Be your own Valentine 💕
Recovering a Sense of Abundance [The Artist's Way Week 6]
Hey, friends,
We’re halfway through The Artist’s Way now! And it’s Valentine’s Day this week! (And Lupercalia, for all of us “I think about ancient Rome every day but I’m not male” folks.)
I wasn’t looking forward to getting into reading the chapter or doing the tasks this week after my previous update, but in the end I was pleasantly surprised.
What I didn’t love
The Week 6 chapter starts out—again—with god (lowercase mine). I began reading this chapter and feeling like I’d been had—scammed!—and this is not a book about creativity, but indoctrination. Is this just a creatively packaged religious book designed to catch you at a vulnerable moment and drag you into the church with gentle words and nice little activities until you’re hooked on the idea that you can only be successful with god?
It’s not as sinister as that, of course. Still, I got very close to just giving up because of this. Perhaps I’m having an oversized reaction to this stuff, even though the book comes with a heads-up and prompts you to mentally substitute god references with whatever floats your boat. I’d still rather buy a secular edit.
I did love this, though
Julia goes on to talk about luxury, but not in the consumerist way of previous weeks. You know all those “little treat” memes out there? It’s that kind of luxury. Let yourself enjoy things. Allow yourself to stop feeling like everything has to be work and work has to be awful. This is a message I can get behind, and I think this is the best takeaway from the chapter.
The tasks for this week were also much nicer than the past few weeks. There is a distinct focus in appreciating the little things in life - looking for cool rocks and pretty flowers outside (it’s February in Wisconsin, RIP), baking yourself something nice, sending a nice message (postcard, in the book) to someone you miss. Combined with this is a notion of ‘out with the old’—a little spring cleaning, if you like—in which you are instructed to donate or recycle old, worn out clothes and to have a tidy-up or rearrangement or other pleasing change to your home environment.
These are practical self-care things that are easy to forget or neglect but they really do give you that nice fuzzy feeling inside afterwards. These are activities that don’t just bring fleeting joy, they foster contentment.
I’m on board with that.
Did I cheat on the core tasks?
I once again lapsed with my morning pages. In my defense, it has been a slightly strange week. I do feel better having done the weekly tasks, but I am dubious about whether I can build up enough steam to push through. We are at the halfway point now, and I’m not convinced that I’m getting all that much out of it. I’ll try, though!
My artist dates are also suffering. I had a very busy week and ended up with just a solo coffee break to clear my mind and get a little perspective. Getting out of the studio alone was definitely useful. I had some time to properly digest some advice I got this week from an art instructor I studied with last year. Taking the time to change my physical context and be away from work and distractions let me think more deeply about what he wrote and formulate some plans for my art practice across the rest of the year.
Update on the art Show & Panel
I wrote last week that I had some work up in a show and that I was going to be speaking on a discussion panel. That has now come and gone, and it was a lot of fun! It was my first time doing any kind of artist talk or panel, and I really enjoyed it. It was a little nerve-wracking at first, but it was a very chill event and the vibe was very kind and safe. It was lovely to hear some of the artists in the show talk about their work and their experiences of mental health and disability, and there were some interesting questions from the audience.
While the panel is over, the Sound Mind/Sound Body gallery show is still up and available to go view at the Commonwealth Gallery in Madison, WI through February 15th. Catch it before it ends!
Thanks for reading!
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