The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

“There, caught between the dream of action and the fear of failure, shadow artists are born.”

Cameron’s target audience includes those who identify as shadow artists in some way. Shadow artists aren’t lesser creatives but rather blocked ones, stifled by fear, perfectionism, and fantasy.

“Very often audacity, not talent, makes one person an artist and another a shadow artist—hiding in the shadows, afraid to step out and expose the dream to the light, fearful that it will disintegrate to the touch.”

This notion that the artists who’ve made it aren’t inherently more talented than those who haven’t may be comforting to shadow artists who are trying to break free from self-judgment and fear. This also affirms the importance of bravery.

“Remember, your artist is a child.”

By using this metaphor, Cameron shows how vulnerable and innocent our inner artists are. To be cruel and judgmental of them is unacceptable, as the creative self is so open and full of wonder that attacks of doubt and chaos can be stabilizing.

“As blocked creatives, we focus not on our responsibilities to ourselves, but on our responsibilities to others. We tend to think such behavior makes us good people. It doesn’t. It makes us frustrated people.”

This quote highlights the main themes of making space (and creating the right headspace) to claim an artist’s identity by not allowing excuses or distractions to limit us. Sometimes blocked creatives are drawn to toxic situations because they can be consumed by their perceived responsibilities to others rather than being accountable to themselves and their own goals/dreams.

“Your own healing is the greatest message of hope for others.”

Although tending to others’ needs may seem altruistic, the best thing creatives can do in response to other blocked artists is to lead by example. Rather than giving into the fears and doubts others share, the artist can show them there is another way by forging the creative life.

“As frightening and abusive as life with a crazymaker is, we find it far less threatening than the challenge of a creative life of our own.”

While the concept that shadow artists would rather surround themselves with toxic people than face their fear may seem ridiculous, Cameron illustrates why creatives may resort to these patterns. As long as dreams are kept in the dark and distractions can serve as excuses, the shadow can’t fail. They cannot succeed either, but so many shadow artists are so afraid of failure, they give themselves excuses not to try in the first place.

“The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.”

Cameron highlights how important it is to be present and observe as an artist. With attention, we can take notice of the world around us, feel more connected to it, and even be more inspired.

“Anger is meant to be acted upon. It is not meant to be acted out.”

This first sentence may catch readers off-guard because anger is usually seen as an emotion to not act upon. Here, Cameron subverts the expectation by making this statement and clarifying it in the second sentence. Anger comes from a place of real emotion that is valid and should be addressed, but anger itself should not be released as a destructive force but only as a guiding force to where attention is required.

“Anger is our friend. Not a nice friend. Not a gentle friend. But a very, very loyal friend. It will always tell us when we have been betrayed. It will always tell us when we have betrayed ourselves. It will always tell us that it is time to act in our own best interests. Anger is not the action itself. It is action’s invitation.”

Cameron personifies anger in a way that makes its role tangible and reinforces how empowering it can be. The feeling plays a vital role in making a plan to move forward.

“We call it coincidence. We call it luck. We call it anything but what it is–the hand of God, or good, activated by our own hand when we act on behalf of our truest dreams, when we commit to our own soul.”

Cameron explores large questions around the nature of spirituality and God’s role in creative existence. She makes a case for embracing God and spirituality because doing so doesn’t absolve creatives of responsibility; rather, it is a force to be tapped into for deeper healing connections and appreciation of the many gifts we receive in life when we are open enough to accept them.

“And thanks to the morning pages we learn what we want and ultimately become willing to make the changes needed to get it. But not without a tantrum. And not without a kriya, the Sanskrit word meaning a spiritual emergency or surrender. (I always think of kriyas as spiritual seizures. Perhaps they should be spelled crias because they are cries of the soul as it is wrung through changes.)”

Cameron continues the metaphor of the inner artist as a child indirectly by acknowledging how the hard truths illuminated by this course’s practices may result in tantrums. These tantrums are critical responses to the spiritual awakenings and realignment with our true selves, and though Cameron makes light of its spelling in the aside, she ends with the notion that this is a legitimate response from the soul.

“You are your own promised land, your own new frontier.”

Cameron presents the idea that you already have all the tools you need. To discover your highest self, you have to sit in these uncomfortable moments/feelings, sort through what’s working, and move toward the version of you that was always there all along. Being a promised land implies that your journey to become aligned with yourself is the ideal version of you, and being your own frontier shows how much there is to discover and explore.

