The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

I finished “The Artist’s Way,” by Julia Cameron, in 2019 and my best advice to aspiring artists would be to take what is usable and leave the rest. According to many well-respected humans from the past, such as Siddhartha Gautama and Walt Whitman, this is always a good approach. Each of us has a creative process and our own systems of belief. Art is a craft and to create, we must invite the creativity to flow through us.

To do this, we consume the manifestations and phenomena in the world around us, filter them through our non-conscious minds, and after incubating, ideas inspired by our direct experiences come to the surface of our consciousness. When we act on these ideas by crafting them into works, this is creativity.

Julia Cameron approaches this creative process through the idea of a creative god and exercises such as the morning pages and artist dates. This book is centered around a 12 step creative recovery program similar to AA. But if one is not spiritual, not into psychological self-diagnosis, or doesn’t need to recover and nurture a damaged inner child, the best thing to do is take the exercises and run.

I found some of them very useful and left others alone. I think one of the best things this book inspires us to do is think about our own creativity and creative process as well as why we create. Cameron is spot on when she tells the reader that the process is more important than the product. But at the end of the day, we all like to see finished work. I recommend mining this book for good ideas that work for you.

You can find more reviews and ways to purchase “The Artist’s Way” here https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9344137-the-artist-s-way.