages since I first read The Artist’s Way in 2001. This was assigned reading to prepare for a photography workshop that year. Since then I have been writing at least one page every morning to help me understand what is happening to me in this funny old world. If I had a dream, I would describe it as best I could. This gives me some information to meditate upon and try to understand what provoked that dream. If I had chain of thoughts running through my head, I wrote them out. The writing them out validates them and they no longer need to repeat like a broken record. While going though this course it is important to write 3 pages. I write them so fast that they are really stream of consciousness. You don’t have to be able to read them, and you should not worry about spelling or grammar. They are not meant to be read, even by you. At times I will write a poem… really the first cut at poem. Morning Pages are giving yourself the opportunity to lay down the burden of those recurring thoughts. Once that is done, the three pages give room for new thoughts and inspirations to rise and be documented for further contemplation.

Morning pages are difficult for many people because they have no structure. “I don’t have anything to write.” is a common complaint. So I am going to add 4 things for you to write in your morning pages:

I am feeling (sad, mad, glad, whatever…) and write the reasons why that may be.

I am aware of…

I am inspired by…

I am excited by…

Artist’s Dates are setting aside some time to explore any way possible your creative side. A typical time would be 2 hours a week, but it can be less, or more than that. I often go to a museum, or take a camera somewhere new, or browse through arts books at a book store. The idea is to do something new, or at least a new perspective on something you already do. If you read the chapter on Basic Tools, Julia has some very specific ideas about an Artist's Date. It must be done alone. It should be fun and frivolous. I have a different perspective, however. Doing an Artist's Date can be done with other's as long as you spend some time alone so you can experience it without distractions. But then I do that naturally anyway. Each of you need to find what works best for you.

At the meeting, you will be asked to Check In. First item is the number of days you wrote morning pages and the number of pages written. Second item is a brief description of your Artist's Date. The last item is any questions or insights that you may have.

General Discussion Group Notes

Artist’s Way Discussion Group These are notes for the first meeting next Sunday night at 7 East High Street at 7 PM. I led this discussion group 5 years ago. This will not be a repeat of that effort in the sense that I am incorporating new sources into the discussion and the exercises will not necessarily be the same as before.

General notes:

As each of us is different, everyone will learn something different from this effort It is important that everyone we all share our perspective on the material It is important that we all learn. I expect to learn a lot from everyone in this group Learning is not linear and art is not linear. I don’t expect the discussion to be linear! The goal of the Artist’s Way is to change your perspective.

If you have any questions, please email me at fortymile@yahoo.com or enter a comment in this blog.