INTRODUCTION

WHEN PEOPLE ASK ME what I do, I usually answer, ' 'I'm aw rit er-direct or and I teach these creativity worksho ps."

The last one interests them." H ow can you teach creativity?" they want to kn ow. De­

fiance fights with curios ity on their faces."I can't," I tell them . " I teach peopl e to let themselves be

creative."" Oh. You mean we're all crea tive?" Now disbelief and

hop e battle it out." Yes.""You really beli eve th at?"" Yes.""S o what do you do?"This book is w ha t I do. For a decade now, I have taught a

spiritual wo rkshop aime d at freeing peopl e's creativit y. I havetaught artists and non arti sts, painters and filmm akers andhomemakers and law yers-anyon e interested in livin g morecreatively through practi cin g an art; even more broadly, any­one int erested in practicing the art of creative livin g. Whileusin g, teaching, and sha ring tools I have found, devised, di­vined, and been handed, I have seen block s dissolved and livestransformed by the sim ple process of engaging the Great C re­ator in discovering and recovering our creative pow ers.

"The Great C rea to r? That sounds like some N ative Amer­ican go d. T ha t sounds too C hristian, too Ne w Age, too ..."Stupid? Sim ple- m inded? Threat ening? . . . I kn ow. Think ofit as an exercise in open- m indedness . Just think, "Okay, GreatC rea to r, whatever that is," and keep reading. Allow your self toexperime nt w ith th e idea there mi ght be a Great C reato r andyou m ight get some kind of use from it in freeing your owncreativity.

Because T he A rtist 's Way is, in esse nce, a spiritual path, in i­tiated and practiced through creativi ty, thi s book uses the wordGod. This may be volatile for some of you-conjuring old, un­workable, unpleasant, or sim ply unbelievable ideas about Go das you were raised to understand " him ." Please be open­minded.

Th eprimary imagination I holdto be the Living Power.

SAM UEL TAYLO R

COLERIDGE

XXll THE ART 1 S T ' S WAY

Mall isasked to make oj himselfwhat he issupposedtobecome toj uljill hisdestiny.

PAU L TILLICH

I myselfdonothing. T heHoly Spirit accomplishesallthrough me.

WILLl A M BLA KE

Remind yourself th at to succee d in th is course, no go dcon cept is necessary. In fact, many of our commonly held godconce pts get in the way. Do not allow sema ntics to become onemore block for yo u.

Wh en the word Cod is used in these pages, you may sub­stitu te the thought good orderly direction or flow. What we aretalki ng abo ut is a crea tive ene rgy. Cod is useful shorthand formany of us, but so is Goddess, Mind, Universe, Source, andHigher Power. . . . T he point is not wha t yo u name it. T hepoint is that you tr y usin g it. For many of us, th inkin g of it as aform of spi ritua l electrici ty has been a very useful jumping-offplace.

By the sim ple, scientific approach of experimenta tion andobserva tion, a workable con nec tion wi th th e flow of good or­derl y di recti on can easi ly be established. It is not the int ent ofthese pages to engage in explaining, deba ting, or defining thatflow. You do not need to und erstand elec tricity to use it.

Do not call it God unless that is com fortable for you. T hereseems to be no need to nam e it un less th at name is a usefulsho rthand for wha t yo u exper ience. Do not pretend to believewhen you do no t. If you remain forever an athei st, agnostic­so be it. You w ill sti ll be able to experience an altered lifethrou gh working wi th these pr inciples.

I have worked artis t- to-artis t with potters, pho tographers,poets, screenwriters, dancers, novelists, acto rs, directors-andw ith th ose who knew on ly wha t they dreamed to be or whoonly dream ed of bein g somehow more creative. I have seenblocked painters paint, broken poets speak in to ng ues, halt andlam e and ma imed write rs racin g th rou gh final drafts. I havecome to not only believe but kn ow:

No ma tter wha t your age or your life path, whether mak­ing art is your career or your hobby or your dream, it is not toolate or too eg(\ti~ l ~cal or too selfis h or too silly to wo rk on yo urcreativ ity. O ne fifty- year-old studen t who "always wanted tow rite" used these tools and emerged as a pr ize-winning play­wright. A j udge used these tools to fulfill h is lifelong dr eamsof sculpting. Not all students become full- time arti sts as a re­sult of th e course. In fact, many full- time artis ts report th atthey have become more crea tively rounded into full-timepeopl e.

Through m y ow n ex pe rience-and th at of co un tless o th­ers th at I have sha red- I have co me to bel ieve th at crea tiv ity isour true nature, th at blocks are an unnatural thwart ing of aprocess at o nce as normal and as miraculous as th e blossomingof a flower at the end o f a slende r g ree n ste rn . I have found thisprocess o f m ak in g spi ritua l co n tact to be both si m ple andstraightforward.

If yo u are crea tively blocked-s-and I believe all o f us are tosome extent-it is possible, eve n probable, that yo u can learnto crea te more freel y through your willing use of th e tools thisbook provides. Just as do in g H atha Yoga stretches alters co n­sc io us ness when all yo u arc doing is stre tchi ng, doing the ex­ercises in this book alte rs consciousn ess w he n " all " yo u aredoing is w rit ing and playin g. Do these things and a break­through w ill foll ow-whether yo u believe in it or no t. Whetheryo u call it a spiritua l awa ke n ing or not.

In sho rt, the th eory doesn't m atter as much as th e practi ceitself does. What yo u are doing is crea ting pathways in yo urco nscio us ness th rough w hich th e crea tive forces can operate.Once yo u ag ree to clea ring these pathw ays, yo ur creativ itycmerges. In a sens e, your crea tiv ity is like yo ur blood. Just asblood is a fact o f yo ur ph ysical body and nothing yo u in­vented, crea tiv ity is a fact of yo ur spir itua l body and noth ingth at yo u must in vent.

MY OWN J OURNEY

I beg an teaching th e crea tivity worksh ops in N ew York. Itau ght th em because I was told to teach th cm. O ne m inute Iwas walking in th e Wcst Village on a cobblestone stree t w ithbeautiful afte rnoon light. The nex t minute I sudde nly knewthat 1 should begin teach in g people, groups o f people, how tounblock . Maybe it was a w ish ex ha led on so mebody else'sw alk. Certain ly Greenw ich Vill age must co n tain a grea te r de n­sity of artists- blocked and o thcrw ise- tha n nearl y anyplaceelse in America.

" I need to unblock ," so meone m ay have breathed o ut."I know how to do it ," 1 may have responded , picking up

the cu e. M y life has always included strong internal direct ives.Marchingorders, 1call them.

I N T R OD U C T IO N XXlll

Why illdeedmust " God" bea1l0UIl ? Why nota verb . . . themostactiveanddynamic(~fall?

MAny D ALY

TH EOLOGIAN

XXIV T HE A RT IST 'S W AY

In thebrush doing what it's doing,it will stumble on what onecouldn't doby oneself

R OB ERT M OTH ERW ELL

In any case, I suddenly knew that I did kn ow how to un­block peopl e and that I was meant to do so, starting then andthere with the lesson s I myself had learn ed.

Wh ere did the lessons come from?In 1978, in January, I stopped drinking. I had never

thou ght drinking made me a w rite r, but now I suddenlythought not drinking mi ght make me stop. In my mind,drinking and w riting we nt together lik e, wel l, sco tch andsoda. For me, th e tri ck was always getting past the fear andonto the page. I was playin g beat the clock-tryin g to w rite be­fore th e booze closed in like fog and my window of crea tiv itywas blocked again.

By th e time I was thirty and abru ptly sober, I had an officeon th e Param ount lot and had made a who le caree r out of thatkind of crea tivity. C reative in spasms . C reative as an act of willand ego. C reative on behalf of others. C reative, yes, but inspur ts, like blood from a severed caro tid art ery. A decade ofwriting and all I kn ew was how to make these headlon g dashesand hurl myself, against all odds, at th e wall of whatever I wasw riting. If creativity was spiritual in any sense, it was only inits resemblance to a cruc ifixion. I fell up on the th orns of prose.I bled.

