In Tuesday’s reading, Julia Cameron asserted that a practice of writing Morning Pages will ultimately connect the practicioner to a Higher Creative Insight. I personally call this Higher Creative Insight my Intuition. Julia Cameron calls this Higher Creative Insight a type of Spiritual Guidance, which is beyond a type of religious insight. She says that because writing Morning Pages constrains Logic Brain, the Artist Brain can move forward and that it is through Artist Brain that one attains this Higher Creative Insight.

“We move from logic brain to artist brain and from fast to slow, shallow to deep.” Cameron, The Artist’s Way, pg. 14.

I first studied Cameron’s Artist’s Way about 30 years ago, and I can personally vouch for what Cameron is saying. I have experienced the guiding power of Intuition in both my writing and my painting. Other writers and visual artists have said the same thing about their work.

From the very first pages of her book The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron insists that her program to unlock creativity is a spiritual one. In making this statement, I do not believe that Cameron is talking about a religious transformation. I believe that what she says is a spiritual connection for this study is what I call my Intuition.

My intuition guides me in everything successful that I write and every successful painting that I create.

READ About Intuition;

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved
until I set him free”
– Michelangelo –

In the above words, Michelangelo has described how intuition helped him sculpt.

Michelangelo was a famous artist during the Italian Renaissance.  He was commissioned by Pope Julius II to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel between the years 1508 and 1512.

The Creation of Adam is one of the frescoes that Michelangelo painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

The Creation of Adam focuses on the power of God which is so very strong that it was not necessary for the fingers of Adam and God to touch. The power of God was strong enough to reach across the gap between the fingers of God and man.

Annie Dillard has told us that the good stuff lies in the gaps:

Go up into the gaps. If you can find them; they shift and vanish too. Stalk the gaps. Squeak into a gap in the soil, turn, and unlock-more than a maple- a universe. This is how you spend this afternoon, and tomorrow morning, and tomorrow afternoon. Spend the afternoon. You can’t take it with you.”
― Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Intuition lies in the gaps. Because it is a type of formless stuff that is almost hiding in the gaps, it is hard to define, but I’ll make a stab at it. Intuition is a driving force that is buried somewhere within an individual, and when a creator allows it to do so, intuition can help the artist make decisions as he creates. This internal force works for all types of artists–be they painters, writers, or songwriters.

David Foster wrote the song “The Prayer.” In the following video, He talks about how his intuition wrote that incredible song:

“…all of those melodies are swirling around in the universe, and the best songs come through you and not from you….The song comes when the feeling can’t be said without it.” – David Foster, Composer

When I am painting and when I am writing, I consider it a great day when something within myself takes over and essentially completes my project for me. This gentle urging is intuition. It is the spark that helped Michelangelo release his sculptures from a piece of rock, and it is my writer’s voice and also the force behind my painter’s style.

Bouquet in a Blue Jar – Jacki Kellum Watercolor Painting

When people comment about my paintings, they most often speak about my bold use of color and the bravery that they see within my marks. When people comment upon the bravery that I exhibit when I paint, however, I must correct them. I am not the brave participant in my paintings.  My intuition is. When I am having a good painting day, an inward force literally takes control of my hand and it urges my hand to dip into a little more red and to slash it here or to place a little pink there, or to blob more blue somewhere else. My only courage is to allow my intuition to take control.

It is a bit of a tease to talk about how the intuition guides us when we create and then, go back and assign you to simply write more Morning Pages. Again, the Morning Pages are not creative writing–they are a path toward creative writing, creative painting, and creative living. Do the Morning Pages, and if you want to try your hand at creating after that–Let Yourself Fly!

Write 3 Morning Pages. No Editing — Just Write. Let it Flow. Whatever Comes to your mind. Write. Remember: This is not Creative Writing, You Are Simply Emptying Your Mind.