Ah, Julia! You came to me at a critical point in my life, when I was thirsty for creative autonomy. I was too fragile to withstand the rigors of the acting business, yet I had this stubborn need to be seen and create. I knew I had talent. Never mind getting an agent; I had no agency.
This is the case for many artists, and I would say especially actors. Conventional reality actually dictates that we need permission to ply our trade.. If you can’t get the audition, you can’t get the part…so you can’t make your art.
But Julia, bit by bit, you nourished my soul through The Artist’s Way to defy this creativity blocking ‘empirical truth’ and experience creative fulfillment anyway.
Prior to finding Julia Cameron’s book, I was able to create a cabaret show on my own, which revealed that my strength lay in the patter between songs, and so I started doing standup….but writing jokes?
Enter the Artist’s Way. The morning pages were my way to become a comedy writer, and then a playwright. The exercises were my way through the joylessness I felt at not having arrived where I’d wished to be by ‘a certain age’. My age no longer mattered. What mattered was my imagination, my joy: taking what life dealt me and using the keyboard and the stage as a weapon of revenge. Okay, that’s not the most evolved motivation I suppose, but it worked, because my struggles resonated with people.
All of ours do. The particulars of our lives, the very uniqueness of our individual experience is the key to the universality in the art we make.
The morning pages led me to scratch the itch to go from always having to be funny to writing dramedy, first in the form of a solo show, then with other people as the characters and eventually, I had written several plays. More than any other tool, Julia’s morning pages have kept me steady at the helm through many creative incarnations, including this one, as a creativity, ADHD and career life coach with a published book to my credit.
Also, the12 week journey of the Artist’s Way empowered me to wield my creativity by letting it be less precious. Making things is an everyday occurrence for me now.
Trust me, the Artist’s Way rocks. Don’t let the G-d thing dissuade you from availing yourself of it. It’s about doodling your way into the land of meaning making. Call it the Great Creator or call it the subconscious, whatever it is, It doesn’t care.
