the ARTIST DATE !!!!! the Other BASIC TOOL .....

The other basic tool of the Artist's Way may strike you as a non-tool, a diversion.  You may see clearly how morning pages could work yet find yourself highly dubious about something called an artist date.  I assure you, artist dates work.

Think of this combination of tools in terms of a radio receiver and transmitter.  It is a two-step, two-directional process:  out and then in.  Doing your morning pages, you sending--notifying yourself and the Universe of your dreams, dissatisfaction, hopes.  Doing your Artist Date, you are receiving --opening yourself to insight, inspiration, guidance.

What exactly is an Artist Date?  An artist date is a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousnesses, your inner artist.  In its more primary form, the artist date is an excursion, a play date that you preplan and defend against all interlopers.

• You Do Not Take Anyone on this Artist Date But You and Your Inner Artist, aka, your creative child.
• That Means NO Lovers, Girlfriends/Boyfriends, Spouses or Children, NO One !!! ONLY YOU--Yourself & YOU ALONE !!!!  NOBODY ELSE !!!!  SOLO-SOLA !!!  UNO just you...ok ??  Just making sure you get the Absolute Point....
• If you think this sounds stupid or that you will never be able to afford the time, identify that reaction as resistance.  You Cannot Afford NOT to find time for Artist Dates.
• Do you spend quality time with each other?  
• Your artist needs to be taken out, papered, and listened to.
• There are as many ways to evade this commitment as there are days of your life.  "I'm too broke" is the favored one, although no one said the date need involve elaborate expenses.
• Your artist is a child.  Time witha parent matters more than monies spent.
• A visit to a great junk store, a solo trip to the beach, an old movie seen alone together, a visit to an auarium or an art gallery--thse cost time, not money.
• Remember, it is the Time Commitment that is Sacred.

Spending time in solitude with your artist child is essential to self0nurturing.  A long country walk, a solitary expedition to the beeach for a sunrise or sunset, a sortie out to a strange church to hear gospel music, to an ethnic neighborhood to taste foreign sights and sounds00your artist might enjoy any of these.  Or your artist might like bowling.

Commit yourself to a weekly Artist's Date, and then watch your Killjoy side try to wriggle out of it.  Watch how this scared time gets easily encroached upon.  Watch how the sacred time suddenly includes a 3rd Party.

•  Learn to guard against these invasions.
• Above All, Learn to listen to what your artist child has to say on, and about, these joint expeditions.
• Fore example: "Oh, I hate this serious stuff,"  your artist may exclaim if you persist in taking it only to grown0up places that are culturally edifying and good for it.
• Listen to that !!!  It is telling your needs more playful inflow.  A little fun can a long way toward making your work feel more like play.  We forget that the imagination-at-play is at the ehart of all good work.
• And increasing our capacity for good creative work is what this book is about.

If you are likely to find yourself avoiding your Artist Dates.  Recognize this resistance as Fear of Intimacy--self-intimacy.  Often in troubled relationships, we settle into an avoidance pattern with our significant others.  We don't want to hear what they are thninking because it just might hurt.  So we avoid them, knowing tht, once they get the chance, our significant others will probably blurt out something we do not want to hear.  It is possible they will want an answer we do not have the can't give them.  It is equally possible we might do the same to them and that then the two of us will stare at each other in astonishment, saying, "But I never knew you felt like that"

It is proabale that thses self-disclosures, frightening though they are, will lead to the building of a real relationship, one in which the participants are free to be who they and to be come what they wish.  this possibility is what makes the risks come what they wish.  this possibility is what makes the risks of self-disclosure and true intimacy profitable.  In order to have a real relationship with our creativity, we must take the time and care to cultivate it.   Our creativity will use this time to confront us, to confide in us, to bond with us, and to plan.

The Morning Pages acquaint us with what we think and what we think we need.  We identify problem areas and concerns.  We complain, enumerate, identify, isolate, fret. 

•  This is Step One, analogous to prayer.  In the course of the release engendered by our Artist Date, 

• Step Two, we begin to hear solutions.
• Perhaps equally important, we begin to fund the creative reserves we will draw on in fulfilling our artistry.

The BASIC TOOLS

There are 2 Pivotal tools in creative recovery:

#1.  the Morning Pages
#2.  the Artist Date

A lasting creative awakening requires the consistent use of both.

