What is the point of that question?

As I'm reading The Artist's Way, this question comes up: "What was your favorite childhood game?"

I didn't have a "favorite" game. Who has "favorite" anything? Favorite color, favorite flavor ice cream, favorite food, favorite car, favorite clothes . . . Having a favorite anything seems limiting. My favorite singer? Artist? School teacher? Hell, I didn't even have a favorite boyfriend! (Oops, except, of course, the two guys I eventually married! Especially the last one!)

Does not having "favorites" make me limitless and independent, or just wishy-washy?

What is the point of that question?

The Artist's Way is a "program to recover your creativity from a variety of blocks, including limiting beliefs, fear, self-sabotage, jealousy . . . replacing them with artistic confidence and productivity."

Well, right now I'm incredibly productive and (most of the time) artistically confident. I look at the body of work I've created and it is so gratifying.

Am I so full of myself that I think I'm at the height of my powers and there's no room for improvement? Of course not. And there are times when the ideas just sort of dry up. But those times don't last.

The key to creativity isn't asking myself what was my favorite game as a child, but to simply do the work, keep working, keep making, keep seeing designs, patterns, and potential compositions in everything I look at.

That's the key (for me): seeing and making. And unless my favorite game as a child was starting fires using a magnifying glass, I'm not going to give that particular question a lot of weight.

So am I dumping reading The Artist's Way? Nope. I'm going to continue with it for a time. Why? Because every morning now, writing my "morning pages," I am focusing on my art, thinking about it, coming up with ideas, writing out thoughts about new projects.

And who knows? Maybe something there just might initiate a huge breakthrough. You never know.

So yeah, the book bugs me. And yeah, I'm not real fond of doing the morning pages, but it's quietly moving me forward, and it can't hurt, so why not?

I'm on page 74. Just 222 pages more to go . . . Sigh.

©Carol Leigh

P.S. And the photograph? I clipped twigs from bushes in the back yard and just plopped them into old bottles, put them on what we call the "Holly Cabinet," and photographed them. I love the simple, almost Zen-like feel to the photo. And now? Weeks later? Little green shoots are popping out all over them! Who knew?

"The Artist's Way"

My latest work: "Amida Buddha Postcard Collage"
which I just uploaded to Fine Art America this morning.

This book has been on my shelf for at least 11 years now, and I keep vowing to work through it, but I never seem to get past the first chapter or so. It's The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and it encourages you to accept your artistry and enhance your creativity. It's a tad "woo woo" for me, but this time around I'm giving it a decent go.

Part of Ms. Cameron's philosophy (well, it's a huge part of her philosophy) is to write three pages of what she calls "morning pages," three pages of anything you wish to scribble down. Even if all you're writing is "I don't know what to write. I don't know what to write."

Gotta say, as much as I love writing, I don't relish doing these three pages every morning. But I've done them now every day for more than a month, so I'm proud that I'm hanging in there.

Have there been any big revelations? Any huge breakthroughs? I'm not sure yet. I know that I have gotten some good ideas, but then I always get ideas, whether I'm writing every morning or not. In fact, I have so many ideas that I'll need numerous lifetimes to carry them out.

What I want is clarity, a more solid direction for me and my art. But I get bored going in just one direction. Who wants to spend their life doing just one thing? I blame it on being a Gemini... I cast my fate to the stars -- it's totally out of my hands!

Anyway, just wanted to mention what I'm reading and why. It's fun having all these books around to be picked up at times throughout the day. I read a few pages, nod sagely, make a few notes in my "idea book," and then move on, refreshed.

So I hope I can make it all the way through The Artist's Way this time, even though I find myself complaining, as I write my morning pages, how I could be at the computer or in the studio actually making something right now, rather than sitting on my butt writing, writing, writing . . .

How about you? Anybody else working their way through this book? (I know you have, Laura Lein-Svencner, and I'm enjoying reading your blog where you're talking about it.) And is it putting you in a different space? Is it elevating your artistry, your sense of yourself as an artist? Please say yes, otherwise I'm doomed to harboring 12 weeks of resentment as I grumble my way through this book!

©Carol Leigh