Julia Cameron - The Artists Way Workbook

Table of Contents

ALSO BY JULIA CAMERON

NONFICTION
The Artists Way
Walking in This World
The Vein of Gold
The Right to Write
The Sound of Paper
Floor Sample: A Creative Memoir
Answered Prayers
Heart Steps
Blessings
Transitions
Prayers from a Nonbeliever
Letters to a Young Artist: Building a Life in Art
How to Avoid Making Art (or Anything Else You Enjoy)
(illustrated by Elizabeth Cameron)
The Artists Way Morning Pages Journal
The Artists Date Book (illustrated by Elizabeth Cameron)
Supplies: A Troubleshooting Guide for Creative Difficulties
God Is No Laughing Matter
God Is Dog Spelled Backwards (illustrated by Elizabeth Cameron)
Inspirations: Meditations from The Artists Way
The Writers Life: Insights from The Right to Write
The Artists Way at Work (with Mark Bryan and Catherine Allen)
Money Drunk, Money Sober (with Mark Bryan)

FICTION
Popcorn: Hollywood Stories
The Dark Room

PLAYS
Public Lives
The Animal in the Trees
Four Roses
Love in the DMZ
Avalon (a musical)
The Medium at Large (a musical)

POETRY
Prayers for the Little Ones
Prayers to the Nature Spirits
The Quiet Animal
This Earth (also an album with Tim Wheater)

FEATURE FILM
Gods Will
(as writer/director)

INTRODUCTION

THE BOOK YOU HOLD IN YOUR HANDS is the very spine of the Artists Way teachings. The ArtistsWay did not begin as a book at allit began as a series of class notes. I would gather my group into a cluster and say, Here is what I suggest you try now. I well remember my early classes, taught in New York in a high-ceilinged loft space in SoHo. I remember the mix of skepticism and eagerness on my students facesa blend of hopefulness and desperation. I particularly remember a punked-out redhead named Janet, who sat, arms crossed and defiant, daring me to devise tools that worked. The tools that work are the tools you will find in this book. They are the distillate of twenty-five years teaching experience. If you work with them, a creative breakthrough will follow. It is a lot like doing Hatha yoga: you simply stretch yourself into certain postures and experience a heightened energy flow. Many of the tools will seem deceptively simple. What does finding five pretty rocks have to do with anything? The answer is Everything. The stones you select remind you of the beauty of creation. Carried for a week in your pocket, they remind you that you, too, are intended to create.

Julia, I am sometimes chided, your tools remind me of kindergarten. I say, Yes, they do. When was the last time you had fun learning? If you undertake the tools in this book, you will have fun learning. You will one more time awaken the childlike part of you that createsthe artist within. It does not matter whether you are a declared artist with a chosen art form, or simply someone who yearns for a more creative life. The tools will work if you work them. The Artists Way is an experiential path. We awaken our creativity through using it, not through theory. If you are hungry to understand on a more intellectual level the tools in this workbook, you may wish to read the Artists Way text in its entirety. The essays in The Artists Way match the tools, but I repeat, you do not need to know why something works in order to have it work. As a rule, too much thinking is a part of being blocked. Artists and intellectuals are not the same animal. This causes a great deal of confusion. Our schools educate us intellectually but not artistically. We learn how to deconstruct art, not construct it.

Through the simple building blocks that are the tools in this book, you will learn how to heal old wounds and move toward new horizons. You will examine and discard damaging mythology and painful personal experiences in the arts. A tool at a time, you will learn how to construct a new and more positive life built on greater optimism and resiliency. You will not learn to be fearless, but you will learn how to create despite your fears.

Art is a spiritual act. It takes faith to move onto the page, the stage, the easel. The pages of this workbook make up what is essentially a spiritual toolkit. Through morning pages and artists dateseach of which is explained in this bookyou will learn how to build a spiritual radio kit that amplifies the voice of inspiration. You will come in contact with a powerful spiritual force, which some may call God, and others merely the Muse. Do not allow semantics to block you. You do not need to believe in anything particular in order for these tools to work. Although they may seem quite Zen, the tools are in fact intensely practical. They work not on some imaginary life but on the one youve actually got. Simply add these tools to your life as it currently exists. Do not look for dramaticor traumaticchange. The shift you will experience will be substantial, but it will come to you in many tiny increments.

Our mythology around art is very damaging. Our culture teaches us that creativity is a frightening pursuit. This is not the case. Creativity can be both safe and user-friendly. All of us are creative, and through the use of these simple tools, any life can be made more creative. It is my hope that you will enjoy the process of working with this book, that you will become larger, stronger, and more colorfulthat your dreams will move from the realm of fantasy into reality. As you heighten your capacity to listen for creative guidance, you will find your path unfolding organically one step at a time. When I go out to teach, my students often greet me with the sentence, Your book changed my life. I always respond, Thank you, but you changed your life. You did it through the use of a spiritual toolkit.

You might want to think of this workbook as an owners or drivers manual for artists. Together with The Artists Way, or separately, it provides firm and steady guidance for the creative life. These tools have unblocked childrens books and feature films. They have been used by Hollywood actors and midwestern schoolteachers. Operas have been written, plays have been penned, novels have come to life, and one-person shows have sprung into being. If you have a creative dream, or even a vague yearning, these tools will clarify, prioritize, and energize your undertakings. We are far more creative than we imagine. We are far larger and far more daring. It is the purpose of this toolkit to help you emerge as an artist. This may mean you are in for some delightful surprises. You might undertake the work hoping to unblock your writer, only to discover in passing that you also embody an inner photographer, sculptor, or painter. We are more gifted than we know, and our gifts lie in many unsuspected directions.

The Artists Way is a journey of discovery. You are the terra incognita that you will be exploring. Expect to fall in love with both yourself and the world around you.