If I could have continued writing th e old, painful way, Iwo uld cert ainly still be doin g it. T he wee k I go t sober, I hadtwo nation al m agazine pieces out, a newl y mi nt ed featu rescript, and an alcoho l probl em I could not handle any lon ger.

I told myself th at if sobriety meant no creativit y I did notwant to be sober. Yet I recogn ized that dr inking wo uld kill meand the creativity. I needed to learn to write sober-or else giveup writing entirely. N ecessity, not virtue, was the beginningof my spirituality. I was forced to find a new creative path . Andthat is where my lessons began.

I learn ed to turn my creativity over to the only god I couldbeli eve in, the go d of creativity, the life force Dylan Thomascalled "the force that th rough the gree n fuse dri ves the flower."I learn ed to get out of th e way and let th at creative force wo rkth rough me. I learn ed to just show up at the page and w rit edown what I heard . Writing becam e more like eavesdroppingand less like inventing a nucl ear bomb. It wasn't so tricky, and itdidn't blow up on me anymore. I didn't have to be in the mood .

I didn't have to take my emotiona l temperature to see if inspi ra­tion was pendin g. I sim ply w ro te. N o negotiati ons. Good,bad ? N one of my bu siness. I was n't doi ng it. By resign in g asth e sel f-conscio us autho r, I w ro te freely.

In ret rospect, I am asto unded I could let go of th e drama ofbein g a suffering ar tist. N othing dies hard er th an a bad idea.And few ideas are worse th an th e ones we have abo ut art. Wecan cha rge so many things o ff to our suffering -a rtist ide ntity:drunkenness, promiscuity, fiscal problems, a cert ain ruthless­ness or self- des tru ctiveness in m atters of th e heart. We allkn ow how broke- crazy-promiscuous-unreliable artists are .And if th ey don't have to be, th en w ha t's my excuse?

The ide a th at I co uld be sane, sober, and creati ve terrifiedm e, im plying, as it did, th e possibility of person al account­ability. " You mean if I have these gifts, I'm supposed to useth em?" Yes.

Providentially, I was sent another blocked wri ter to workwith-and on-at th is time. I began to teach him w hat I waslearning. (Get out of th e way. Let if work through yo u. Ac­cum ulate pages, not judgments.) H e, too, began to unblock.N ow th ere were two of us. Soon I had ano the r "victim ," th isone a painter. T he tools worked for visua l artists, too.

This was very exc iting to m e. In my grande r moments, Iimagined I was turning into a crea tive cartograph er, m appin ga way out o f confusion for mysel f and for whoever wa nted tofoll ow. I never planned to become a teacher. I was only angry I'dnever had a teacher mysel f Why did I have to learn w ha t Ilearned th e way I learned it : all by tr ial and error, all by wal kinginto wa lls? We ar tists sho uld be m ore teachable, I th ou ght.Shortcuts and hazards of th e tr ail co uld be flagged .

These we re th e th oughts th at eddied with me as I took myafternoon walks-enjoying th e light o ff th e Hudson, plo ttingwhat I would w rite next. Enter th e m arching orde rs: I was toteach.

Within a week, I was o ffered a teach ing posit ion a nd spaceat th e N ew York Feminist Art Institute-which I had neverheard of M y first class-blocked painter s, noveli sts, poet s,and filmm akers-assembled itself I began teaching th em th elessons th at are now in this book. Since th at class th ere havebeen m any others, and m an y m ore lessons as we ll.

I N T ROD U C T I O N xxv

T hepositionof theartisrishumble. He is essentiallya channel.

P IET M ON DRIAN

XXV I TH E ART 1 ST ' S WAY

God IIIl/St becomeallactivity ill0111'consciousness.

J O EL S. GO LDS MIT H

Th e A rtist's Way began as informa l class notes mandated bym y partner, M ark Bryan. As word of mouth spread, I beganmailin g out packets of m aterials. A per ipateti c Jungian , JohnGiannini , spread word of th e techniqu es w herever helectured- seem ingly everywhere. Requ ests for materials al­ways followed . Next , th e crea tio n spiritua lity netw ork go tword of the work, and people wrote in fro m Dubuq ue, BritishColum bia, Indiana. Stude nts materi alized all ove r th e globe. "Iam in Switzerl and w ith th e State Departme nt. Please sendme . . ." So I did .

T he packets ex panded and th e number of stude nts ex­panded . Finally, as the result o f some very pointed ur ging fromM ark- "Writ e it all down. You can help a lot of peopl e. Itshould be a book"-I began formally to assem ble my thoughts.I wrote and M ark , who was by this ti me m y eo- teache r andtaskmaster, told me wha t I had left out. I w ro te more and M arktold me w hat I had still left out. H e reminded me th at I had seenplenty of m iracles to suppo rt my theori es and ur ged me to in­clud e those, too. I put on th e page wha t I had been puttin g intopr acti ce for a decade.

T he resulting pages emerged as a blu eprint for do-it­yo urs el f recover y. Like mouth- to - mouth resusci tation or th eH eim lich maneuvcr, th e tools in thi s book are in tended as life­savers. Please use them and pass the m on.

M any times, I've heard words to th is effec t: "Before I tookyo ur class, I was co m pletely separa te fro m m y crea tiv ity. T heyears of bitterness and loss had taken th eir toll. T hen, g radu­ally, the m iracle started to happ en . I have go ne back to schoolto ge t m y degr ee in thcatcr, I'm aud it ioning for the first time inyea rs, I' m w riting on a steady basis- and, most important ofall, I fin ally feel co m for table calling myself an artist."

I doubt I can convey to yo u th e feeling of th e miracul ou sth at I ex perience as a teacher, witnessin g th e before and afte r inthe lives of stude nts. Over the durati on of th e co urse, the sheerph ysical transformation can be startling, m akin g me realizeth at th e term ell/ightel1 /1l ellt is a lit eral one. Students' faces oftentake on a glow as they contact th eir crea tive ene rg ies. The samecha rged spiritua l atmosphere th at fills a grea t work of art canfill a crea tivity class. In a sense, as we are crea tive bein gs, ourlives become our work of art.

Spiritual ElectricityThe Basic Principles

F OR MO ST OF US, th e idea th at th e crea tor encourages creativi tyis a radi cal th ought. We tend to think , or at leas t fear, th at cre­ative dream s are egotistical, so meth ing th at Go d wouldn'tapprove of for us. After all, our crea tive art ist is an inn er young ­ster and prone to chi ldish thinking. If our m om or dad ex­pressed doubt or disapproval for our creative dream s, we m ayproject th at same at titude onto a parental go d. This th in kingmust be undone.

What we are talking abo ut is an induced-or invited­spiri tua l ex perience . I refe r to this process as spiritual chiroprac­tic. We' undertake certa in spir itua l exe rcises to achieve alig n­ment wi th the crea tive energy of th e un iverse.

If yo u th in k of th e universe as a vas t elec trical sea in w hic hyo u are immersed and fro m w hich yo u are formed , open ing toyo ur creativity changes yo u from so me th ing bobbin g in th atsea to a more full y fun ct ioning, more co nsc ious, more cooper­ative part of th at ecosystem.

As a teacher, I ofte n sense th e presen ce o f something tran­scende nt-a spiri tua l elec trici ty, if you w ill-and I have co meto rely on it in tr anscending m y own limitat ion s. I take th e

2 TH E ART IST'S WAY

T he music0Jthis opera[M adame Butte rflyJwasdic­tated to me by God; I wasmerelvinstnnncntal ill puttino it 011

paperandcommunicating it tothepublic.

G IACOMO P UCCINI

Straightaway the ideasflow ill"p oll llle, directlvjrom God.

J OH ANN ES BRA HMS

We IIlIl St accept that this creativepulse withill us is God's creativep ulse itself

J OSEPH CH ILTON PEAR CE

It is the creativepo tential itself inhuman be ill.l~s that is the image0JGod.

M ARY DALY

phrase inspired teacher to be a q uite literal compliment. A highe rhan d tha n j us t my own engages us. Christ said, "Wherevertwo or m ore are gathered toge ther, there I am in your m ids t."T he god of creat ivity see ms to feel th e same way.

