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The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity Paperback – Deckle Edge, March 4, 2002
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"Without The Artist's Way, there would have been no Eat, Pray, Love.” —Elizabeth Gilbert
The Artist’s Way is the seminal book on the subject of creativity. An international bestseller, millions of readers have found it to be an invaluable guide to living the artist’s life. Still as vital today—or perhaps even more so—than it was when it was first published one decade ago, it is a powerfully provocative and inspiring work. In a new introduction to the book, Julia Cameron reflects upon the impact of The Artist’s Way and describes the work she has done during the last decade and the new insights into the creative process that she has gained. Updated and expanded, this anniversary edition reframes The Artist’s Way for a new century.
- Print length237 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherJeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam
- Publication dateMarch 4, 2002
- Dimensions7.4 x 0.7 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101585421464
- ISBN-13978-1585421466
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
—Elizabeth Gilbert
“THE ARTIST’S WAY by Julia Cameron is not exclusively about writing—it is about discovering and developing the artist within whether a painter, poet, screenwriter or musician—but it is a lot about writing. If you have always wanted to pursue a creative dream, have always wanted to play and create with words or paints, this book will gently get you started and help you learn all kinds of paying-attention techniques; and that, after all, is what being an artist is all about. It’s about learning to pay attention.”
--Anne Lamott, Mademoiselle
“The premise of the book is that creativity and spirituality are the same thing, they come from the same place. And we were created to use this life to express our individuality, and that over the course of a lifetime that gets beaten out of us. [THE ARTIST’S WAY] helped me put aside my fear and not worry about whether the record would be commercial.”
--Grammy award-winning singer Kathy Mattea
“Julia Cameron brings creativity and spirituality together with the same kind of step-by-step wisdom that Edgar Cayce encouraged. The result is spiritual creativity as a consistent and nourishing part of daily life.”
--Venture Inward
“I never knew I was a visual artist until I read Julia Cameron’s THE ARTIST’S WAY.”
--Jannene Behl in Artist’s Magazine
“Julia Cameron’s landmark book THE ARTIST’S WAY helped me figure out who I really was as an adult, not so much as an artist but as a person. And award-winning journalist and poet, Cameron’s genius is that she doesn’t tell readers what they should do to achieve or who they should be—instead she creates a map for readers to start exploring these questions themselves.”
--Michael F. Melcher, Law Practice magazine
“This is not a self-help book in the normative sense. It is simply a powerful book that can challenge one to move into an entirely different state of personal expression and growth.”
--Nick Maddox, Deland Beacon
“THE ARTIST’S WAY (with its companion volume THE ARTIST’S WAY MORNING PAGES JOURNAL) becomes a friend over time, not just a journal. Like a journal, it provokes spontaneous insights and solutions; beyond journaling, it establishes a process that is interactive and dynamic.”
--Theresa L. Crenshaw, M.D., San Diego Union-Tribune
“If you really want to supercharge your writing, I recommend that you get a copy of Julia Cameron’s book THE ARTIST’S WAY. I’m not a big fan of self-help books, but this book has changed my life for the better and restored my previously lagging creativity.”
--Jeffrey Bairstow, Laser Focus World
“Working with the principle that creative expression is the natural direction of life, Cameron developed a three month program to recover creativity. THE ARTIST’S WAY shows how to tap into the higher power that connects human creativity and the creative energies of the universe.”
--Mike Gossie, Scottsdale Tribune
“THE ARTIST’S WAY is the seminal book on the subject of creativity and an invaluable guide to living the artistic life. Still as vital today—or perhaps even more so—than it was when it was first published in 1992, it is a provocative and inspiring work. Updated and expanded, it reframes THE ARTIST’S WAY for a new century.”
--Branches of Light
“THE ARTIST’S WAY has sold over 3 million copies since its publication in 1992. Cameron still teaches it because there is sustained demand for its thoughtful, spiritual approach to unblocking and nurturing creativity. It is, dare we say, timeless.”
--Nancy Colasurdo, FOXBusiness
Praise for VEIN OF GOLD, the second volume in the ARTIST’S WAY trilogy
“For those seeking the wellspring of creativity, this book, like its predecessor, is a solid gold diving rod.”
--PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
ALSO BY JULIA CAMERON
NONFICTION
The Artist’s Way
The Artist’s Way Morning Pages Journal
The Artist’s Date Book (illustrated by Elizabeth Cameron)
The Vein of Gold
The Right to Write
God Is No Laughing Matter
Supplies: A Troubleshooting Guide for Creative Difficulties
(illustrated by Elizabeth Cameron)
God Is Dog Spelled Backwards
(illustrated by Elizabeth Cameron)
Heart Steps
Blessings
Transitions
Inspirations: Meditations from The Artist’s Way
The Writer’s Life: Insights from The Rightto Write
The Artist’s Way at Work (withMark 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)
Bloodlines
The Medium at Large (a musical)
Tinseltown (a musical)
Normal, Nebraska (a musical)
POETRY
Prayers for the Little Ones
Prayers for the Nature Spirits
The Quiet Animal
This Earth (also an album with Tim Wheater)
FEATURE FILM
(as writer-director)
God’s Will
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All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission. Published simultaneously in Canada
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cameron, Julia.
