What Is An Artistic Date?

“An artist date is a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist. …You may not take anyone on this artistic date but you and your inner artist, a. k. a. your creative child.” Cameron, pg. 18.

The Artist’s Way is a book, a program , and a way of life that offers blocked creatives a path to become creatively active again through the Writing of Morning Pages and the Taking of Artistic Dates.

“Your artist needs to be taken out, pampered, and listened to.” Cameron, pg. 19.

“Your artist is a child. Time … 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 aquarium or an art gallery—these cost time, not money. Remember, it is the time commitment that is sacred.” Cameron, pg. 19.

“Spending time in solitude with your artist child is essential to self-nurturing. A ong country walk, a solitary expedition to the beach 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 sounds—your artist might enjoy any of these. Or your artist might like bowling. Commit yourself to a weekly artist’s date…..”Cameron, pg. 19.

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.
C. G. JUNG

Today. I took a much-needed Artistic Date–the First One in Over a Year, and my Spirit is still  smiling.

1. I got out of my grungy painting t-shirts and wore some gladder rags.
2. I went to the BTC and ate  my favorite omelet

3. I stopped by the Violet Valley Bookstore and bought an older book to begin making repurposed sketch books again:

Why Draw in Old Books?

1. To Save Money on Traditional Sketch Books? No.
2. To Foster Creativity.

Many years ago, I read a quote from a famous watercolorist. He advised that the first step in painting in watercolor is that of punching a hole in the paper. That would end the attempt not to mess up–by being overly careful.

When Drawing and Painting in Old Books [Over Words], the need to create a perfect painting ready-to-sell. The painter is invited to play.

How to get started drawing in Old Books?

Buy an old book with pulpy paper.

The book shown here is a bit too new, but the pages are not glossy. Glossy pages won’t work.