T he heart of creativity is an experience of the m ysti calun io n ; the heart of the mystica l union is an experience of cre­at ivi ty. T hose w ho speak in sp iri tual terms rout inely refer toGod as th e crea tor but seldom see creator as the literal term forartist. I am sugges ti ng yo u take the term creator quite lit erall y.You are seeki ng to forge a creative alliance, artist-to-artist w ithth e Great Creator. Accepting this concept can g rea tly expandyour crea tive possib ili ties.

As yo u work wi th the tools in this book , as yo u undertaketh e weekly task s, m an y cha nges w ill be se t in motion. C h iefamong th ese changes will be the triggering of svnchronicitv: wecha nge and th e universe furthers an d ex pa nds tha t change. Ihave an irreverent shorthand for thi s that I keep taped to mywrit ing desk : "Leap, and the net wi ll appear."

It is my experience both as an artis t and as a teacher th atw he n we m ove out on faith in to th e act of creat ion, the uni­verse is able to advance. It is a lit tle like opening the gate at th eto p of a fie ld irrigation system . Once we remove th e blocks,th e flow moves in .

Again , I do no t ask yo u to believe th is. In order for this cre ­at ive emergence to happen , yo u don't have to believe in God. Isimply ask yo u to observe and note this process as it unfolds . Ineffect , yo u will be m idw iving and w itnessing yo ur own cre­ative prog ression.

Creativi ty is an experience-to m y eye, a spiritua l experi­ence. It does not matte r w hich way yo u thi nk of it: creativi tylead ing to spiritua li ty or spiritua lity leadin g to crea tivity. Infact, I do not m ake a distinc tion betw een th e two. In th e face ofsuc h experience, th e w hole questio n of bel ief is rendered ob­so lete. As Carl Jung answered th e ques tion of belief lat e in hislife, " I don't bel ieve; I know."

T he following spiritual princi ples are the bedrock o nw hich crea tive recovery and d iscovery can be built. Read themth rough o nce a day, and keep an inner ear cocked for any shiftsin atti tudes or beli efs.

S P I R I TU A L E LE CT R I C IT Y : TH E B A SI C PRI N CI PL ES 3

BASIC PRINCIPLES

I . Creativity is the natural order of life. Lifeis energy: pure creative energy.

2 . There is an underlying, in-dwelling cre­ative force infusing all of life-includingourselves.

3. When we open ourselves to our creativity,we open ourselves to the creator's creativ­ity within us and our lives.

4. We are, ourselves, creations. And we, inturn, are meant to continue creativity bybeing creative ourselves.

5. Creativity is God's gift to us. Using our cre­ativity is our gift back to God.

6. The refusal to be creative is self-will and iscounter to our true nature.

7. When we op en ourselves to exploring ourcreativity, we open ourselves to God: goodorderly direction.

S. As we op en our creative channel to thecreator, many gentle but powerful changesare to be expected.

9. It is safe to open ourselves up to greaterand greater creativity.

10. Our creative dreams and yearnings comefrom a divine source. As we move towardour dreams, we move toward our divinity.

Every blade ofx rass has its A IIXelthat bends over it and whispers,"Gro ll~ grollJ."

TH E T Al. M U D

Great improvisers are likepriests. They arc thillkillgollly of theirgod.

STI; PHAN E G RAPPEL LI

MU SI C IAN

What lIJe play is life.

L OUI S AR MSTRONG

Creativity is harnessing univer­sality and lIlakillg it j tollJ throllghYOllr cyes.

P ET ER K O EST ENBA UM

4 T HE A RT IST' S W A Y

I paint 1I0t by S~lZh t but byfa ith.Fa ithXii/cs yOIl siXht.

AM OS Fancusor-

Why should Il'e all use aliI' rrc­ative pOIIJer .. . ? Because thereis 1I0thillX that makes peoplesogCllCr<ms,joYf" l, lively, boldandcompassionate, so illdifferellt to

.ficlZhtillgand theaccumulation ofobjects and //I OII CY.

BnEND A U ELAND

HOW T O USE T H IS BOOKFOR YOUR C REATIVE RE C O VERY

There are a number of ways to use thi s book. Most of all, I in­vite yo u to use it creatively. T his section o ffers you a sor t o froa d m ap th rough th e process, w ith so me specific ideas abo uthow to proceed . Some stude nts have done th e co urse solo; o th­ers have formed circles to work th rou gh the book together. (Inthe back of th e book, yo u' ll find guidelines abo ut doing th ework in gro ups.) No matter which way yo u choose, T he A rt­ist's Wa y wi ll work for yo u.

Firs t, yo u m ay wa nt to glance th rough the book to get asense of th e territ ory covered. (Reading th e book thro ug h isnot the same as usin g it.) Each chapter includes essays, ex­erc ises, tasks, and a weekly chec k- in. Don't be daun ted by th eamount o f work it seems to entail. Much of the work is rea llyplay, and th e co urse takes little more th an one hour a day.

Wh en I am formally teaching, I sug gest students se t aweekl y schedule. For exa m ple, if yo u're go ing to wo rk aSunday-to-Sunday week, begin by reading th e chapter o f th ewee k on Sunday n ight. After yo u've read the chap ter, speed­w rite th ro ug h th e exercises. The exercises in each week arecritical. So are th e morning pages and th e art ist date. (Moreabo ut th ese in th e next chapter.) You prob ably won't have timeto com plete all of the other tasks in any given week . Try to doabo ut half Kn ow th at th e rest are th ere for use w he n you areable to get back to th em . In choosing w hich half of the tasks todo, use two guide lines . Pick th ose th at appea l to yo u and th oseyo u stro ng ly resist. Leave th e more neutral ones for later.Just reme mber, in choosing, th at we ofte n resist w ha t wemost need.

In all, m ake a time com m itme nt of abo ut seve n to tenhours a week-an hour a day, or slig htly mor e if yo u choose.This modest com m itmen t to usin g th e tools can yield tremen­dous results w ithin th e twel ve wee ks o f th e co urse. T he sametools, used over a lon ger per iod, can alter the trajectory o f alifeti me.

In working w ith this book, remember th at T he A rtist's Wa yis a spiral path. You wi ll circle th rough so me of the issues over

S PIR I TUAL ELECT IU C I T Y : T HE BAS IC PRIN CIP L E S 5

and over, each time at a different level. T here is no such thingas bein g done wi th an artis tic life. Frustrati ons and rewards ex­ist at all level s on th e path . Our aim here is to find the trail , es­tablish our footing, and begin th e climb. The crea tive vistasth at open w ill qui ckl y exc ite yo u.

What to Exp ect

M an y of us wi sh we were more crea tive. M any of us sensewe are more creative, but un able to effectively tap th at crea tiv­ity. O ur dream s elude us. O ur lives feel so mehow flat. O ften ,we have g rea t ideas, wonde rful d reams, but are unable to actu­alize th em for ourselves. Sometimes we have spec ific creativelongings we would love to be able to fulfill- learn ing to playth e piano, painting, tak ing an acting class, or w riting . Some­times our goal is more diffuse. We hunger for w ha t mi ght becalled crea tive livin g-an ex panded sense o f creativity in ourbu sin ess lives, in sha ring w ith our children , our spo use, ourfriends.

While th ere is no quick fix for inst ant, pain-free crea tivi ty,crea tive recovery (or discovery) is a teach able, tr ackable spir­itual process. Each of us is complex an d hi ghly individual, yetth ere are co m mon recognizable den ominators to the crea tiverecovery process.

Working w ith thi s process, I see a certain amount of de­fiance and giddiness in the fir st few weeks. This entry stage isfollowed closely by ex plosive anger in th e co urse's m idsect ion .The anger is followed by grie f, th en alte rna ting waves o f resis­tance and hope. This peaks-and-valleys ph ase of growth be­comes a ser ies of expans ions and contractio ns, a birthing pro­cess in w hich stude nts ex pe rience intense ela tion and defensiveskep ticism.

This cho ppy growth phase is followed by a strong ur ge toabandon th e process and re turn to life as we know it. In othe rwords, a bargaining per iod. People are often tempted to aban­don th e co urse at thi s point. I call th is a crea tive U -turn. Re­com m itment to th e process next tr iggers th e free-fa ll of a m a­j or ego surrender. Following this, th e final ph ase of th e co urseis characte rized by a new sense of self m ar ked by increased

T hepl/rposeofart isnotararified, intellectuai distillate­it is life, intensified, brilliantlife.