The artist’s way : a spiritual path to higher creativity / Julia Cameron. p. cm.
ISBN: 9781101156889
I. Creative ability—Problems, exercises, etc. 2. Self-actualization (Psychology)—Problems, exercises, etc. 3. Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.) I. Title.
BF408.C175 1992
153.3’5—dc20 92—5906
CIP
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
MY ARTIST’ S WAY GRATITUDE LIST
AT THIS POINT, WELL over a million people have contributed to The Artist’s Way. It is truly a movement. There are, however, people without whom its safety and growth could not have occurred. I wish to thank some of them here.
Jeremy Tarcher, for publishing my work, editing and caring for it so carefully with his characteristic brilliance and vision.
Joel Fotinos, for nurturing and guarding my body of work—husbanding not only my work but my deepest heart and truest dreams with clarity and strength.
Mark Bryan, my gratitude for fighting to protect and defend my body of work, for his innovative and visionary thinking and capacity to understand and forgive our frequently—and necessarily—divergent paths.
My daughter, Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, for sharing her mother and bearing the dual pressures of second-generation fame and first-rate talent. My gratitude for being always the kind of artist and person for whom I want to write good and useful books. With admiration for her shrewdness, tenderness, and sheer creative “guts.”
Emma Lively, with gratitude for her visionary strength and her bold and daring conviction in her work both with my music and my books. A true friend, not only to my creativity but also to my dreams and desires. We met through The Artist’s Way and my musical Avalon, and have enjoyed combining our Artist’s Ways as musical collaborators over the last four years.
Susan Schulman, with gratitude for her long years of devotion and commitment to The Artist’s Way, with admiration for her vision and with humility for her courage throughout our parallel and difficult trials.
With gratitude to Pat Black and company, for holding a steady course as The Artist’s Way, and I myself, grew in fits and starts.
With gratitude to David Groff, for his fine writing and thinking.
To Johanna Tani, for her graceful and acute editing.
And to Sara Carder, for her deft and careful assistance above and beyond the call of duty—all three of these creative souls.
James Nave, for his loyalty and generosity as a long-term teaching partner.
And to Tim Wheater, a special thank-you for his musical brilliance and creative and teaching partnering through multiple years and projects.
Gratitude also to Mauna Eichner and Claire Vaccaro, for their inspired and fastidious design work, remembering always that form follows function—to make my books embody that artist’s formula—“Beauty is truth, and truth is beauty.”
Gratitude always, too, to my sister and frequent collaborator, fine artist and cartoonist Libby Cameron, whose wit and whimsy allowed me to create additional tools to support The Artist’s Way. She well knows the truth that laughter is the best medicine, and helped me in administering creative first aid with a spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down. My deepest thanks for her inspired work on The Artist’s Date Book, Supplies, God Is Dog Spelled Backwards, and the upcoming How Not to Make Art—or anything else that really matters.
My gratitude to Sonia Choquette and Larry Lonergan, for their love and clarity of vision as I labored to bring into fruition large dreams from small seeds.
To Edmund Towle and Robert McDonald, for their creativity and chivalry as they both protected and inspired me to do all forms of my creative work.
Finally, I wish to thank those who have gone before me and shown me the path, most especially Julianna McCarthy, Max Showalter, John Newland, and all who hold a spiritual lantern to light our Artist’s Way with their artistry and generosity.
THIS SOURCEBOOK IS DEDICATED to Mark Bryan. Mark urged me to write it, helped shape it, and co-taught it. Without him it would not exist.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Introduction
WEEK 1 - Recovering a Sense of Safety
WEEK 2 - Recovering a Sense of Identity
WEEK 3 - Recovering a Sense of Power
WEEK 4 - Recovering a Sense of Integrity
WEEK 5 - Recovering a Sense of Possibility
WEEK 6 - Recovering a Sense of Abundance
WEEK 7 - Recovering a Sense of Connection
WEEK 8 - Recovering a Sense of Strength
WEEK 9 - Recovering a Sense of Compassion
WEEK 10 - Recovering a Sense of Self-Protection
WEEK 11 - Recovering a Sense of Autonomy
WEEK 12 - Recovering a Sense of Faith
EPILOGUE
The Artist’s Way Questions and Answers
Creative Clusters Guide
APPENDIX: TRAIL MIX
READING LIST
INDEX
About the Author
Excerpt from The Prosperous Heart
INTRODUCTION TO THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF THE ARTIST’S WAY
ART IS A SPIRITUAL transaction.
Artists are visionaries. We routinely practice a form of faith, seeing clearly and moving toward a creative goal that shimmers in the distance—often visible to us, but invisible to those around us. Difficult as it is to remember, it is our work that creates the market, not the market that creates our work. Art is an act of faith, and we practice practicing it. Sometimes we are called on pilgrimages on its behalf and, like many pilgrims, we doubt the call even as we answer it. But answer we do.