The MORNING PAGES

In order to retrieve your creativity, you need to find it.  Julia Cameron (author) Tells you to do this by an apparently pointless process I call "the Morning Pages"  You will do the pages daily through all the weeks of the course and hope longer.

What are Morning Pages ??  Put Simply, the Morning Pages are 3 Pages of longhand /typed writing, strictly stream-of-consciousness: "Another morning, I have nothing to say, I need to wash some clothes, oh yeah I'm going to see what's her name tomorrow!! I almost forgot !!...  etc. etc. etc...."  the Morning Pages is also called Brain Drain, since that is one of their main functions.

• There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages.
• These daily morning brain drain misc. journal, gossip, what's going on writing are not meant to be art or even writing.  Just Whatever !!!  Just write !!!  or Type Whatever you want, journal, diary type writing... 3 PAGES !!!!!  
• Nothing is too petty, too silly, too stupid, or too weird to be included.
• Nobody is allowed to read your morning pages except you and do not even read them yourself for the first 8 Weeks or So ...
• Bottom Line, It Doesn't what or how you write, Just WRITE 3 PAGES !!!!!!  EVERY DAY !!!!
• 7 DAYS A WEEK !!!!  this is NON-NEGOTIABLE !!!  NO MATTER WHAT !!!  SICK, TRAVELING, VACATION, NO EXCUSES WHATSOEVER !!!!!!!  SOMEONE IN FAMILY IS DYING OR IF YOU YOURSELF IS DYING !!!  3 PAGES !!!  TO HAVE THIS 3 PAGES EVERY DAY CLEAR ENOUGH ????  (I'm putting my spin on this) Julia didn't actual write what I just wrote.... fyi... Oz..
• All that angry, whiny, petty stuff that your write down in the morning stands between you and your creativity.
• Worrying about the job, the laundry, the funny noise coming from the car, drama from your ex or from the baby momma !!!
• (oops-yikes!!!)  I, ya, Um, Ahhhh didn't finish my 3 Pages this morning yet !!! ahhhhhhhh..let me ahhh uhhh take care of that Real Quick !!!! brb..
• ok I'm back !!  10:09am !!!  what I noticed about the 3 pages is that I believe it may take a lil bit longer than writing 3 pages long hand on a regular piece of 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of paper, just to let you know, just thought I'd give a heads up just in case you're actually dying and trying to finish up your 3 pages by typing on Microsoft Word !!!!  .... You know what though it's all good !!!! , it's all worth it !!! Very very Worth it !!!! you'll become a better typer, more speed, accurate and with much more flow and fluidity !!!  I do it !!!  and I'm definitley noticed that I can type quite fast !!! Which means that I definitely feel an Infinite Divine Inspired Book Coming !!!!  we'll see let's focus on my Metamorphosis and my Artist's Way 12 Week Course !!!  
• Oooops, my baaad, I actually was writing how I write in my Morning Pages !!!  just conversing with yourself and your Divine Self !!!  ok back to BASICS !!!!!  Oz
• Morning Pages Cont.
• The Morning Pages are the primary tool of creative recover.
• MAKE This Rule !!!!  
• Always remember that your Censor's negative opinions are not the truth.
• Even if we look like functioning artists to the world, we feel we never do enough and what we do isn't right.
• We are victims of our own internalized perfectionist, a nasty internal and eternal critic, better known as "the Censor" who resides in our left brain and keeps up a constant stream of subversive remarks (remarks that keep you down, create doubt, and ultimately impedes your success, your life and your future)that are often disguised as the truth.
• the Censor says, "You call that a painting, you can't paint shit !!!, who do you think you are a "Masterpiece Artist", you can't even sell a painting !!! ", you lost your artist studio loft you're a failure, you're a nobody, how can you paint now ???  You don't have MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago University!!""  
• Always Remember the Rule, Re-Read the Rule !!!!  
• This takes practice, by getting out of bed and straight onto the page every morning, you learn to evade the Censor.  
• Because there is no wrong way to write the Morning Pages, the Censor's opinion doesn't count.  Let your Censor rattle on (And It Will) Just keep your hand moving across the page.  Write down the Censor's thoughts if you want to.  Note how it loves to aim for your Creative Jugular.
• Make no mistake:  the Censor is out to get you.  Every time you get smarter, so does it.
• The point is to stop taking the Censor as the voice of reason and learn to hear it for the blocking device that it is.  Morning Pages will help you to do this.
• Morning Pages are Non-Negotiable
• Your mood doesn't matter.
• The rotten thing your Censor says doesn't matter. We have this idea that we need to be in the mood to write. We Don't !!!
• Morning Pages will teach you that your mood doesn't really matter.  Some of best creative work gets done on the days when you feel that everything you're doing is just plain junk.
• The Morning Pages will teach you to stop judging and just let yourself write.  So what if you're tired, cabby, distracted, stressed?  Your artist is a child and it needs to be fed.
• Morning pages feed your artist child. So Write Your Morning Pages !!!!  
• 3 Pages of whatever crosses your mind--that's all there is to it.  If you can't think of anything to write, then write, "I can't think of anything to write, I can't think of anything to write... etc... etc..."  Do this until you have filled 3 Pages !!!  Do anything until you have filled three pages. 
• (That's why I had to brb, to finish up my three whole pages while I was writing in this blog, and came back after I was done)
•  Ok, I'm just writing down the bullet points for me, and by all means this is not the cliff Notes for the Actual Whole Book of "the Artist's Way", you best have the book and read the whole book just as a get to know greeting", and to really dig deep by yourself.
• It is impossible to write Morning Pages for any exended period of time without coming into contact with an unexpected inner power.
• The pages are a pathway to a strong and clear sense of self.  They are a trail that we follow into our own interior, where we meet both our own creativity and our Creator.
• Morning pages map our own interior.
• Anyone who faithfully writes Morning Pages will be led to a connection with a source of wisdom within.  When I am stuck with a painful situation or problem that I don't think I know how to handle, I will go tothe pages and ask for guidance.
• To do this, I write "LJ" as a shorthand for Little Julie, and then I ask my question.
• LJ:  What should I tell them about this inner wisdom?  (the I listen for the reply and wirte that down, too.)
• Answer:  You should tell them everyone has a direct dial to Infinite Divine Universe.  No one needs to go through an operator.  Tell them to try this technique with a  problem of their own.  they will. (excerpt from book).
• The answer may seem to freakin simple or elementary.  I have come to believe tht seem is the operative word.
• Very often, when I act on the advice I have been given, it is exactly right--fora more right than something more complicated would have been.  And so, for the record, I want to say: Pages are my way of meditation;  I do them because they work.
• Morning Pages will work for painters, sculptors, poets, actors, lawyers, housewives, ANYONE & EVERYONE !!!!!