A LAI N ARIAS-MISSON

6 THE ARTI ST' S W A Y

What lies behindusandwhat liesbeforeus aretiny matters, com­

paredtowhat lies within us.

RALPHWALD O

EM ERSON

autonomy, res ilience, ex pec tancy, and exci te me nt-as well asby th e capacity to m ake and execute concrete creative plans.

If this so unds lik e a lot of emotio na l tumult, it is. When ween gage in a creativ ity recover y, we enter into a w ithdrawal pro­cess from life as we know it. Withdrawal is ano the r way of say­ing detachment or noiiattachme nt, which is em blema tic of consis­tent work wi th any meditati on practi ce.

In movie terms, we slowly pull focus, lifting up and awayfrom being em be dde d in our lives until we attain an overview.This ove rv iew em po we rs us to make valid crea tive choices.Think of it as a journey w ith difficult, varied, and fascin atingterrain . You are movin g to high er gro und. T he fruit of yourwithdrawal is w hat yo u need to underst and as a positive pro­cess, both pain ful and exh ilarating.

M an y of us find th at we have squandered our own creativeenerg ies by investing disproportionately in th e live s, hop es,dreams, and plans of others. Their lives have obsc ured and de­toured our own. As we consolida te a core th rough our w ith­drawal process, we become more able to artic ulate our ow nboundaries, dreams, and authe ntic goa ls. O ur personal flex­ibility increases w hile our m alleability to th e w hims of othe rsdecreases. We ex perience a heighten ed sense of autonomy andpossibilit y.

Ordinarily, w he n we spea k of wi thdrawa l, we think ofhaving a subs tance removed from us. We give up alco ho l,drugs, suga r, fats, caffeine , nicotine- and we suffer a with­drawal. It's useful to view crea tive w ithdrawa l a little dif­ferently. We ourselves are the subs tance we w ithdraw to, notfrom , as we pull our ove rex tended and misplaced crea tive en­ergy back into our own co re.

We begin to excavate our buried dreams. This is a trickyprocess. So me of our dreams are very volatile, and th e mere actof brushing th em off sends an enormous surge of ene rgy bolt­ing through our den ial sys tem. Such grief! Such loss! Suchpain! It is at th is point in th e recover y process th at we makewhat Rob ert Bly calls a " des cent into ashes." We mourn thesel f we abando ne d . We gree t this sel f as we might gree t a loverat th e end of a long and cos tly war.

To effec t a crea tive recovery, we must undergo a time of

SP I R ITUAL E LE CT R I C ITY: TH E BA SI C PRIN CIP L E S 7

mourning. In dealin g wi th the suicide of the " nice" self wehave been making do wi th, we find a cer tain amount of griefto be essential. O ur tears prepare the groun d for our futu regrowth. Without th is creative moistening, we may remai nbarren. We must allow the bolt of pain to str ike us. Rem ember,thi s is useful pain ; lightning illuminates.

H ow do yo u kn ow if you are crea tively blocked?Jealou syis an exce llen t clue. Are there ar tists who m you rese nt? Do youtell yours elf, " I could do th at, if only . . ." D o you tell your­self th at if only you took yo ur creative potential ser iously, yo umi ght:

• Sto p telling yo ursel f, " It's too late."

• Stop waiting until you m ake eno ug h mon ey to do some­th ing you'd really love.

• Stop tell in g yourself, " It's just my ego" whenever youyearn for a more creative life.

• Stop telling yo urs elf that dream s don't matter, that theyare only dreams and th at you sho uld be more sensible.

• Sto p fearing that yo ur fam ily and friends would thi nkyou crazy.

• Stop telli ng yo urself th at crea tivity is a luxur y and th atyo u sho uld be gra teful for w ha t you've go t.

As yo u learn to recogni ze, nurtu re, and pr ote ct your innerartist, you w ill be able to move beyond pain and crea tive con­stric tion. You will learn ways to recognize and resolve fear, re­move emotional scar tissue, and streng then your confidence.Dam aging old ideas abo ut crea tivity w ill be explored and dis­carded. Working with this book, you w ill experience an in ten­sive, guided enco unter wi th yo ur own creativity-your pr i­vate villains, cham pio ns, w ishes , fears, dream s, hop es, andtriumphs. The experience will m ake you exci ted, dep ressed ,ang ry, afraid, joyous, hop eful, and, ultim atel y, more free.

The Basic ToolsTHERE ARETWO PIVOTAL tools in crea tive recovery: the morningpages and the artist date. A last in g crea tive awa ke ning requiresth e cons istent use of both. I lik e to introduce th em both imme­diately, and at sufficient len gth to answer most of yo ur qu es­tions. This cha pte r expl ain s th ese tools carefully and in depth.Please read it with special care and begin th e immed iate use ofbo th tools.

THE M O RNING PAGES

In order to re trieve yo ur crea tivi ty, yo u nee d to find it. I askyo u to do th is by an apparen rly pointless process I call the morn­ing pages. You w ill do th e pages daily th rough all th e weeks ofth e co urse and, I hop e, much longer. I have been doin g th emfor a decad e now. I have st ude nts w ho have worked w ith themnearl y tha t lon g and w ho would no more abandon th em th anbreathing.

Gi nny, a w rite r-produce r, credits th e morning pages withins piratio n for her recent scree nplays and clarity in planningher net w ork specials. ''I'm supe rs tit ious about th em by now,"she says. " W he n I was editing m y last special, I would ge t up at5:00 A.M. to get th em don e before I wen t in to w ork."

What are m orning pages? Put sim ply, th e morning pages

10 TH E AR TIST 'S WAY

Wordsarca[on n of acti on, capa­bleof ilif/lI('//cillg chano«.

IN Gnm B ENGIS

You needto claim the events ofYOll r life to make voursel]YOl/rs.

ANN E-WILSON S CH AEF

are three pages of lon gh and writing, strictly stream-of-con­sciousness : " O h, go d, ano ther morning. I have NOTHING tosay. I need to was h the cur tains. Did I get my laun dr y yester ­day? Blah , blah , blah .. ." T hey mi ght also, more inglori­ously, be called brain drain, since that is one of their main fun c­tion s.

Th ere is 110 wrOllLI! I/la)' todo Inom illg pages. T hese dai ly morn­ing meand erings are not me ant to be art. Or even writing. Istress that point to reassure the non writers wo rking with thi sbook . Writ in g is sim ply one of the tools. Pages are meant to be,simply, the act of movin g the hand across the page and w ritin gdown whatever comes to mind. Nothin g is too petty, too silly,too stupid, or too weird to be includ ed.

T he morning pages are not supposed to sound sma rt­altho ug h some times they mi ght. Most tim es they wo n't, andnob od y will ever kn ow except you. Nob ody is allowed to readyo ur morning pages exce pt you. And you sho uldn 't even readthem yours elf for the first eight wee ks or so. Ju st write threepages, and stick them into an envelo pe. O r w rite three pages ina spiral not ebook and don't leaf back th rou gh. JIISt write threepa,~es . .. and w rite three more pages th e next day.

Sept ember 30, 1991 . . . Over the weekend, for Do rncn­ica's biology project , she and I wen t bug hu nting on theRio Grande and Pott Creek. We collected water crawliesand butterflies. I made a crimson ho rnem adc butt erfly netth at was quite funct ional althoug h drago nflies eluded usto our dism ay. We did not catch the tarantula st rollingdown the di rt road near our hou se. Wej us t enjoyed spot­tin g it.

Althou gh occas ionally colorfu l, the morning pages areoften negative, frequ ently fragmented , often self- pity ing, re­petitive, st ilted or babyish , angry or bland- even silly sound­ing. Good!

O ct. 2 , 19 91 . . . I am up and have had a headache andhave taken aspirin and feci a little better altho ugh st illsha ky. I may have th at flu afte r all. I am ge tt ing to the bot-

tom of a lot o f unpackin g and still no teapot from Laurawh om I am sorely m issing. Wh at a heartb reak . ..

