The Artist’s Way | Week 1
“Creativity is play, but for shadow artists, learning to allow themselves to play is hard work”
The Morning Pages
I decided to officially start this the first week of October. I enjoy the motivation and mental reset the new month brings. I think the morning pages and my inktober daily prompt has been a good motivator to keep me consistent.
First week of morning pages has been hard to complete but I am already seeing the benefits. The part that is difficult for me to complete is I’ve been unable to do my morning pages in bed as soon as I wake up. That is mostly due to me taking the dogs potty first thing in the morning so there are no accidents in the house. By the time that is done, I’m tidying up from last night, brewing some coffee for him and chai for me, and starting the day. I have been getting my morning pages done at my desk during the quite time because its still very early and my brain could still use the outlet. I have managed to fill 3 pages every day. It also feels amazing to commit to a project and keep with it. I will say, going forward I will only be filling 1 page. The 3 pages is not realistic for me and the book said to make this work for me to genuinely get something out of it so Im going to do minimum of 1 page.
The Artists Date
For this weeks Artist date, I decided to grab a bite to eat. I tracked down Cousin’s Maine Lobster, a food truck I have been wanting to try for months. They’re signature item is a lobster roll so I opted for the Connecticut Roll, which is served warm with butter and lemon. I am a lobster fan to begin with, so getting out and about to get some lobster was a real treat.
Assignments
Along with the daily morning pages and the weekly reading, we also get a list of tasks towards the end of the first chapter. Most tasks are time travel related that involve you thinking back and writing on parts of the past. I am doing these prompts in between the morning page entries just to keep it all together.
This weeks reading talked about shadow artists and how nurturing is the best approach, mentioning “shadow artists judge themselves harshly, beating themselves for years over the fact that they have not acted on their dreams.” I feel very seen reading this.
The writing assignments are meant to challenge the very root of why the artist is existing in the shadows and to get those people (and the things they said to put you there) out of your mind.
Overall, week 1 was a success. I’ve been producing art already and my mind is more clear. I’m excited to start week two now that I have an idea of how I’d like to structure this going forward.
I definitely recommend doing the reading of the whole chapter first before starting the next week so you can incorporate the assignments more easily into the journal.