"The Artist's Way Week 8"—Recovering a Sense of Strength

On this week’s episode of Creative Space, we’re diving into Chapter 8 of Julia Cameron’s seminal book on creativity, The Artist’s Way.  The focus for this week is “Recovering a Sense of Strength.”

There is so much to cover but there are three principles we’ll talk about: survival, the ivory power and gain disguised as loss. 

My favorite quote from this chapter: “Stop complaining about the lousy curves you get thrown and stretch, reach for what you REALLY want.”

If you’re interested in reading  The Artist’s Way and/or following along with the podcast as you complete the work, you can purchase it here.

For more on me, your host and creative coach, visit: jenniferlogue.com.

Transcript

Jennifer Logue 0:10

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Creative Space , a podcast where we explore , learn and grow in creativity together . I'm your host , jennifer Logue , and just as a reminder for the next few weeks , we're going to be doing something different . On the podcast , I'm Doing the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron for the first time . Last week we talked about Chapter 7 , recovering a Sense of Connection , and this week we're diving into Week 8 , recovering a Sense of Strength . This chapter covers a lot of topics , so I'm just going to touch on a few here Survival , the Ivory Power , and Gain Disguised as Loss . On the topic of survival , cameron says that all artists must learn how to survive loss Loss of hope , loss of face , loss of money , loss of self-belief , etc . It comes with the artist's journey , but it's important to remember that these losses can be turned into gains . In order to move through our artistic losses , however , we must acknowledge the loss and share it . Otherwise they become artistic scar tissue that blocks our artistic growth , and this happened to me many times , and there are so many scars I'm still working through . But one that comes to mind reading this is when I got diagnosed with epilepsy as an adult . Looking back now , and if you've been listening to the podcast , you know the story . But that diagnosis was the day I stopped seeing myself as a viable artist . I immediately sought out a 9-to-5 job and safety . I could play music as a hobby , but I decided back then that music just wasn't meant for me as a career and the pain of this loss I didn't fully acknowledge until starting this podcast because I didn't even realize it . But now I'm in the healing process and finding joy in music again and giving myself permission to be an artist , to write songs , to perform . It doesn't matter what's going on with my health . I'm still an artist and I need to create , and the more I do this work , the happier I am , the stronger and more confident I feel . The scar tissue is healing and it's wonderful .

Jennifer Logue 2:42

Another topic Cameron addresses in this chapter is the ivory power , and wow , it is something I hadn't thought of before but really resonated with me . She opens up with this passage it has been my perilous privilege over the past decade to undertake the teaching forays into the groves of academia . It is my experience as a visiting artist that many academics are themselves artistic beings who are deeply frustrated by their inability to create . Wow , she goes on to talk about a teacher who was a gifted filmmaker who stopped creating , so he ended up channeling this energy into criticizing the work of his students . He became a dark shadow for them , what Cameron described as a creative monster . Can you think of anyone like that in your own life ? I sure can , and having this perspective , I have a lot more empathy for these people in creatively authoritative positions who misplace their creative power by beating others down instead of lifting them up .

Jennifer Logue 3:52

Julia offers guidance to academics when teaching young creative seedlings . It would be my hope that academics who read this book and apply it would do so with an altered appreciation for the authenticity of growth . For the sake of growth , in other words , as taller trees , let us not allow our dark critical powers unfettered play upon the seedling artists in our midst . She also brings up the point that for an artist to become overly cerebral is to become crippled , and I can relate to this . The majority of my college experience was critiquing the work of others rather than creating work of my own , although I tried to take as many creative writing classes as I could get away with . But Cameron notes that with the academic life , you learn how to deconstruct a work , but not how to create a work .

Jennifer Logue 4:50

Anyways , the third topic I want to bring up in this chapter is gain , disguised as loss . Cameron notes every loss must always be viewed as a potential gain and it's all in the framing . I love this and if you think about it , the end of one thing is always the beginning of another . So , rather than mourn the end of something , why not get excited for what's next ? Sure , we may not know what's next , but this is where trust comes in .

Jennifer Logue 5:20

She asks us to ask a few questions of ourselves in times of loss . How can this loss serve me ? Where does it point my work ? We have to take the pain and transform it into energy , create something . If we don't , cameron says , pain not used profitably quickly solidifies into a let in heart , and that is the worst thing for our creativity and just to live a good life in general .

Jennifer Logue 5:49

So when we face loss , cameron encourages us to take one small action to support our inner artist . Maybe it's buying your artist some flowers or baking something comforting , or go into a movie in the middle of the afternoon . This small act of kindness says to your inner artist I acknowledge you and your pain . I thought this was really lovely by being kind to ourselves . It helps us move through the losses rather than become hardened by them . It's like giving our artist a big motherly hug .

Jennifer Logue 6:23

And I'll end this episode of the podcast with my favorite passage from this chapter Stop complaining about the lousy curves you get thrown and stretch . Reach for what you really want . I love that . I needed to hear that this week . Anyway , that's all I have for this episode of creative space . Next week , we'll be diving into chapter nine of the artist's way recovering a sense of compassion . If you're interested in checking out the artist's way by Julia Cameron and doing the work on your own , I've linked to it in the show notes . My name is Jennifer Logue . Appreciate you taking the time to listen to creative space . Until next time .