All th at angry, whiny, petty stuff th at yo u write down inth e morning stands between you and yo ur crea tivity. Worry­ing abo ut th e job, th e laundry, th e funny kn ock in the car, th ewe ird look in yo ur lover 's eye- this stuff eddies th rough oursubconscio us and muddies our days. Ge t it on th e page.

Th e morning pages are the primary tool of creative recovery. Asblocked artists, we tend to criticize ourse lves mercil essly. Evenif we look like fun cti oning artists to th e world, we feci wenever do enoug h and w ha t we do isn't right. We are victi ms ofour own internalized perfectionist, a nast y internal and etern alcr itic, the Censor, who resid es in our (left ) brain and keep s up aconstant strea m of subversive remarks th at are often disguisedas th e truth. The Censor says wonde rful things lik e: " You callth at writing? What a joke. You can't even punctuate. If yo uhaven't done it by now yo u never w ill. You can't even spell.What m akes yo u thin k yo u can be crea tive?" And on and on.

M ake this a rul e: always remember th at yo ur Censor'snegative opinions are not th e truth. T his takes practice. Byspilling out of bed and straight onto th e page every morning,yo u learn to evade th e Censor. Because th ere is no w ro ng wayto w rite the morning pages, the Censor's opinion doesn't coun t.

Let your Censor rattle o n. (And it will. ) Ju st keep yo ur handmoving across th e page. Write down th e Censor's th oughts ifyo u want to. N ote how it loves to aim for your crea tive jugular.M ake no mi stake: th e Censor is o ut to ge t yo u. It's a cunn ingfoe. Ever y time you ge t sma rter, so does it. So yo u wrote onegood play? T he Censor tells yo u th at's all th ere is. So yo u drewyo ur first ske tch? The Censor says, " It's not Picasso."

Think of yo ur Censor as a car toon serpent, slithe ringaro und yo ur creative Ed en , hissin g vil e th ings to keep you offguard. If a serpent doesn't appea l to yo u, you mi ght wa nt tofind a good cartoon im age of yo ur Censor, m ayb e th e sha rkfrom Jaws, and put an X th rou gh it. Post it w here yo u tend tow rite or on th e insid e cove r o f yo ur noteb ook. Ju st m aking th eCensor in to the nast y, cleve r little characte r th at it is begins topry loose so me of its power ove r yo u and yo ur creativity.

THE B A SI C TOO LS 11

A mind too active is 11 0 mindat all.

TH EO DOR E R O ETH KE

The events ill ollrlives happen illa seqllellce ill time, but ill theirs(~lI ificance to ourselves, theyfindtheir OlVIl order . . . the contin­1I0 11 S threadoJrevelation.

EUDORA W ELTY

12 TH E A RT IST'S WAY

M ore th an one stude nt has tacked up an unfl attering pic­ture of th e parent respons ible for th e Censor's installati on inhis or her psyche and called th at his or her Censor. The point isto stop taking th e Censor as th e vo ice of reason and learn tohear it for th e blockin g device th at it is. M orning pages willhelp yo u to do this.

Morn ino pages are nonneootiable. N ever ski p or ski m p onm orning pages. Your m ood doesn't m atter. T he rotten thingyo ur Censor says doesn't m atter. We have this idea th at we needto be in th e m ood to write. We don 't.

Mornin g pages w ill teach you th at your mood doesn'treally m atter. So me of th e best crea tive work gets done on th edays w he n yo u feel th at everything yo u're do ing is just plainjunk. The morning pages w ill teach yo u to sto p judging andjust let yo urself w ri te. So w hat if yo u're tired , crabby, dis­tr acted , stressed? Your artist is a child and it needs to be fed.M orning pages feed your ar tist child. So w rite your morningpages.

T hree pages of w ha teve r crosses yo ur mind-that 's allth ere is to it. If yo u can't th ink of any thing to w rite, the n write," I can't think of anythi ng to w rite. . . ." Do this until yo u havefilled th ree pages. Doallythillg unti! yO Il havefill edthreepages.

When peopl e ask , "Why do we w rite morni ng pages?" Ijoke, " To get to th e other side ." T hey think I am kidding, butI'm not. Morning pages do ge t us to th e other side: th e otherside of our fear, of our negati vity, of our mood s. Ab ove all,th ey ge t us beyond our Censor. Beyond th e reach of the Cen­sor's babble we find our own qu iet cen ter, th e place w he rewe hear the still, sma ll vo ice th at is at once our crea to r's andourown.

A word is in order here abo ut logic brain and artist brain.Logicbraill is our brain of choice in the Western Hemisphere. Itis th e categorical brain. It thinks in a neat , lin ear fash ion. As arul e, logic brain perceives th e world according to known cate­go ries. A horse is a certain combina tion of an imal parts th atm ake up a horse. A fall fores t is viewed as a series of colors thatadd up to "fall forest." It looks at a fall fores t and notes: red ,orange, yellow, g reen , go ld.

Logic brain was and is our survival b rain . It works on

kn own principl es. Anything unknown is perceived as w ro ngand possibl y dangerous. Logic brain lik es th in gs to be neat lit­tle so ldiers m arching in a straight lin e. Logic brain is th e brainwe usually listen to, espec ially w he n we are telling ourselves tobe sensi ble.

Logic brain is our Censor, our second (and thi rd andfourth) th oughts. Faced w ith an orig ina l sen tence , ph rase,paint squiggle, it says, "What th e hell is th at ?That's not right! "

Artist brain is our inventor, our child, our ver y own per­sonal abse n t- m inded pro fessor. Artist brain says, "Hey! Thatis so neat!" It puts odd things together (boat equa ls wave andwa lker) . It likes calling a speeding GTO a wild anima l: " T heblack howl in g wolf pulled into th e d rive- in . . ."

Arti st brain is our crea tive, holi st ic brain . It thinks inpatterns and shadings, It sees a fall fores t and thinks: Wow!Leaf bouquet ! Pretty! Gold-gilt-s him mery-eart hs kin-king's­car pe t! Arti st brain is associative and freewheeling. It m akesnew connec tions, yo king together im ages to in voke meaning:lik e th e N orse myths calling a boat "wave-ho rse." In Star Wa rs,th e name Skywalke r is a lovely artist-brain flash.

Why all this logic-brain / artist-brain talk? Because th emorning pages teach logic brain to stand aside and let ar tistbrain play.

T he Censor is part of our left over survival brain . It was th epar t in charge of deciding w he the r it was safe for us to leaveth e forest and go out in to the meadow. O ur Censor scans ourcrea tive meadow for any dangerous beast ies. Any origina lth ou ght can look pretty dangerous to our Censor.

T he only sentences/pa intings /sculptures/pho tographs itlik es are ones th at it has seen m any times before. Safe sen­ten ces. Safe paintings. N ot explora to ry blurts, squiggles, orjottings. List en to yo ur Censor and it wi ll tell yo u th at eve ry­thing origina l is wrong/dan gerouslrotten .

Who wouldn' t be blocked if every tim e yo u tiptoed intoth e ope n so me bo dy (yo ur Censor) m ade fun of yo u? Them orning pages w ill teach yo u to stop listening to th at rid icu le.T hey will allow yo u to det ach from yo ur negati ve Censor.

It m ay be useful for yo u to think of th e morning pages asmeditati on. It m ay not be th e practice o f meditat ion yo u are

THE BAS I C TOO LS 13

Poetry often ('I/ (e/'5 throuol: (hewindow of irrelevance.

M. C. RICH ARDS

14 TH E ART IST'S W A Y

lnspiration mav bea[orm ofsuperconsciousness, orperhaps oJsubconsciousness-s-I wouldn'tknow. But I aliisureit is theantithesis oJ selj-consciousncss.

A AR ON COPLA ND

accus to me d to. You m ay, in fact , not be accusto me d to medi­tating at all. The pages m ay not seem spiritua l or even medita­tive-more like negati ve and m aterialisti c, actua lly- but th eyare a valid form of meditati on th at gives us in sight and helps useffect change in o ur lives.