I am writing on a black lacquer Chinese desk that looks west across the Hudson River to America. I am on the far western shore of Manhattan, which is a country unto itself, and the one I am living in right now, working to cantilever musicals from page to stage. Manhattan is where the singers are. Not to mention Broadway. I am here because “art” brought me here. Obedient, I came.
Per capita, Manhattan may have a higher density of artists than anywhere else in America. In my Upper West Side neighborhood, cellos are as frequent and as ungainly as cows in Iowa. They are part of the landscape here. Writing at a typewriter, looking out across the lights, I too am something Manhattan knows very well. I write melody on a piano ten blocks from where Richard Rodgers, a gangly adolescent, climbed a short stoop to meet a short boy who became his longtime partner, Larry Hart. Together they dreamed through drought and flood.
My apartment is on Riverside Drive. At this narrow end of the island, Broadway is a scant block behind my back as I face west across the river, inky black now as the sun sets in colored ribbons above it. It is a wide river, not only dark, and on a windy day—and there are many—the water is choppy and white-capped. Cherry-red tugboats, as determined as beetles, push their prows into the waves, digging their way up and down the river, pushing long barges with their snouts. Manhattan is a seaport—and a landing for dreams.
Manhattan teems with dreamers. All artists dream, and we arrive here carrying those dreams. Not all of us are dressed in black, still smoking cigarettes and drinking hard liquor, still living out the tawdry romance of hard knocks in tiny walk-up flats filled with hope and roaches in neighborhoods so bad that the rats have moved on. No, just like the roaches, the artists are everywhere here, tenements to penthouses—my own building has not only me with my piano and typewriter but also an opera singer who trills in the inner canyons like a lark ascending. The neighborhood waiters are often—not always—actors, and the particularly pretty duck-footed neighborhood girls do dance, although you wouldn’t imagine their grace from their web-footed walks.
I drank a cup of tea at Edgar’s Cafe this afternoon, the cafe named for Edgar Allan Poe, who lived down here and died farther uptown, all the way in the Bronx. I’ve looked up into Leonard Bernstein’s ground-floor windows at the Dakota, and gone a little numb each time I pass the arched entryway where John Lennon was shot. In this apartment, I am a scant block from Duke Ellington’s haunts, and there’s a street named after him too. Manhattan is a town full of ghosts. Creative power—and powers—course through its vertical canyons.
It was in Manhattan that I first began teaching the Artist’s Way. Like all artists—like all of us if we listen—I experience inspiration. I was “called” to teach and I answered that call somewhat grudgingly. What about my art? I wondered. I had not yet learned that we do tend to practice what we preach, that in unblocking others I would unblock myself, and that, like all artists, I would thrive more easily with some companionship, with kindred souls making kindred leaps of faith. Called to teach, I could not imagine the good teaching would bring to me and, through me, to others.
In 1978 I began teaching artists how to “unblock” and “get back on their feet” after a creative injury. I shared with them the tools I had learned through my own creative practice. I kept it all as easy and gentle as I could.
“Remember, there is a creative energy that wants to express itself through you”; “Don’t judge the work or yourself. You can sort it out later”; “Let God work through you,” I told them.
My tools were simple and my students were few. Both tools and number of students grew steadily and hugely for the next ten years. At the beginning and, for the most part, always, my students were chiefly blocked or injured artists—painters, poets, potters, writers, filmmakers, actors, and those who simply wished to be anything more creative in their personal lives or in any of the arts. I kept things simple because they really were. Creativity is like crabgrass—it springs back with the simplest bit of care. I taught people how to bring their creative spirit the simple nutrients and nurturance they needed to keep it fed. People responded by making books, films, paintings, photographs, and much, much more. Word of mouth spread and my classes were easy to fill.
In the meanwhile, I kept making my own art. I wrote plays. I wrote novels and movies. I did feature films, TV, and short stories. I wrote poetry, then performance art. From doing this work, I learned more creative tools, wrote more teaching essays, and, at the urging of my friend Mark Bryan, I got the essays assembled into teaching notes and then into a proper book.
Mark and I stood elbow to elbow, printing and assembling the simple book that I could send out to people needing help. We mailed it in this form to perhaps a thousand people, who in turn photocopied and passed it on to their friends. We began to hear amazing stories of recovery: painters painting, actors acting, directors directing, and people with no declared art who began doing the art form they had always wished to do. We heard tales of sudden breakthroughs and slow awakenings.
Jeremy P Tarcher, the noted creativity and human potential publisher, read an early draft of the work and decided to publish it. Meanwhile, I divided the book into a twelve-week course, each section dealing with some specific issue. This simple book was the distillate of twelve years of teaching and twenty years of making art in many forms. At first I called it Healing the Artist Within. Finally, after much thought, I decided to call it The Artist’s Way. It explained and explored creativity as a spiritual issue. I began to witness my own miracles.
