Showing up for your creativity – The Artist’s Way – Week 1

As promised, I’m sharing a little about my experiences with the Artist’s Way.

I said I started a couple of weeks ago and I did, but not everyone got their books on time (which isn’t so surprising with the state of the pandemic and online ordering in general at the moment) so week 1 it is for the moment!

I’ve gone through this book a few time, and every time I get something new out of it. With a second state of lockdown , it seemed like an appropriate task deep dive into my creative self.

Week one sets the state with 3 pages of stream of consciousness “morning pages” which ideally happen when you first wake up.  It’s a way of getting all those thoughts and feelings out, the good, bad and the ugly. The other weekly element is the Artist Date to “fill the well” and ensure you’re giving yourself a bit of love too not just digging everything up. In the past, this has always been the hardest thing for me to maintain. I don’t know if I didn’t see the value or I just struggled to do things on my own but these days, that feels easier, though the time constraints, harder. Though I did actually get to it this time around and I’ll have to make a point of it every week and listening to the internal cues about what brings me joy and fulfilment even if I don’t have swaths of time, I just need to make it meaningful. 

This week I reminded myself the outcome isn’t the goal, it’s the process, it’s showing up and showing up without judgement. This doesn’t mean you won’t end up with something you enjoy, but if you don’t, that’s okay too, often we learn more from the mistakes or errors than from the successes. If something doesn’t work as you hoped just come at it from a new angle and try again. This image is a testament to just that. I wasn’t feeling particularly creative in the moment but I decided I would just pick up my camera anyways. I had a quick idea but it just didn’t feel right, it didn’t look right and instead of forcing it, I just hit the “reset” button so to speak. I had leaves still strewn across the table, I put a bottle in the middle of it just as I was admiring its form and I took a photo (a), even though it wasn’t meant as anything more than that, a reset. I took away the leaves to go back one step further, another reset (b). Eventually, my creativity got to work and started on the idea of a cranberry cocktail. I had set up the shot with all the elements telling the story of it’s making but even then it wasn’t what I was after (c) in the end it was this ominous shot coming out of the darkness that struck me the most (found at the top of the post.)