Reflections on The Artist’s Way, Week 9: Recovering a Sense of Compassion
This is the ninth post in a series on The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, a book and a self-study program developed by Julia Cameron in the 1990s. I’m looking back on Week 9: Recovering a Sense of Compassion.
‘One of the most important tasks in artistic recovery is learning to call things—and ourselves—by the right names. Most of us have spent years using the wrong names for our behaviours. We have wanted to create what we want to create and we have been unable to create and we have called that inability laziness. This is not merely inaccurate, It is cruel. Accuracy and compassion serve us far better.’
— Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way, Week 9
Cameron opens week nine by suggesting we make a distinction between being lazy and being blocked. ‘Blocked artists are not lazy. They are blocked.’
She tells us blocked artists spend energy on self-hatred, regret, grief, jealousy, and self-doubt.
They let the big vision become a prison of procrastination. Instead of breaking free and taking steps in the right direction, blocked artists stay trapped.
She says there is only one cure for this fear, and it’s love. ‘Use love for your artist to cure its fear.’
‘The need to be a great artist makes it hard to be an artist. The need to produce a great work of art makes it hard to produce any at all.’
— Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way, Week 9
Enthusiasm
‘Over any extended period of time, being an artist requires enthusiasm more than discipline. Enthusiasm is not an emotional state. It is a spiritual committment, a loving surrender to our creative process, a loving recognition of all the creativity around us.’
— Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way, Week 9
I remember learning to draw in my studio art class in high school. As a teenager, I tapped into the magic of making something from nothing.
I remember drawing a perfect bird, and the moment when I realised my drawing was more beautiful than I was. Where did this beauty come from? From me? It seemed impossible. I felt afraid, as though I had discovered a secret that I couldn’t share. Who would understand this?
The word enthusiasm comes from Greek, meaning ‘filled with God’.
Enthusiasm is our connection to something greater than ourselves. The higher power moves through us, between us, around us. We pull down the line and plug in.
‘As attractive as the idea of a pristine cell, monastic in its severity, is to our romanticised notion of being a real artist, the workable truth may be somewhat messier than that.’
— Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way, Week 9
I have a recurring dream where I discover a new room in my home. It’s not exactly the same dream each time—the house is different and the rooms change—but the theme is consistent.
Last night I dreamt I lived in a large American-style country house, possibly in New England or somewhere in New York State. I found a new space next to my bedroom that would make a perfect art studio. There was light coming in from windows on three sides. The painted wooden floors had a slight spring under my feet. There was enough wall space to hang and prop up canvases. Have I been there before? Will I find it in my future? I’m unsure. It’s nothing like where I live or work at the moment, but this space is inside me.
‘Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.’
— Pablo Picasso
People ask me where I get my inspiration. What they are asking, it seems, is where I get the ideas for my artwork. It’s a kind question and I appreciate people asking, but I’m sensitive to the idea of inspiration.
The need for inspiration as a starting point can be an avoidance strategy, a tool for staying blocked. I’d paint, but I don’t know what to make. I’d write, but I don’t know what to say.
‘Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait for the clouds to part and a bolt of lighting to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself.’
— Chuck Close
To trust the process, even when the work is bad or uninspired (especially when the work is bad or uninspired), is to believe you’re worthy of the time and resources it takes to get to the good work.
The rough drafts, the discarded recordings, the pages of sketches—these are the evidence of our self-love.
Sometimes I don’t want to get to work. I don’t want to play. I don’t feel inspired. I have little enthusiasm.
When this happens, I parent myself. I let my inner child choose between two options so she feels encouraged and guided.
I can start making and doing without an agenda. I trust that I’ll find the flow and connect with the beat as I move. I step through the discomfort until I’ve forgotten about it.
Or, I can choose to take a meaningful pause to reset my energy. I can take a nap, go for a walk, meditate, do my artist date, take a trip. I am allowed to take care of my inner artist. I give myself what feels right—45 minutes, 45 hours, 45 days—then I go back to the process.
Creative U-Turns
‘Recovering from artist block, like recovering from any major illness or injury, requires a commitment to health. At some point, we must make an active choice to relinquish the joys and privileges accorded to the emotional invalid. A productive artist is quite often a happy person. This can be very threatening as a self-concept to those who are used to getting their needs met by being unhappy.’
— Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way, Week 9
When we go through a recovery of any type, we step into a higher version of ourselves. What should we do with the person we once were? It’s tempting to disregard this old self—the addict, the doormat, the victim, the loser, the blocked artist.
We have the option to integrate the old self as we grow and evolve. We can mourn, love, and understand who we have been, and accept our path through life more fully.
Shadow work is a powerful way of honouring all parts of ourselves. We can put the focus on the dark parts that we might want to avoid while understanding their essential purpose for our survival in the world.
Blasting Through Blocks
‘In order to work freely on a project, an artist must be at least functionally free of resentment (anger) and resistance (fear). What do mean by that? We mean that any buried barriers must be aired before the work can proceed.’
— Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way, Week 9
Cameron suggests a five-step process to clear resentment and resistance. 1. List the resentments, 2. List the fears, 3. Double-check they are all there, 4. Ask yourself what you gain by not doing it, and finally, 5. Make your deal. The deal is: ‘Okay Creative Force, you take care of the quality. I’ll take care of the quantity.’
If we dig deep enough when asking what we gain by not breaking through resentment or resistance, it’s usually the chance to stay in a state of resentment or resistance. By staying in our suffering, we can continue to get the sharp hit of pain and discomfort that makes us feel alive and gives our lives meaning.
Between staying with our suffering and letting go, there’s a process of healing.
When I work with clients experiencing fear, there’s usually a good reason for their fear. When it’s not fully expressed, it gets stuck and moves around. Smaller fears stand-in for the big fear that needs to be witnessed and honoured.
The same goes for sadness, anger, grief, and any other emotional state that can overwhelm us. Like honouring our shadow and its protective forces, we can honour, understand, and integrate our challenging emotional states as we grow.
As artists, we have a choice to transmute our emotions and experiences into our creative work or let them go so we can be free to do different work. Giving ourselves the option is an act of compassion and self-love.
Read more reflections on The Artist’s Way →
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