I often traveled to teach, and at book signings and public venues people began to hand me CDs, books, videos, and letters conveying this thought: “I used your tools and made this, thank you so much.” My most frequent compliment was, “Your book changed my life,” and I heard it from artists of little fame and great fame, in backwaters and on the international frontlines. Using the tools, painters went from being blocked to winning large, juried exhibitions. Writers went from not writing to winning Emmy and Grammy awards for their work. I found myself humbled by the power of God, the Great Creator, to restore strength, vitality, and inspiration to individual creative paths, diverse and divergent. One woman, a blocked writer in her mid-fifties, became an award-winning playwright. A longtime sideman conceived and executed a bravura solo album. Long-harbored dreams bloomed everywhere the Great Creator turned a gardening hand. I received thank yous that properly belonged to God. I was a spiritual conduit for the central spiritual fact that the Great Creator loved other artists and actively helped those who opened themselves to their creativity.
Artist to artist, hand to hand, The Artist’s Way began to spread. I heard about groups in the Panama jungle, in the outback, and at that other heart of darkness, The New York Times. Druid groups, Sufi groups, and Buddhist groups all found common ground in its simple creative precepts. The Artist’s Way reached the Internet, forming groups or, as I call them, “clusters” that were like large melon patches sending feeders and tendrils out to form now a group in England, now in Germany, now a Swiss Jungian contingent. Like life itself, The Artist’s Way, which began to be called a “movement,” did indeed move onward tenaciously, and even voraciously. Artists helping other artists proliferated. Works of art blossomed and careers took off and steadied, surrounded by supportive friends. I was a willing witness.
A hundred thousand people bought and used the book. Then two hundred, then a million, then more. We heard of, and occasionally helped initiate, The Artist’s Way’s use in hospitals, prisons, universities, human-potential centers, and often among therapists, doctors, AIDS groups, and battered women’s programs, not to mention fine-arts studios, theological programs, and music conservatories, and, of course, always passed hand to hand, mouth to mouth, heart to heart, artist to artist, as a form of first aid and gentle resuscitation. Like a miraculous garden, The Artist’s Way continued to grow, grow, and grow. It is still growing. Just this morning I received in the mail a newly published book and a thank-you. To date, The Artist’s Way appears in nearly twenty languages and has been taught or recommended everywhere from The New York Times to the Smithsonian, from Esalen to elite music studios at Juilliard. Like AA, Artist’s Way clusters have often gathered in church basements and healing centers, as well as in a thatched hut in Central America, and in a python-surrounded shack in Australia. Did I mention that many therapists run facilitated groups? They do. People “heal” because creativity is healthy—and practicing it, they find their greater selves. And we are all greater than we can conceive.
I wanted The Artist’s Way to be free and, like the twelve-step movement, largely leaderless and self-taught, growing through simplicity and lack of control, performing its expansion through an easy-does-it series of natural, call it seasonal, self-evolving checks and balances. “It will guard and guide and fix itself from abuses,” ran my approach.
As we passed the million mark, I feared for the necessary time and privacy to make my own art—without which personal experience I could not continue to help others. How could I write a teaching book if I had no fresh insights as to what to teach? Inch by inch, I retreated to the solitude of my personal creative laboratory—the still, quiet place within myself where I could make art and learn from the making of it. Every piece of art I made taught me what to teach. Every year I worked taught me that creativity was open-ended. There was no upper limit, although some growth was slow. Faith was the required ingredient.
I began to write dispatches, short, pointed books aimed at disarming the real and present dangers of trying to make a sane and gentle creative life. I wrote The Right to Write, Supplies, and other, more homely and gentle guides such as The Artist’s Date Book, The Artist’s Way Morning Pages Journal, and my prayer books aimed at creating a sense of safety and well-being for those who tread the creative path in this world. I wished for people good cheer and good companions. Although art was a spiritual path, it could best be trod with fellow pilgrims. People listened.
Meanwhile, Artist’s Way books were mandatory on certain tour buses in the music scene, included as savvy set decor on films, mailed off to and from grandmothers blooming brightly in their sturdy dotage, and served as a bridge for many successful artists to change creative habitats and genres.
As for myself, a novel, a short-story collection, and three plays found firm footing amid my publishing seventeen books and continuing, carefully, to both make art and teach. My students won prizes, and so did I. Utne Reader chose The Artist’s Way as a masterpiece, the poetry album I made with Tim Wheater was selected for best original score, and my teaching books continued to appear on bestseller and editor’s choice lists throughout America and the world. Is it any wonder I often felt dazed and confused, overwhelmed by the velocity of people and events? It is one of the ironies of a celebrated writer’s life that our natural inclination to sit alone behind a desk becomes more and more difficult to pursue. My own morning pages were an invaluable, continuing source of guidance. I was told both to seek solitude and to reach for the companionship of other artists who believed, as I did, that we were always led both by the Great Creator and by those who have gone before us, treading their Artist’s Way and loving the same art forms we do. Higher powers stand ready to help us if we ask. We must remain ready to ask, open-minded enough to be led, and willing to believe despite our bouts of disbelief. Creativity is an act of faith, and we must be faithful to that faith, willing to share it to help others, and to be helped in return.
