Artist Dates

The last week of December, I went to investigate the price of The Artist’s Way. To my surprise, Amazon told me that I had already bought the kindle version of the book so I re-downloaded the Kindle app on my phone and read the book.

I probably won’t do morning pages. I have robust morning routine, though I do see the benefits. I won’t go back through and work through all the exercises, though I will do some of them (and I did a few while I was reading).

What I did latch onto was this idea of Artist Dates. Cameron describes artist dates for the reader, “An artist date is a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist.” She also refers to it as a play date and instructs the reader to make lists to get ideas flowing for what counts for an artist date. The answer? Essentially anything you like. She says, “In filling the well, think magic. Think delight. Think fun. Do not think duty. Do not think what you should do-spiritual sit-ups like reading a dull but recommended critical text. Do what intrigues you, explore what interests you; think mystery, not mastery.”

I used to draw. My #personalgradschool hashtag from easily seven years ago started with a drawing challenge. I rarely have time to draw anymore. I do write and read and occasionally thunk around on the piano. But I don’t schedule a chunk of time because there’s always Hebrew homework to fill it. But I decided I could. Friday mornings are my artist dates. Ish. I bent some of her rules. The last Friday of the month is dedicated to sitting in a coffee shop and prepping the budget for month change, something that continually troubles our budget-keeping efforts. But they are on the calendar. They are thought about in advance.

Last week, Friday was my birthday and I went to a gym downtown to go rock climbing. I loved it. It was also mildly terrifying. I got to the top of two different 40 foot walls and doing something new and scary seemed like a great way to start my 36th year. I should send Cameron a thank you note.