Artist Way

Many, many years ago, I discovered a 12 week program called The Artist's Way, quite by accident. I was attending a holistic health seminar in Boston, and for my afternoon session, I had planned on seeing a talk by Dr Andrew Weil. To my dismay, I found that you needed to reserve your spots for the afternoon sessions beforehand and there were no more seats available for Dr Weil. I was directed to a syllabus that included sessions that still have available seats. And I ended up in a lecture given by Julia Cameron.

I had never heard of Julia Cameron, I had no idea what this lecture was about. I was a bit unnerved when this blonde, flowy, colorful person came out and made us all get up and SING. I was even more skeptical when she had us turn to the person next to us and take turns describing in intimate detail, our earliest memory...in three minutes....go! What had I gotten myself into?

At the end of the 90 minute session, I had reached the conclusion that this Julia Cameron character- was an absolute genius! She was spectacular! I came out of the lecture and walked right to the book table in the foyer to purchase her book, The Artist Way.

I have completed the 12 week program a number of times since then (once outlining the task on this very blog) with great success. The program is as much a journey of self discovery as it is a path to creativity. It makes use of various tools, the big three are "morning pages", "the artist date", and walking. It's pretty powerful.

It's been a while since  I last did the Artist Way.

Then, a couple weeks ago something quite serendipitous happened; I went to the waiting room to get a patient at work and on the table, I found a flyer for an Artist Way retreat. Led by none other than Julia Cameron. For that coming weekend. In Sedona.

(I should probably clarify at this point, that right now, I'm living in Sedona.)

I checked it out online and saw that there were still spots left. And I spent the weekend with ol' Julia.

It's been a very long time since that seminar in Boston. Julia is still just as blonde and just as flowy. She's a bit less colorful, but that's because she's taken to that artist-y habit of dressing in all black. Her colorful flair was relegated to her spectacular necklace, scarf, and shoes.

Yes, she made us sing.

Yes, she made up break up into groups and share things like: "If your inner critic had a name and occupation, what would they be?" (Patricia. And she's a rich socialite with no discernible profession) "Who was the first friend in school who betrayed you?" and "What advice would Obi Wan Kenobe give to you right now?

It sounds ridiculous and trite. And sometimes it even FELT ridiculous and trite. But as the exercises progressed from Obi Wan Kenobe to your parents to your "most important relationship when you were between 18-25", it became less trite. And when you started pondering things like "Growing up, if your concept of God was NOT the Adam and Eve, judgmental God that you learned about in church, but maybe more like Dumbledore or Santa Claus, would your actions and decisions have been different", you start questioning things about yourself that your thought were just YOU.

There were lots of tissues going around. I had a headache at the lunchtime the first day.

At the end of the weekend, I was fuzzyheaded and over-full but simultaneously empty. I had a lot to think about. And I pulled out my old copy of The Artist's Way for another go-round.

That Julia Cameron, she's a frickin genius!