Let's take a look at w ha t we stand to gain by med itating.T here are m any ways of thinking abo u t meditati on. Scientistsspea k of it in terms of brain hemispheres and shunting tech­niques. We move from logic brain to artist brain and from fastto slow, sha llow to deep. M anagem ent consultants, in pursuitof co rpo rate physical health, have learned to think of medita­tion primarily as a stress-management techniqu e. Spiritualseekers choose to view th e process as a ga teway to God. Artistsand crea tivity m aven s approve of it as a condui t for hi gh er cre­ative insights.

All of th ese notions are true-as far as th ey go. T hey donot go far eno ugh. Yes, we w ill alte r our brain hemisph ere,lower our stress, discover an inner co ntac t w ith a creativesource, and have m any creative insights. Yes, for any one ofth ese reasons, th e pursuit is a worthy one. Even taken in com­binati on , however, th ey are still intellectu al constructs forw ha t is primaril y an ex perience of w ho leness, rig htness, andpower.

Wc meditate to di scover our own identity, our right placein th e sche me of th e universe. T hro ug h meditati on, we ac­quire and eventua lly acknowledge our co nnec tio n to an innerpower so urce th at has th e ability to tr ansform our outer world.In o ther words, meditati on gives us not only th e light of in­sigh t but also th e power for ex pans ive change.

Insight in and of itself is an intellectual comfort. Power inand of itself is a blind force th at can destroy as eas ily as build. Itis only w hen we consc ious ly learn to link power and light tha twe begin to feel our rightful identities as creati ve beings. Themorning pages allow us to for ge this link. T hey provid e uswi th a spiritua l ham-radio set to con tact th e Creato r Within.For this reason , th e morning pages are a spi ri tua l practice.

It is impossible to w rite morning pages for any ex tendedperi od of time w itho ut com ing in to con tact wi th an un ex­pected inner power. Although I used th em for m any years be-

fore I realized this, th e pages are a path way to a strong and clearsense of self T hey are a trail th at we follow into our own inte­rior, w he re we meet both our own crea tiv ity and our crea tor.

M ornin g pages m ap our own in terior. Without th em, ourdreams m ay remain ter ra incognita. I kn ow mine did . U sin gth em, th e light o f insight is coupled with the power for ex pan­sive change. It is very difficult to com plain abou t a situa tionmorning after morning, month afte r month, w itho ut bein gmoved to cons truc tive action. The pages lead us out o f despairand into undreamed-o f so lu tio ns.

The firs t ti m e I did morning pages, I was livin g in Taos,N ew M exico. I had go ne th ere to so rt myself out-into w hat, Ididn't know. For th e third time in a row, I'd had a film scuttleddu e to studio politics. Such disasters are routin e to screen­w rite rs, but to me th ey felt lik e mi scarriages. C um ulatively,they we re disast rous. I wa nted to give th e movies up . M ovieshad broken my heart. I didn't wa nt any more brain children tomeet unt im ely deaths. I'd go ne to N ew Mexico to mend myheart and see what else, if any thing, I m ight want to do.

Livin g in a sma ll ado be house th at looked north to TaosMountain , I began a practice of w ri ti ng morning pages. N o­body told me to do th em. I had never heard of any bo dy doi ngthe m . Ijust go t th e insistent, inner sense th at I sho uld do th emand so I did . I sat at a woode n table looking north to TaosMountain and I w rote.

The mornin g pages we re my pastime, someth ing to do in­stead of staring at th e mountain all th e time. The mountain, ahumpbacked marvel di fferent in eve ry weather, raised morequ esti ons th an I did. Wrapp ed in clouds one day, dark and wetth e next, th at mountain dominated my view and my morningpages as wel l. Wha t did it-or any thing- mea n? I asked pageafte r page, morning afte r morning. N o answer.

And th en , one we t morning, a cha racte r nam ed Johnnycame stro ll ing into m y pages. Without planning to, I was writ­ing a no vel. The morning pages had shown me a way.

Anyone w ho faithfully w rites m orning pages w ill be led toa connec tion w ith a source o f w isdom w ithin . When I amstuck with a painful situa tion or problem that I don 't th inkI kn ow how to handle, I wi ll go to th e pages and ask for

T HE BAS I C TOOLS 1 5

It always comes back to thesamenecessity:godeep ellol/c,?h andthere is a bedrock of truth, how­everhard.

M AY SA IlT ON

16 TH E A RT I ST' S WA Y

Likeallability ora muscle,hearillg YOll r inner wisdomis strcnytliened by doing it.

R O BBl E G ASS

It is ill the kllowledge of the.'<?ellllille conditions of Oll r livesthat we 111 ust draw Oll r strength toliveand our reasonsf orliving.

S IMONE DE B EAU VOIR

guidance. To do th is, I write "LJ" as a shorthand for me, " Littlejulie,' and then I ask my qu esti on .

LJ: What sho uld I tell th em abo ut this inner wi sd om?(Then I list en for th e repl y and w rite th at down, too. )

A NS WER: You sho uld tell th em everyone has a di rect dial toGo d. No one needs to go throu gh an operato r. Tell th em to tr ythis technique w ith a problem of the ir own. T hey will.

Sometimes, as above, th e answer m ay seem flippant or toosimple. I have come to belie ve th at seem is th e operative word.Ver y o fte n, w he n I act on th e adv ice I have been given, it is ex­actly right-far more right th an so me thing more co m plicatedwould have been . And so, for th e record, I wa nt to say: pagesare my way of meditat in g; I do th em because th ey work.

A final assura nce : th e morning pages w ill work for paint­ers, for sculpto rs, for poet s, for acto rs, for law yers, for hou se­w ives- for anyo ne w ho wan ts to try any thing crea tive . Don'tthink th ey are a to ol for w rite rs only. H ooey. T hese pages arenot intended for writers on ly. Law yers w ho use th em swea rth ey m ake th em more effective in court. Da ncers claim theirbalance improves-and not j ust emotiona lly. If any th ing ,w rite rs, who have a reg rettable desire to write morning pagesinstead of just do th em , m ay have th e hard est time see ing th eirimpact . What th ey're likely to see is th at th eir o ther w ritingseems to sudde n ly be far more free and ex pans ive and so me­how easy to do. In sho rt, no m atter w hat yo ur reserva tio n oryo ur occupa tion, morning pages w ill function for yo u.

T im othy, a buttoned-down, buttoned-lip cur m udgeonmillion air e, began w riting morning pages wi th a skeptic'ssco rn. H e didn't wa nt to do th em witho ut so me pro of th at th eywould work. The damn pages had no label , no D un and Brad­street rating. They just so unded silly, and Ti mothy hated silly.

Timothy was, in stree t parl ance, a serio us player. Hi s pok erface was so straight it looked mor e like a fir eplace poker th an amere cardsharp's defen se. Pract iced for years in the corporateboard room , T im othy's invincible facade was as da rk, shi ny,and exp en sive as mahogany. N o emotions scra tched th e sur ­face of this m an's calm. H e was a one- ma n monument to th eM asculine M ystique.

"Oh, all rig ht . . ." T imoth y agreed to the pages, but onlybecause he had paid good money to be to ld to do them. Wi thinth ree wee ks, straig htlaced, pin-st riped Ti mo thy became amorning-pages advocate. The results of hi s work with themconvi nced him. He sta rted- heave n forbid-to have a littlecreative fun. " I bou gh t guitar stri ngs for this old guitar I hadlyin g aro un d," he reported one week. And then , " I rewired mystereo. I bou ght some wonderful Italian recording s." Althoughhe hesi tated to acknowledge it, even to hi msel f, T imothy'swriter's block was melting. Up at dawn, Gregorian chant onthe stereo, he was w riting freely.

Not everyone un dertakes th e morning pages wi th such ob­vious antagonism . Ph yllis, a leggy, racehorse socia lite w ho foryears had hidd en her brains beh ind her beauty and her life be­hind her man's, tried the mo rn ing pages w ith a great deal ofsurface cheer-and an inner conviction they would never workfor her. It had been ten years since she had allowed herself towrite any thing other than letters and bread-and-butter lists.About a month into morning pages, seeming ly out of no­where, Phyll is go t her firs t poem. In the three years she hasused pages since, she has writte n poems, speeches, radio shows,and a non fict ion book .

