My first week of going through The Artist’s Way was relatively easy. Although it took me about fourteen days to finish the “week.”

It’s not that it took so long to go through the activities.

It was the Check-In at the end of the week that took so long. I kept putting it off. I don’t know why.

The check-in is only three questions. It’s simpler than writing this blog post… But it was easier for me to write this post than to take the time to do the check-in. Oh well.

That’s why I’m going through this exercise, I guess…

The focus of the first week is “recovering a sense of safety” for your creativity.

I was able to do the Morning Pages most of the time. I only missed one day. But it takes me a bit longer than thirty minutes to write three pages in long hand.

I had at least one point every day where I wrote “blah, blah, blah” or “I don’t know what to write” during my Morning Pages.

But I’m getting better at doing them.

I went to the Art Gallery of Hamilton for my Artist Date.

It’s free on Thursdays and I was able to go on a tour. The docent talked about the paintings in four rooms. I had been in the rooms before a few years ago and seen most of the paintings. But it makes such a difference to get details about the painting and the artist. Instead of trying to glean information from the note beside the painting.

It was fascinating! I want to go back and look at the same paintings. But spend much more time looking at them now that I know more about them.

Next, were the questions of the week.

Many centered on people or events that threatened your creativity identity. Which wasn’t really an issue for me. I’ve mostly felt encouraged and acknowledged for my creative abilities. So it was challenging coming up with some enemies of my “creative self-worth”.

But if I dug a little deeper, I could find people that inadvertently made me feel inferior. Peers that are/were more successful than me. Or people with skills far superior than mine that I could never touch.

It’s hard to avoid the comparing yourself to others game… Will I get there after I finish my recovery?

One “week” down. Eleven more weeks to go.

© 2022 Peter Gruner