Outside my window, out over the Hudson, a very large bird is soaring. I have seen this bird for days now, sailing, sailing on the fierce winds that are the slipstream around this island. It is too large to be a hawk. It is not shaped like a gull. The Hudson Valley is full of eagles, higher up. I cannot believe this is one, but it seems to know exactly what it is: eagle. It doesn’t tell its name. It wears it. Maybe, as artists, we are such birds, mistaken by ourselves and others for something else, riding the current of our dreams, hunting in the canyons of commerce for something we have seen from higher up. For artists, a wing and a prayer is routine operating procedure. We must trust our process, look beyond “results.”
Artists throughout the centuries have spoken of “inspiration,” confiding that God spoke to them or angels did. In our age, such notions of art as a spiritual experience are seldom mentioned. And yet, the central experience of creativity is mystical. Opening our souls to what must be made, we meet our Maker.
Artists toil in cells all over Manhattan. We have a monk’s devotion to our work—and, like monks, some of us will be visited by visions and others will toil out our days knowing glory only at a distance, kneeling in the chapel but never receiving the visitation of a Tony, an Oscar, a National Book Award. And yet the still, small voice may speak as loud in us as in any.
So we pray. Fame will come to some. Honor will visit all who work. As artists, we experience the fact that “God is in the details.” Making our art, we make artful lives. Making our art, we meet firsthand the hand of our Creator.
INTRODUCTION
WHEN PEOPLE ASK ME what I do, I usually answer, “I’m a writer-director and I teach these creativity workshops.”
The last one interests them.
“How can you teach creativity?” they want to know. Defiance fights with curiosity on their faces.
“I can’t,” I tell them. “I teach people to let themselves be creative.”
“Oh. You mean we’re all creative?” Now disbelief and hope battle it out.
“Yes.”
“You really believe that?”
“Yes.”
“So what do you do?”
This book is what I do. For a decade now, I have taught a spiritual workshop aimed at freeing people’s creativity. I have taught artists and nonartists, painters and filmmakers and homemakers and lawyers—anyone interested in living more creatively through practicing an art; even more broadly, anyone interested in practicing the art of creative living. While using, teaching, and sharing tools I have found, devised, divined, and been handed, I have seen blocks dissolved and lives transformed by the simple process of engaging the Great Creator in discovering and recovering our creative powers.
“The Great Creator? That sounds like some Native American god. That sounds too Christian, too New Age, too...” Stupid? Simple-minded? Threatening? ... I know. Think of it as an exercise in open-mindedness. Just think, “Okay, Great Creator, whatever that is,” and keep reading. Allow yourself to experiment with the idea there might be a Great Creator and you might get some kind of use from it in freeing your own creativity.
Because The Artist’s Way is, in essence, a spiritual path, initiated and practiced through creativity, this book uses the word God. This may be volatile for some of you—conjuring old, unworkable, unpleasant, or simply unbelievable ideas about God as you were raised to understand “him.” Please be open-minded.
SAMUEL TAYLOR
COLERIDGE
PAUL TILLICH
Holy Spirit accomplishes all
through me.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Remind yourself that to succeed in this course, no god concept is necessary. In fact, many of our commonly held god concepts get in the way. Do not allow semantics to become one more block for you.
When the word God is used in these pages, you may substitute the thought good orderly direction or flow. What we are talking about is a creative energy. God is useful shorthand for many of us, but so is Goddess, Mind, Universe, Source, and Higher Power.... The point is not what you name it. The point is that you try using it. For many of us, thinking of it as a form of spiritual electricity has been a very useful jumping-off place.
By the simple, scientific approach of experimentation and observation, a workable connection with the flow of good orderly direction can easily be established. It is not the intent of these pages to engage in explaining, debating, or defining that flow. You do not need to understand electricity to use it.
Do not call it God unless that is comfortable for you. There seems to be no need to name it unless that name is a useful shorthand for what you experience. Do not pretend to believe when you do not. If you remain forever an atheist, agnostic—so be it. You will still be able to experience an altered life through working with these principles.
I have worked artist-to-artist with potters, photographers, poets, screenwriters, dancers, novelists, actors, directors—and with those who knew only what they dreamed to be or who only dreamed of being somehow more creative. I have seen blocked painters paint, broken poets speak in tongues, halt and lame and maimed writers racing through final drafts. I have come to not only believe but know:
No matter what your age or your life path, whether making art is your career or your hobby or your dream, it is not too late or too egotistical or too selfish or too silly to work on your creativity. One fifty-year-old student who “always wanted to write” used these tools and emerged as a prize-winning playwright. A judge used these tools to fulfill his lifelong dreams of sculpting. Not all students become full-time artists as a result of the course. In fact, many full-time artists report that they have become more creatively rounded into full-time people.
