Nurturing Creativity

How do you find inspiration for your creative undertakings?  This is something I am always curious about, since we are all wired so differently. As many of you know, I am working on exploring my artistic side this year. I am doing this through pottery, drawing and painting, mainly– and of course there’s also photography and writing (blogging) that I am working to improve on at the same time. Cooking is one of those things I’ve always done, so although it’s my main creative outlet, I don’t think of it in the same way as the other endeavors, where I feel really challenged to actually do it. Sometimes I am given the chance to review books for BlogHer, but I try to only choose ones that I feel apply to my life or this blog. This month, I was given a different review opportunity– using an online tool developed by artist and author Julia Cameron, who wrote the well-known book The Artist’s Way. I thought it would be a great opportunity to try something different that could inspire my creative process. Being given a few months’ subscription and compensation to try it was easy to say yes to!

My Artist’s Way Toolkit is meant to be used in conjunction with the book, but can also be used on its own. Although I don’t have the book, I am familiar with it, as many people I have known have used it. The website has a few features:  weekly “artist date” assignments, creativity exercises, places for notes, affirmations and creative soundbites. This is all also available on an ipad or smart phone, so you can take it with you to take notes and pictures, and do some journaling. There is also a community to link up with for support and inspiration. It’s a pretty complete package, I think!

So, did it “work” for me? Not really– but I think it’s a personality thing. For example, I already spend lots of time alone, and I naturally tend to do many of the “artist date” ideas– like driving to a new town by myself to take pictures, walking to an undiscovered part of my own town, or going to a park with just a journal, etc. I am naturally introverted and tend to process through journaling and going to be by myself. When we moved to Amberg, I went to our local coffee shop and quickly filled three journals (and during that time I started this blog.) These are things that are not natural for everyone, and much harder to do when your life pace is hectic. I have had times in my life when it was very hard to schedule half a day on my own to go do something stimulating, and I have gone months without writing anything down. And, these were not times when I felt particularly inspired or creative– quite the opposite, in fact. Thankfully, I have many of these opportunities every week right now. Also, I am not likely to get out a computer or phone when I am in nature or out and about observing the world around me– but I know plenty of people would. I can recommend My Artist’s Way Toolkit for anyone who does well with structure and needs extra ideas for doing something new and interesting– who likes external challenges, who does well with tools and online community interaction. I think this would be especially helpful for extroverts and those who rarely find themselves alone– or who find the idea of going and doing something unusual completely by themselves a little daunting. I think it would also be really wonderful for someone who feels “stuck” creatively and would like to be very intentional about getting to a new place in terms of creative expression.

Have you read/ done The Artist’s Way? How was it? What do you do to find creative inspiration, or to help move out of a stagnant place?  I would love to hear your experiences!