BASIC PRINCIPLES

The following spiritual principles are the bedrock on which creative recovery and discovery can be built.  Read them through once a day, and keep an  inner ear cocked for any shifts in attitudes or beliefs.

• Creativity is the natural order of life.  Life is energy: Pure Creative Energy. 
•  There is an underlying, in-dwelling creative force infusing all of life--including ourselves.
• When we open ourselves to our creativity, we open ourselves to the creator's creativity within us and our lives.
• We are, ourselves, creations.  And we, in turn, are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves.
• Creativity is Infinite Divine's gift to us.  Using our creativity is our gift back to Infinite Divine.
• The refusal to be creative is self-will and is counter to our true nature.
• When we open ourselves to exploring our creativity, we open ourselves to the Infinite Divine.  good orderly direction.
• As we open our creative channel to the creator, many gentle but powerful changes are to be expected.
• It is safe to open ourselves up to greater and greater creativity.
• Our creative dreams and yearnings come from a divine source.  As we move toward our dreams, we move toward our divinity.

What it is this All About it !!!!!!??? Oscar Zepeda & "the Artist's Way" !!!

Well, I'm creating this for me, so I can have a quick almost daily reference to my 12 week course with "the Artist's Way" that I will be implementing with my Metamorphosis (see other blog) curriculum... having the Basic Principles, Exercises and Tasks in an Easier Accessible website where I can write them down and write down my experiences and somewhat record and capture my experiences, this blog is more of a Quick Reference Guide from the book "the Artist's Way" by Author Julia Cameron.  I will write my Actual Experiences in the Metamorphosis Blog, the Nitty Gritty of my Metamorphosis with the 12 Week Course the Artist's Way and my own transformation and metamorphosis into the being that Infinite Divine sees me as.

I will probably write down my experiences and answers to the exercises in the comments below the blog info.  I would like to have others experiences and input of their experiences with the Artist's Way 12 week course !!! 

So here we go !!!!  Week 1 I will be starting on Sun !!!  which is also the 1st Day of my Metamorphosis !!!!

Thanks for stopping by !!!  and Let the Transformation Begin !!!!!!  Oscar Zepeda