Through my own experience—and that of countless others that I have shared—I have come to believe that creativity is our true nature, that blocks are an unnatural thwarting of a process at once as normal and as miraculous as the blossoming of a flower at the end of a slender green stem. I have found this process of making spiritual contact to be both simple and straightforward.
Product details
- Publisher : Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam; Anniversary edition (March 4, 2002)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 237 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1585421464
- ISBN-13 : 978-1585421466
- Item Weight : 1.17 pounds
- Dimensions : 7.4 x 0.7 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #134,821 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #539 in Creativity (Books)
- #2,933 in Motivational Self-Help (Books)
- #3,612 in Personal Transformation Self-Help
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Julia Cameron has been an active artist for more than thirty years. She is the author of more than thirty books, fiction and nonfiction, including her bestselling works on the creative process: The Artist's Way, Walking in This World, Finding Water, and The Writing Diet. A novelist, playwright, songwriter, and poet, she has multiple credits in theater, film, and television.
Latest endeavor: Julia Cameron Live, an online course and artists' community led by Julia. It is the most comprehensive discussion she has ever done on The Artist's Way, and the first time she has allowed cameras in her home. www.juliacameronlive.com
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Customers find the book inspiring and enlightening. They describe it as a good program for self-discovery and an excellent book for beginning artists. The writing quality is well-written and easy to read. Readers appreciate the effective practices and tools to unlock their creative potential. They find the steps simple and easy to follow, with well-thought-out assignments. Overall, customers feel more confident and in touch with their feelings after reading the book.
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Customers find the book inspiring and enlightening. They say it opens their creative minds and helps them become more creative. The exercises help them get into a creative groove.
"...Taking the course with Ms. Cameron has been an interesting experience, and once again my creativity is flowing in a prolific way...." Read more
"...it was like a lump of wood around the back of my head, sure knocked some sense into me. I have always been artistic but never used these skills much...." Read more
"...just three pages a day, as this book suggests, opens the closed doors of your creative mind and helps the Artist (you!)..." Read more
"...confident creatively, in better touch with my feelings, more aware of my upbringing and the steps I should take to address related drawbacks, better..." Read more
Customers find the book helpful for discovering one's artist self. They say it's packed with wisdom and tools to unlock creative potential. The author does a superb job of guiding the artist through self-discovery in a loving way. Many consider it an excellent book for beginning artists, frustrated artists, and creative types. It is helpful for aspiring writers and artists who want to live a creative life.
"...I started having more vivid, lengthy dreams, which I feel help me with my writing projects...." Read more
"...conclude by simply saying that while I've read other excellent books on writing and creativity..." Read more
"...One step at the time, I was able to unleash my writing skills and unblock my creativity until I was able to be back to full writing mode...." Read more
"...I was fully prepared to read it. The Artist's Way is packed with wisdom and tools to unlock your creative potential...." Read more
Customers enjoy the writing quality of the book. They find it easy to read and create their own world view. The author makes it clear that all that is required is to write without hesitation. The text has applications to personal, spiritual, and business life.
"...It is a wonderful tool for aspiring creatives! Writing just three pages a day, as this book suggests, opens the closed doors of your creative mind..." Read more
"...might be discomforting for you but, to her credit, it is easy to read the passages and create your own world view around what she says...." Read more
"...whether the suggestions are going to be helpful, however the writing is terrible and I am having a hard time reading it...." Read more
"...This text has applications to personal, spiritual, business life etc - everything. Get out of the box, think in new ways, see life in new ways...." Read more
Customers find the practices in the book effective and helpful. They say it works well as a curriculum presented in a workshop or class series. The suggestions and exercises are incredibly helpful.
"...PS: Doing this book in a group makes a huge difference in its impact...." Read more
"...It worked really well. In essence, this is an excellent book if you want to unleash your full writing skills...." Read more
"...Bought it second hand but it is in really good shape, better than expected...." Read more
"...Morning pages proved to be the most beneficial and transforming exercise in the book, and I still practice the technique a decade and a half..." Read more
Customers find the book helpful for finding and overcoming artistic blocks. They say it's good for visual artists and other types of artisans who want to improve their art. The book is described as a powerful tool that helps you become more productive.
"...You may find yourself writing a great novel or painting a wonderful picture or just being more creative in your life...." Read more
"...Bought it second hand but it is in really good shape, better than expected...." Read more
"...love Julia Cameron's admission that art is a spiritual relationship with a Higher Power, call it God, The Source, Creative Energy, whatever you..." Read more
"...It is about finding our artistic blocks and how to fix them...." Read more
Customers find the book's step-by-step suggestions helpful and well-thought-out. They appreciate the assignments and freedom to choose what to finish. The book makes it simple to understand your true self and find creative blocks. It has a variety of tasks you can do everyday to keep yourself occupied. While some find it too much work, others say it's very demanding. The course can be self-taught or group facilitated, and is designed to take you within.
