This Artist’s Way
By Sharla Gorder
I’m a slow reader. Always have been.
So, really, it shouldn’t surprise me that it took me a while to finish the book — but 21 years? That’s a record, even for me. I started Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way” on February 16, 1993. The date is written right there on the inside cover. I finished it on January 12, 2014.
And then I wrote two books.
Well, it was a little more nuanced than that, but I do credit Cameron — and her 12-week (or 1,092-week) course on recovering your inner artist — with kickstarting a creative process for me that has now become a way of life.
“The Artist’s Way: a Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity,” has, to date, sold more than five million copies and been translated into 40 languages. It made a huge resurgence during the pandemic and continues to fly off the shelves today. Creatives of every ilk — musicians, writers, painters, sculptors, actors, architects, chefs, blogger, podcasters … you name it — have embraced the book over the decades. Writer Elizabeth Gilbert stated there would be no “Eat, Pray, Love” without “The Artist’s Way.” Music producer Rick Rubin credits Cameron with inspiring him to write his own stellar book on living the creative life — “The Creative Act: A Way of Being.”
I too credit Cameron’s book with giving me the courage and the resolve to put my own work out there. It didn’t happen in 1993 — it wasn’t time yet — but the stage was being set with those first “morning pages,” that first “artist date.”
These two foundational practices of the 12-week course, in various iterations, still abide with me. The morning pages, three pages of longhand, stream-of-consciousness writing done first thing upon awakening are intended to “get us to the other side: the other side of our fear, of our negativity, of our moods.” This always feels like clearing the clutter for me, like tidying the kitchen before preparing a delicious meal.
The artist dates are blocks of time, “especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist.” They must be done solo, and without distractions. These “stocking the pond” activities are intended to keep one’s creative reservoir fresh and flowing and teeming with ideas. My most recent book is a direct result — a direct report, actually — of the insights gleaned during my daily playdates with my muse on the beach in front of my house.
Each of the twelve chapters in “The Artist’s Way” is focused on recovering a different aspect of your own creative legacy, the premise being that we were all born artists. Cameron quotes Picasso: “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”
Cameron offers literally hundreds of ideas about how to solve this problem. I read back over the passages I highlighted and comments I made in the margins of the book and am astounded by the promises fulfilled and the enduring wisdom imparted in its pages.
“Creativity lives in paradox. Serious art is born from serious play.”
“The grace to be a beginner is always the best prayer for an artist.”
And my personal favorite, “You will learn to enjoy the process of being of being a creative channel.”
This is what Cameron hints at with the title of the book. It isn’t “The Artist’s To-do List,” or “The Artist’s Instruction Manual.” It is “The Artist’s Way,” a path, a mindset, a state of being, a natural manner of moving through the world with openness and curiosity. Yes, like a child.
When I was little, playing was my raison d’etre. But eventually the responsibilities of adulthood supplanted all that fun, and I told myself that I didn’t have time for such frivolity. Everything I did was a means to some practical end.
Then my inner artist began to squirm; she’s five. “Play with me,” she begged. Let’s go to the beach. Let’s color. Let’s tell stories.”
We did. We do.
It’s just our way.