“‘pray to catch the bus, then run as fast as you can.”

This analogy highlights the importance of both spiritual and physical action in achieving a goal, no matter how simple or outlandish. Prayer doesn’t make the bus magically reappear for you, and running alone may not cut it, but with both belief and action, it is possible.

“As we have listened to our artist child within, it has begun to feel more and more safe. Feeling safe, it speaks a little louder.”

Personifying the creative spirit as a child again, Cameron shows how the sense of self and safety built in the other weeks lends itself to a sense of possibility. By freeing oneself from fears and dependencies, the creative self can be more open to ideas that once seemed outlandish.

“For an artist, virtue can be deadly. The urge toward respectability and maturity can be stultifying, even fatal. […] Afraid to appear selfish, we lose our self.”

While this may seem like hyperbole, Cameron reveals it is not hyperbolic by providing examples in which the creative self dies for what seems virtuous. Rather than honoring the time and space needed, sacrificing too much for the sake of appearances and others can cost us our identities. This may seem altruistic, but in the end the repressed artist may become a shell of a person, resentful, and unable to truly show up for others, meaning everyone loses when we lose ourselves.

“...when it comes time to choose between a cherished dream and a lousy current drudgery, we often choose to ignore the dream and blame our continued misery on God.”

This situation reinforces Cameron’s idea that people limit themselves, not only because of resource limitations but also because of beliefs that God is like a strict parental figure and that only what’s painful and difficult can be fruitful. Recognizing the infinite gifts and creativity inherent in the universe is an important step in the artist’s journey.

“Creativity lives in paradox: serious art is born from serious play.”

Not only is the statement a paradox but the idea of “serious play” may seem paradoxical as well. Through this unlikely coupling, Cameron underscores the importance of connecting with your inner child and going on the artist dates. Regardless of money or time, there has to be dedicated room for play and therefore creativity/art.

“These moments of clear inspiration require that we move into them on faith. We can practice these small leaps of faith daily in our pages and on our artist dates. We can learn not only to listen but also to hear with increasing accuracy that inspired, intuitive voice that says, ‘Do this, try this, say this…’”

By framing creativity as something deep within like a river or well, Cameron shows the ease with which flow can occur if an artist has faith and listens to their innermost self. This shows the more concrete link between creativity and spirituality, as practicing one enhances the other.

“The perfectionist fixes one line of a poem over and over–until no lines are right.”

By illustrating the perfectionist tinkering with one area too much, Cameron highlights the idea that perfectionism can alter the work for the worse. Being obsessed with logic and detail can cause artists to lose sight of the bigger picture and muddy the vision that drove us to create.

“Creative people are dramatic, and we use negative drama to scare ourselves out of our creativity with this notion of wholesale and often destructive change.”

This idea of drama as a destructive force that can derail our creative aspirations acts as an extension of the earlier idea of creative people marrying themselves to crazymakers. By setting impossible goals with no means to achieve them, the creative manufactures a sense of drama and guarantees failure, often causing the cycle to repeat itself.

“Think of your talent as a young and skittish horse that you are bringing along. This horse is very talented but it is also young, nervous, and inexperienced. It will make mistakes, be frightened by obstacles it hasn’t seen before. It may even bolt, try to throw you off, feign lameness. Your job, as the creative jockey, is to keep your horse moving forward and to coax it into finishing the course.”

By comparing a young artist’s talent to a scared horse, Cameron makes the notion of the beginning artist more tangible and builds in the idea of having self-compassion. The horse in the creative talent and something the artist is nurturing. Though we may be harsh on ourselves, it’s harder to imagine being so cruel to a young horse, which helps put this idea into perspective when it can be otherwise difficult for creatives to do so.

“WORKAHOLISM IS A BLOCK, NOT A BUILDING BLOCK.”

Cameron suggests workaholics post a sign in their workspace with this message. Like other seemingly virtuous activities we use to escape our dreams, hard work is no different, and sometimes working overtime cuts into creative time and inhibits ourselves from developing into who we’re meant to be.

“As an artist, I write whether I think it’s any good or not. I shoot movies other people may hate. I sketch bad sketches to say, ‘I was in this room. I was happy. It was May and I was meeting somebody I wanted to meet.’”

In this section, Cameron offers a list of things we must accept about ourselves on our journey as artists. We must persist in the face of doubt, and our autonomy comes from our enjoyment of the process.