Anton, gru m py bu t graceful in his use of the pages, ac­com plished unblocking as an actor. Laura, talented bu t blockedas a w riter, paint er, and m usician, found that the morn ingpages moved her to her piano, typ ew rit er, and pain t supplies.

While you may undertake this co urse wi th an agenda as towha t yo u want unbl ocked, the tools may free crea tive areasyou have long ign ored or even been blind to. Ingeborg, usingthe pages to unblock her crea tive writer, moved fro m beingone of Germa ny's top music critics to composing for the firsttime in twent y years. She was stunned and made several ec­static transatlantic calls to share her good news.

O ften, the students most resistant to morning pages cometo love them the best . In fact, hating the mornin g pages is avery good sign. Loving them is a good sign, too, if you keepw riti ng even when you sudde nly don't. A neutra l attitude isthe third pos ition, but it's really just a defensive st rategy th atmay mask boredom.

TH E BAS I C TOO LS 17

Painting isj ust anotherway ofkccping adiary.

PABLO P ICASSO

Experience, evenfor apainter,is /JOt exclusivelv visual.

WALTER M EIGS

1 8 T HE A RT IST'S WA Y

Boredom isjust "What's the use?" in disgu ise. And " What'sth e use?" is fear, and fear means yo u are secretly in despair. Soput yo ur fears on th e page. Put any thing on th e page. Put threepages o f it on th e page.

Themostpotent museoJall is 0 111' THE ARTIST DATEOW Il innerchild.

STEPH EN

N ACH M ANO VITCH

A t the height oJ laIlJ?h tel; the uni­verse isfillllg intoa kaleidoscopeof new possibilities.

J EAN H OUST ON

The othe r basic tool of T he Artis t's Way m ay str ike yo u as anontool , a diversion. You m ay see clearly how morning pagesco uld work yet find yo urs elf highly dubious abo ut so methingcalled an artist date. I assure yo u, artis t dates work, too.

Think of th is combinatio n of tools in terms of a radi o re­ceiver and transm itt er. It is a two-step, two-directi on al pro­cess: out and th en i l l. Doing yo ur morning pages, yo u aresending- no ti fying yourself and th e universe of yo ur dreams,dissati sfactions, hop es. Doing yo ur artist date, you are rece iv­ing-op en ing yo urself to insight, inspira tio n, guidance .

But w ha t exac tly is an ar tist date? An ar tist date is a block oftime, perh aps two hours weekly, espec ially set aside and co m­mitted to nu rturing yo ur crea tive co nsciousness, yo ur innerartist. In its most primary form, th e artis t date is an excursion,a play date th at yo u preplan and defend aga ins t all inte rlo pers.You do not take anyo ne on this artis t da te but yo u and yo ur in­ner ar tis t, a. k.a. yo ur crea tive child . That means no lovers,friends, spo uses, chi ldren-no taggers-on of any str ipe.

If yo u th ink th is so unds stupid or th at yo u wi ll never beable to afford th e tim e, identify tha t reactio n as res istance. Youcannot afford not to find time for art ist dates.

" D o yo u spend qu ality time w ith each othe r?" troubledco uples are often aske d by th eir th erapist . Parents of disturbedchildren are asked th e same thing.

" Well ... w ha t do yo u mean , 'qua lity time'?" is th e usualweasely respon se. " We spend a lot of time together."

" Yes . . . but is it qua lity tim e? Do yo u eve r have any funto gether?" th e therapist m ay press.

" Fun?" (Whoever heard of havin g fun in a rotten relat ion­ship like th is one?)

"Do yo u go on da tes? Ju st to talk? Ju st to listen to eachothe r?"

"Dates? . . . But we're married, too bu sy, too broke, too-"

"Too sca red," the therapist m ay interrupt. (H ey, don'tsugarco at it .)

It is fr ightening to spe nd quality time wi th a ch ild o r lover,and our art ist can be see n as both to us. A weekly art ist date isremarkably thrcatening- and remarkably producti ve.

A datc? With my artist?Yes. Your artis t need s to be taken o ut, pampered , and lis­

ten ed to. T he re are as m any w ays to eva de this co m m itment asthere are days of your life. ' 'I'm too broke" is th e favo rcd one,although no o ne said the date need in vol ve elab orate expen scs.

Your artist is a child . Time with a parent m atters m ore th anm onies spe n t. A visit to a grea t junk store, a so lo trip to thebeach , an old m ovie see n alo ne to gether, a visi t to an aquariu mor an art gallc ry- these cos t time, not moncy. Remember, it isth e time co m m itment th at is sacred .

In looking for a par allel , think of th e ch ild of di vorce w hoge ts to sec a bel oved parent o nly on weekends, (D uring m ostof th e week , yo ur art ist is in the cus tody of a stern, workadayad ult.) What th at chi ld wa nts is atte ntion , not ex pe nsive ou t­in gs. What that ch ild does not w ant is to share the preciousparent w ith so meone like th e new significan t other,

Spe nd ing time in so litude w ith yo ur artis t ch ild is essen tialto sel f-nurturing. A long co un try wa lk, a so litary ex pe ditio nto th e beach for a sun risc or suns et, a so rtie o u t to a st rangechurch to hear gospel music, to an ethn ic neighborhood totast e foreign sig h ts and so unds-your ar tis t might enjoy any ofth ese. O r yo ur ar tist might like bowling.

Com m it yo urself to a weekly ar tis t 's date, and th en wat chyo ur killj oy side try to wriggle o u t of it. Wat ch how this sacredtime ge ts eas ily encroache d upon. Watch how the sac red timesudde nly includes a thi rd part y. Learn to g ua rd aga ins t thesein vasions.

Ab ove all, learn to list en to what yo ur art ist ch ild has to sayo n, and abou t, th ese j oint ex pe dit io ns. For exa m ple, "Oh, Ihat e this serious stuff," yo ur artis t m ay ex claim if yo u persist intak in g it on ly to grown- up places th at are culturall y ed ify ingand good for it.

List en to th at! It is telling yo u yo ur art needs m ore playfulinfl ow. A little fun can go a long way toward m ak in g yo urwork feel m ore like play. We forget th at th e imaginat ion-at-

T HE BAS I C TOO LS 19

Th ecreation of something new isnot accomplishedby the intellectbut by theplay illstilletactill<l!from innernecessity. T hecreativemindplays with the objects itloves.

C. G. J UNG

20 TH E ART 1S T ' S WAY

Every child isallartist. Th eproblem ishow toremain allartist ollce hegrows up.

PABLO PICASS O

During / these}periods ofrelaxationafterconcentratedintellectual activity, the intuitivemindseems to takeoverandcanproduce the sudden clarifyillginsights whichgiveso muchjoy anddelight.

FRITJ O F C APRA

PHY SICI ST

play is at the heart of all good work. And increasing our capac­ity for good creative wo rk is what thi s book is abo ut.

You are likely to find yo ur self avoiding your artist dates.Reco gnize thi s resistance as a fear of intimacy- selfintimacy.Often in troubled relationships, we settle into an avoidancepattern with our significant others. We don't want to hear whatthey are thinking because it just m ight hurt. So we avoid them,know ing that, once they get the chance, our significant othersw ill probably blurt out something we do not want to hear. It ispos sible they w ill want an answer we do not have and can't givethem. It is equally possible we mi ght do the same to them andth at then the two of us will stare at each other in asto nishme nt,saying, "But I never kn ew you felt lik e th at!"

It is probable th at these self-disclosures, frightening thoughthey are, will lead to the building of a real relationship, one inwhich the participants are free to be who th ey are and to be­come what th ey w ish. This possibility is what makes the risksof self-disclosure and true intimacy profitable. In orde r to havea real relationship with our creativity, we must take the timeand care to cultivate it. Our creativity will use this time to con­front us, to confide in us, to bond with us, and to plan.

The morning pages acqu aint us with what we think andwhat we think we need . We identify problem areas and con­cern s. We com plain , enume rate, identify, isolate, fret . T his isstep one, analogous to prayer. In the course of the release en­gendered by our artist date, step two, we begin to hear solu­tion s. Perh aps equally important, we begin to fund the creati vereserves we will dr aw on in fulfilling our artistry.

