The Artist’s Way
I recently saw mention of a book my mother gave me years ago when I was living at home, “The Artist’s Way,” by Julia Cameron. I never got around to reading it, too busy with school and my young life, I suppose. Perhaps feeling a bit nostalgic, or guilty for not having read it, a gift from my mother, I checked out the newest edition from the library.
The aim of the book is to take you through a 12-week course of exercises designed to help you find your inner artist and provide tools to help you become more creative in your artistic pursuits, be that as a visual artist, writer, photographer, singer, what have you. The book is a bit of a commitment, but for many people it has been life-changing. The author of the well-loved, “Eat, Love, Pray,” Elizabeth Gilbert, is quoted on the cover as saying, “The Artist’s Way brings much insight, gently helping you see what is holding you back, and showing you how to move forward.”
Beyond the nostalgia and guilt, I have been questioning the direction my art is taking so I thought it might be helpful to read a bit of it to see if it might help me. To be honest, I got through two weeks of reading and doing the exercises and I was so fired up with feelings of creativity that I said to myself, “I already know I’m an artist. I need to get busy with all these ideas!”
The Artist Date
One of the tools Ms. Cameron believes is essential to opening the path toward being an artist is “the artist date.” She acknowledges that it may seem like a strange thing to do, but assures the reader that it is useful. She says, “Doing your artist date, you are receiving–opening yourself to insight, inspiration, guidance.” Simply put, 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.”
So it came to be that I planned and took a trip to the rather loftily named “Butterfly Estates,” in Fort Myers. The centerpiece of the collection of shops, a co-op gallery, and a café, is a glass greenhouse which houses a “not for profit organization dedicated to protecting, preserving and populating our native species [of butterflies].”
Small Size, Big Heart
Last year I visited the mega-popular Key West Butterfly & Nature Conservancy, a must-see tourist attraction. The Fort Myers Butterfly house is a much smaller operation, but what it lacks in size and locale, it makes up for in charm and heart. It is nestled in a rural pocket of homes on a side street near the busy down town area of Fort Myers.
Butterflies Abound
As you enter the cool humid space inside the greenhouse you are surrounded by lush, tropical plants with butterflies flitting around and landing on brightly colored flowers. I spent some time following the orange and black beauty shown in the photo above, a dryas iulia butterfly, commonly called the Julia butterfly, as it landed hear and there.
Not Just Butterflies
I could hear the gurgling water in a pond where the koi swam and a turtle lounged.
People Watching
I enjoyed doing a little people watching as well. There were people of all ages, including a group of teenaged boys checking out a cluster of butterflies landing on Orchids near the door. I could hear people from all over the world speaking to each other in various languages. I walked across a wooden bridge over the pond to see a swarm of black butterflies with pale yellow stripes, which I learned are called Zebra Heliconian. I saw a young girl, who’s family spoke what I think is a Slavic language, gather around as she crouched down near one of them and extended her finger. I asked her mother for permission to photograph her and she told me the butterfly couldn’t fly and her daughter was worried. She never touched the butterfly, but her concern was palpable. It was heartwarming to see a compassionate and caring young person.
Creative Flow
Walking back to the empty lot I had parked in, I felt a sense of calm and wonder in my surroundings. I did, indeed, feel my creativity firing up as I looked at all of the, to me, exotic trees and plants in the quaint neighborhood. I still marvel at seeing such things as mango trees and plumeria trees in the city where I live. I took photos and envisioned how I might draw or paint them, how they might inform my color choices, etc.
Often when I travel on vacation my creative mind revs up and I find myself planning all sorts of new things. This tiny field trip had much the same effect for me. It only took a few hours, but it provided fodder for my creativity, just what The Artist’s Way said it would do.
Back in the Studio
Last month I wrote about the watercolor painting I did, “Daddy’s Little Girl,” and gave a work-in-progress peak at the oil painting I had started of the same composition. I have since finished the oil painting, shown below, entitled, “Deep and Abiding.”
I enjoyed exploring the same thing in two different ways. It is a process of discovery in which I am able to delve deeper into the subject and learn more with each rendition about the line, form, values, color, etc. It is now displayed in my studio and every time I look at it, it fills me with a sense of peace and contentment.
Healing From Tragedy
Coming by feelings of peace and contentment is a difficult thing to do in light of the recent mass shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan, a few miles from my Michigan home. One of the students at the art school, Luke Farwell, that one of my former painting teachers opened, Atelier School of Art, attends Oxford High. The painting below is a work Luke completed at the school.
The school is offering therapy-based art sessions to any high school student who wishes to attend. They are also offering a way for others to help by accepting donations to cover expenses. If you would like to, you may do so on their website.
