Creating Art that Matters
Credit to Deeana Garcia for the photo.
People are publishing videos for their 2020 creative plans. It seems to be on everyone’s mind. It’s a popular search that pulls up in the Youtube engine. I watched a video two weeks ago from a popular Youtuber I watch regularly. She has a wide audience, popular style, and talks about relevant subjects for freelancers. I really like her work. She mentioned reading The Artist’s Way this year.
I downloaded a copy of the book in iBooks and started the 12-week program. It’s designed to encourage the “blocked artist,” a term coined by the author. This program takes you from a simple writing regimen daily, through the progression of opening old wounds and healing them. It’s written very well. I highly recommend it as a read and as a program for any artist, whether advanced or budding. It dives into the process of healing emotional scars. I am a little nervous to admit that I have MANY emotional scars going back to when I was 8 years old. Progress means sweeping away the cobwebs, the things holding us back from our true potential.
The first week, a roller coaster to begin, came as a surprise to me. It was more difficult than I expected to keep the “artist’s date,” time devoted to the creative child. If you’ve done the program already, then you know what I mean. It doesn't feel natural to give myself time to play. I think this has been the most difficult part. My mind races every day wanting to get every possible task done. I can’t seem to relax. There is always something on the list that hasn’t been checked off. Yet, this artist’s date is so important. It’s time dedicated to your creativity. It’s essential to any artist’s journey and should be as natural as breathing. Society teaches us otherwise. It says we should be going to the gym, working harder, burning oil, and keeping to a schedule. The mind needs a break from this left-brained activity. It needs to breath it’s natural creativity back into our body by absorbing things our curiosity wants. This “artist’s date,” I have found to be a return to my natural state of being.
I’m going to be podcasting every week to track my progress and share what I discover. I think there will be a lot of epiphany moments. Now that I have begun week 2, I have noticed creating art is a lot more natural. i think this year will be full of positive growth. Feel free to comment below if you decide to do the program and let me know what week you are on!