Filling the Well, Stockin g the Pond

Art is an im age-u sin g sys tem. In order to create, we drawfrom our inner well. T his inner well , an arti sti c reservo ir, isideally like a we ll-s tocked trout pond. We've go t big fish, littlefish, fat fish , skinny fish-an abundance of artis tic fish to fry.As artists, we must realize that we have to maintain thi s artisticecosystem . If we don't give some atten tion to upkeep, our we llis apt to become depleted, stagnant, or blocked.

An y extended period or piece of work dr aws heavily on

our artistic wel l. Overtapping the we ll, like ove rfishing thepond, leaves us with dimini shed resources. We fish in vain forth e im ages we req uire. O ur work dries up and we wonderwhy, "j ust when it was go ing so we ll." T he truth is tha t workcan dry up because it is go ing so well.

As artists, we must learn to be self-no ur ishi ng. We mustbecome aler t eno ug h to consciously replenish our creative re­sources as we draw on them-to restock the trout pond, so tospeak. I call th is processjillinLI? the well.

Fill ing the well invo lves the active pursuit of im ages to re­fresh our ar tis tic reservoi rs. Art is born in attention. Its mid­wife is detail. Art may seem to spring fro m pain , but perhapsth at is because pain serves to focus our atten tion onto de tai ls(for instance, the excr uciati ng ly beautiful curve of a lost lover'sneck). Art may seem to invo lve broad strokes, grand schemes,grea t plans. But it is the attentio n to de tail th at stays wi th us;the sing ular image is what haunts us and becomes ar t. Even inthe midst of pain , th is sing ular image brin gs deli ght. T he ar t­ist who tells you different is lyin g.

In orde r to fun ction in the langu age of art, we must learnto live in it comfortably. T he langu age of art is im age, symbo l.It is a wordless langu age even w hen our very ar t is to chase itwith words. T he ar tis t's langu age is a sensual one, a langu ageof felt experience. When we work at our art, we dip in to thewel l of our experience and scoop out images. Because we doth is, we need to learn how to put images back. How do we fillthe we ll?

We feed it im ages. Art is an art ist- brai n pursuit. T he artistbr ain is our im age brain , home and haven to our best crea tiveimpulses. T he ar tis t brain cannot be reached-or tr iggered­effec tively by words alone. The artist brain is the senso rybrain : sight and sound, sme ll and taste, tou ch. These are theelement s of magic, and magic is the elem ental stuff of ar t.

In filling the well, th ink magic. T hink delight. T hink fun.Do not think duty. Do not do wha t you should do-spiritu alsit- ups like reading a dull but reco m me nded critical text . Dowha t intrigu es you, explore wha t interests you; think mystery,not mastery.

A mystery draws us in, leads us on, lures us. (A duty may

THE BASI C TOOLS 2 1

YOl/ngerSelf-whocan beasbalky andstubborn asthemostcantankerous three-year-old-isnot impressed by words. Like anativeofMissouri, it wants to beshown. Toarouse its interest, wemustseduce it withprettypicturesandpleasurablesensations- takeit out diningand dancing as itwere. Only in this way can DeepSelfbereached.

STARHAWK

THEOLOGIAN

22 TH E ART 1S T'S WAY

Nobody sees aflower-really-itissosmall it takes time- wehaven't time-mId to seetakestime, like tohaveafr iendtakes time.

GEORGIA O'KEEFFE

So yO Il see, imaginationneedsmoodlillg-lollg, inefficiellt,happy idlillg, dawdlingandputterino.

B REN DA U ELA N D

numb us out, turn us off, tune us ou t.) In filling th e we ll, fol­low yo ur sense of the mysterious, not yo ur sense of wha t yousho uld know more abo ut. A mystery can be very simple: if Idrive th is roa d, not my usual road, wha t wi ll I see? C hanging akn ow n ro ute throws us into th e now. We become refoc use d onth e visi ble, visua l world. Sigh t leads to insight.

A mystery can be sim pie r even th an that: if I light th is stickof incen se, w ha t w ill I feci ? Scen t is an o fte n-overlooked path­way to powerful associations and healin g. T he scent of C hris t­mas at any time of year-or th e scent of fres h bread or home­m ade so up-can nourish the hungry artist wi thin .

So me so unds lull us. O thers sti m ulate us. Ten m inutes oflistening to a great piece of music can be a very effective medi­tati on. Five minutes of barefoot dancing to dru m m usic cansend our art ist into its play-fray- day refreshed.

Filli ng th e we ll needn't be all novelt y. Cooking can fill th ewel l. Whe n we cho p and pare vege tab les, we do so with ourth ou ghts as well. Reme mber, ar t is an artis t-brain pur suit.T his brain is reac hed throug h rh yth m-through rhyme, notreason. Scraping a carrot, peeling an app le- these actions arequ ite literally foo d for th ou ght.

An y reg ular, repetit ive actio n primes the wel l. Writershave heard ma ny woeful tales of the Bronte sisters and poorJane Au sten , forced to hide th ei r sto ries under th eir needle­work. A little experiment with some men ding can cas t a wholenew light on th ese activi ties. N eed lework , by defi ni tion reg u­lar and repe ti tive, both soothes and sti m ulates th e ar tistwi thi n . Whole plo ts can be st itc hed up w hi le we sew. As ar t­ists, we can very literally reap w ha t we sew.

"Why do I ge t my best ideas in the shower?" an exas per­ated Eins tei n is said to have remarked . Brain research now tellsus th at th is is because showering is an artist-bra in activity.

Showering, sw im mi ng, scru bbi ng, shavi ng, steering acar-so m any s- like-ycs words !-all of th ese are reg ular, re­pet itive act ivi ties tha t may tip us over from our logic bra in intoour m ore crea tive artist brain. Solutio ns to st icky crea tiveprobl em s m ay bubble up throug h th e dishwa ter, emerge on th efreeway j us t as we are exec uting a tricky merge, . . .

Learn w hich of th ese works bes t for yo u and use it. Ma ny

artists have found it useful to keep a notep ad or tape recordernext to th em as th ey d rive. Steve n Spiel berg claims that hisvery best ideas have come to him as he was drivin g th e free­ways. This is no accide nt. N egotiating th e flow of tr affic , hewas an ar tist im mersed in an oncom ing, eve r-a lte ring flow ofimages. Im ages trigger th e artist brain . Im ages fill th e well.

O ur focused atten tion is cri tical to filling th e wel l. We needto encoun ter our life ex periences, not ignore th em. M any of usread com pulsively to screen our awa reness. O n a crowded (in­terest ing) train , we train our atten tio n on a newsp aper, losin gth e sigh ts and so unds around us-all im ages for the we ll.

CON T RACT

I, , underst and th at I am un­der taking an intensive, guided encounter wi th myown crea tivity. I com m it m ysel f to th e twelve- weekdura tio n of th e course. I, _com mi t to weekly reading, daily m ornin g pages, aweekly ar tist date, and th e fulfillment of eachweek's tas ks.

I, , fur the r understand th atthis co urse wi ll raise issues and emotio ns for me todeal w ith. I, , co m mit my­sel f to excellent self-care-adequa te sleep, diet,exercise, and pamperin g-for th e durati on of th eco urse.

(signature)

(date)

T HE BA SI C TOO L s 23

The truemystery of the world isthe visible,not the invisible.

OSCA R WILD E

24 THE ART 1ST 'S WAY

Inside yOIl there's anartist yOIl

don't know about. . . . Say yesquickl», if y OIl know, ifYOIl 'veknown itfrom beforethe begin­ningof theuniverse.

JALAI UD-DIN RUMI

Artists block is a very literal expression. Blocks must be ac­knowledged and dislodged. Filling the well is the surest way to

do thi s.Art is the im agin ation at play in the field of time. Let your­

self play.

CREATIVITY CO N T RACT

When I am teaching the Artist 's Way, I require students tomake a contract with themselves, com m itting to the work ofthe course. Can you give yours elf th at gift? Say yes by means ofsome sm all ceremony. Buy a nice notebook for your pages;hire your babysitter ahead of time for the weekly artist dates.Read the contract on the preceding page. Amend it, ifyou like;then sign and dat e it. Come back to it when you need encour­agement to go on.