"...processes differently; but this book makes it enormously simple to understand your true self, find your creative blocks, and helps you lay out the..." Read more
"...This course, which can be self-taught or group facilitated, is designed to take you within to gently sort through how we have created obstacles for..." Read more
"...The writing in this book is very clear cut and easy to understand...." Read more
"...An easy, if not sometimes painful read that is helping me understand why I've kept my creativity bottled up for all these years...." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's pacing. They find it helpful for getting in touch with feelings and their upbringing. The gentle approach helps them overcome fears and connect with their inner selves. Readers also mention that the exercises help them become unstuck and start creating without fear.
"...exercises has made me more confident creatively, in better touch with my feelings, more aware of my upbringing and the steps I should take to..." Read more
"...An easy, if not sometimes painful read that is helping me understand why I've kept my creativity bottled up for all these years...." Read more
"...It was something I needed give me a little push and start creating without fear...." Read more
"...that part if ya wanna do it, but it's really a very nice gentle way to ease ya past your hangups - and get to the real you: the creative, alive,..." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's value. They say it's a brilliant book with immense value.
"...the things that turned me off, there really are some priceless gems within the pages...." Read more
"...It is cheaper than street drugs and a therapist visit.. It is worth it!!" Read more
"...This is a brilliant book of immense value! Buy it and use it!" Read more
"...and inside was highlighted but only the first chapter, so not bad at all for the price. Overall, I am very happy with it...." Read more
Reviews with images
Great Artist Investment!
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2012It is a bit shocking to read the reviews here. At least some of the more critical ones.
I am presently enrolled in and taking the class with the author herself. I was introduced to this book some 18 years ago, and have done it many times through, even facilitating some 8 or 9 groups along the way. It had become a way of life for me until about three years ago, when something pretty traumatic happened and my process got stuck. Taking the course with Ms. Cameron has been an interesting experience, and once again my creativity is flowing in a prolific way. There are a few things I don't completely agree with, but despite my resistances, I committed to doing the exercises and pushing through. It has made a profound difference in my life. Someone said that the exercises are repetitive. That is true. And there is a reason for that. Do them and you'll discover what happens for yourself.
Julia Cameron is a human being. My experience of her is that she is a kind and generous person. And one human being never has all the answers. However, if anyone knows how to unblock creativity, if anyone has a deep connection to the source, if anyone is a worthy guide to a more fulfilling artistic life, she is that person. I am profoundly grateful to be taking the course and moving along with my creative life. And I bow to Julia Cameron's expertise is this area. Check out her website. The course is online now as well.
PS: Doing this book in a group makes a huge difference in its impact. You don't need to have a creative guru to do it (though if you get the chance to take the class with the author it is a great experience)...just get together with other people wanting to have their creativity flow more easily, do the book together, and you will discover that powerful changes happen...for the good! Dreams really can and do come true.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2011Due to chronic serious illness I was faced with a complete lifestyle change and just by chance I got a copy of this book out of my local library. I liked it so much that I bought my mother, sister and myself a copy and have sent it forth on new ground.The outcome of this book for me? Well I don't mind telling you it was like a lump of wood around the back of my head, sure knocked some sense into me. I have always been artistic but never used these skills much. Here was this rocket that got me up and on track commencing a renewed enthusiasm for life and what I can do with it. I was wonderful to have someone put into words some of those nebulous understandings that I'd always had, it made things concrete and challeneged me to act on it. Whether you're an artist or think you're not there is nobody I can imagine who could not benefit in some way from reading this book. The basic thoughts are an inspiration and a reality check to our subtle self undermining habits we develop. I have undertaken to do the 12 step programme which has resulted in much artistic work and sales of the same. I am currently moving to new ground writing and illustrating a children's book. Others who have read The Artist's Way, though not undertaking the programme, have seen their actions and outlook in a whole new light and moved forward to better things.
Much praise for Julia Cameron in the way she has coherently put together a plan for advancement in thought and action. Little pearls of wisdom from the ages scattered throughout the book help us to realise that life's challenges are universal and not restricted to this era only.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2016Perfect for anyone that has struggled with writer's block! I had never heard of the Artist's Way until I went to a book signing of a best selling author (Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat, Pray Love fame!) She said she had done this course 3 times! So I rushed out and bought one! Then I gave it away and bought another. Then I gave that one away too, so I needed another one for me to keep! It is a wonderful tool for aspiring creatives! Writing just three pages a day, as this book suggests, opens the closed doors of your creative mind and helps the Artist (you!) find the missing pieces that make a so-so project jump to new heights! I'm not sure why this works, but it does! After doing the three pages a day, I started having more vivid, lengthy dreams, which I feel help me with my writing projects. I recommend this book to anyone wanting to take their art to the next level. Whether you are an aspiring author, actor, playwright, painter or potter. The Artist's Way will gently guide you with the fun exercises. After reading/doing The Artist's Way, you may be find yourself on the Best Seller's List!
- Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2009The Artist's Way is not just about feeling good about dabbling with paints, toting around a moleskine notebook, buying clay at the art supply store, or accumulating other artsy trappings. It's not just about learning secrets of creativity, or what to draw, write, or photograph. It's not just about making time for art and nurturing yourself artistically. It's about all of these and more--it's about discovering the creative side hidden somewhere within all of us, about embracing creativity as a part of your true identity, and about making the lifestyle choices and sacrifices that sustained creativity requires.
To call it a creative self-help book seems diminutive to a book that is therapy, self-empowerment, journaling, philosophy, psychology, and more all in one. Going through this book and the included exercises has made me more confident creatively, in better touch with my feelings, more aware of my upbringing and the steps I should take to address related drawbacks, better able to support creative friends, and simply more at peace with life.
Amidst such a wealth of glowing reviews there's little need to go into further detail, so I will conclude by simply saying that while I've read other excellent books on writing and creativity (chief among them Bird by Bird, Hey Whipple, Squeeze This!, On Writing [Stephen King], and Writing Down the Bones), I can unequivocally say that The Artist's Way has been the best and most influential by far.
Top reviews from other countries
- M. EmmReviewed in Canada on January 2, 2015
5.0 out of 5 stars A book which continues to amaze me!
I have been reading this book for a few years now. It is something that I go back to time and again and continue to work with.I don't think of the book as a text as much as I do a meditation.
It is a powerful invitation to the creative force in your life.
Although she does not present it in these terms, Julia Cameron's works on the premise that the Creator shares the power of creation with everyone. Creativity is not a mysterious talent possessed by a chosen few, but rather it is the birthright of each and every one of us! And, by introducing a few simple but powerful exercises and a highly effective process, she shows you how to access this creative force in our lives.
- Onwa of AfrikaReviewed in Italy on March 7, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars An extraordinary tool of self discovery and liberation of latent, often unsuspected, creative energy
An extraordinary tool of self discovery and liberation of latent, often unsuspected, creative energy. I am thrilled by the transformational effect the morning pages, weekly artist's date and all other reflections and exercises are having in my life. Recommended for everyone who truly wants to be well and dive deep into the universe of the self to clarify own identity and liberate self expression.
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BleistiftliebeReviewed in Germany on December 31, 2013
5.0 out of 5 stars Interessantes inspirierendes Buch
Ich habe dieses Buch nur gekauft, weil es so viele Rezensenten hat, die ganz aus dem Häuschen sind. Die Autorin hat schließlich schon ein Buch geschrieben, dass in Deutsch mit "Schreib dich schlank" oder so ähnlich übersetzt wurde, was sie mir sehr suspekt macht. Aber, zu meiner Überraschung, empfinde ich dieses Buch wirklich als sehr hilfreich. Es ist spirituell, da sollte man sich ein wenig drauf einlassen, aber sogar für anti-spirituell eingestellte Leser bietet es schlicht praktische Hilfestellung beim Schreiben - insbesondere durch das Konzept der "Morning Pages" wie die Autorin es nennt. Es ist eine Art des Freewriting, freien Schreibens, wie es in vielen Schreibratgebern angewandt wird, aber in der hier vorgestellten Art und Weise denke ich sehr effektiv. Sie hat das Buch als eine Art Kurs aufgebaut, den man absolvieren kann, was es einfach macht zu sagen: das probiere ich einfach mal aus. Ich kann dieses Buch jedem, der schreibt oder anders künstlerisch tätig ist, ans Herz legen.
- SuzanneReviewed in the United Kingdom on November 19, 2010
5.0 out of 5 stars For seekers of creative empowerment
How often do you find reasons to saboutage your creativity?
Julia Cameron uses carefully tested exercises to work through these creative blocks in a user-friendly way.
The morning's free-writing, is an exceprional tool for unleashing all those negative emotions!
I have been doing the 'Creative Cluster' for five weeks now, and my life is changing already in a positive way.
My creativity is unleashed and I feel that my attitudes are changing too.
The quotes from famous people in the book are an inspiration.
Spiritual, but down to earth, this book is an artis's bible!
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ぱぴこReviewed in Japan on February 14, 2013
5.0 out of 5 stars やることに意味がある
翻訳版も出ているが、原書の方が良いとレビューにあったので、最初から原書で読んだ。
読んだ、といっても読むだけで何かが変わるわじゃない。
モーニングページを毎朝3ページ書き、週に1回はアーティストデートとして子供のように遊ぶ。最初は恥ずかしいという気持ち、「何やってんだ」という自分からの批判が常にあったが、徐々に批判的な自分は影を潜め、ワークを続ける自分への信頼が増してきた。
「アーティストとは世に名を知られ、才能と境遇に恵まれた一部の人」、「こんな年で、始めようったって」そんな言葉は誤解や単なる言い訳だと思うようになった。
私は途中で挫折し、再開するまで半年、結局1冊終えるのに一年弱かかった。だけどやってよかったと思う。まだ道半ばだけど、だからこそ、これからもモーニングページやアーティストデートを続けていこうと思う。
そして人にも勧めたい。自分の人生に迷ってる人に、希望を持ちたいと願う人に。