7.21.2010

artist date: nurturing creativity

as i mentioned earlier this year, i am in the midst of completing julia cameron's book, the vein of gold.

in undertaking the journey of this work, i committed to do an "artist date" once a week.

in julia's words, 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.  In its most 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, a.k.a. your creative child."

i have taken myself on these dates once a week since october.  this practice has done wonders for my he(art)...


recently i have been letting go of perfectionism and allowing my dates to be free from certain rules that i somehow arbitrarily and unconsciously put upon myself.

for example, i used to think that my dates had to be something i had never done before or something i had to do outside of my house.  

i now recognize that this was a self-sabotaging way of making something harder than it needs to be so that i have an excuse to not do it...


this week, i let go of those restrictive ideas and chose to put on my headphones, get snuggly in the treehouse loft, and watch a TED talk.

the talk i viewed was a message from elizabeth gilbert, the author of eat, pray, love. she explores what it means to be an artist and to nurture your own creativity.  i found it thought-provoking, meaningful, and poignant.

knowing that most of you are creative beings, i thought perhaps you might like to watch this video on an artist date of your own...



...and to you, dear friends, i say:

ole!

4 comments:

ALFIE said...

i take time every week to watch TED talks. i feel so refreshed afterward. liz gilbert's creative musings are among my favorite. LOVE this video!

A Bird Out of Water said...

i have seen this talk and it is amazing! and i love the idea of "artist dates"! great post :)

Emily said...

This is such a neat idea. I think I need to start watching TED talks because I've heard several people say that they really enjoy them lately.

PS. So good to see you yesterday, and thanks for de-lurking :)

Rebecca said...

"Let the record show today that I showed up for my part." Awesome...that's all we can do, right?