The Artist's Way ~ Week 8: Recovering a Sense of Strength

First, a few links:

I found this first one (a Yahoo group) because I got a hit from there; someone in the group linked to my very first post on The Artist's Way: artistswayplay · The Artist's Way Online Playgroup.

Then I found a Flickr group! How could I have missed this? Flickr: The Artist's Way & an associated Yahoo Group: FlickrArtistsWay · Flickr-Artist's Way

This one has book excerpts: SpiritSite.com - Julia Cameron index

An official site, which I am probably the last to discover: The Artists Way - the Official Julia Cameron Website

I haven't explored any of these yet, but wanted to share them before I forget all about them. Maybe this will help me remember to check them out. Which reminds me -- those of you who are interested only, or primarily, in my posts in this category can go directly to my artist's way category and thereby skip everything else.

So. Week eight. I had a lot of resistance to this one. Very conscious, determined resistance. I even skipped a day of morning pages.

Cameron writes that

Artists and intellectuals are not the same animal.

At first I resisted (again) this idea, thinking of the creativity required for science, for mathematics and physics -- but she is, I think, on to something here. The difference between poems and poetics.  

. . . most academics know how to take something apart, but not how to assemble it.  

Niki has written eloquently about this, as a teacher, an academic.

More from Cameron:

How can this loss serve me? Where does it point my work?

. . . The trick is to metabolize pain as energy.

Here she speaks, of course, of emotional pain -- not physical pain that sucks energy out of one's body.

When faced with a loss, immediately take one small action to support your artist.

The grace to be a beginner is always the best prayer for an artist. The beginner's humility and openness lead to exploration.

Creative people are dramatic . . .

Except I'm not -- dramatic, that is. Once, when I was angry with a young friend, she accused me of being a drama queen. When I reported this somewhat astounding accusation to another, older friend, she practically cried with laughter, saying there is no one less a drama queen than I am. This is true. I would do better, probably, with a bit more drama. More tears, less repression.

I did some of the exercises/tasks this week. The most difficult (painful) was the Early Patternings exercise. Then I found this at Journal to a Muse:

Abandonment Depression

... I'm talking about children who just don't have caregivers who "get" them. Children whose needs are constantly being under-met and under-noticed, but who out of self-preservation pretend that they're fine.

Some of them even grow up and look like they're doing fine.
...

They don't feed themselves well.
They don't see that they get enough sleep. (It's 3 am, do you know where you   should be?)
They don't get praised for their accomplishments.
They don't get encouraged to do things that matter to them.
They don't get appropriate medical/dental/health care.

If you found somebody who was abandoned, what would you KNOW to do for them?

I seem to have forgotten.

This hit me. I felt it. I recognized it.

Do I know what to do for me?

Will I remember?

Comments

[michelle]

I really need a copy of that. Thanks for reminding me. :)

[kat]

yeah, i seem to have forgotten or rather i'm just learning now.

thanks for the links, i'll check em out!

[Niki Robinson]

I am still bothered by that statement, "artists and intellectuals are not the same animal". I can relate it to the right brain/left brain approach, but can't we be both?