| The Artist's Way Workshop Help | |
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Looking over the content in "the Artist's Way" workshop, it seems a bit daunting. We have Daily Pages, Artist's Date, at least ten tasks and many other things to think about and process during one short week. Couple that with having a life including family, pets, children, day jobs, homes and more and it starts to look like this will never work for us.
It is my feeling that this this workshop, like many others, was initially geared
towards those people who did not need to do anything other than work a workshop.
This is wonderful if it id feasible but in most cases it is not. So, we need to
"cut & paste" portions of the workshop to fit our lives, Here are
my suggestions:
Daily Pages
I've had a lot of feedback regarding these pages. Many people are just not able to get up that extra half-hour earlier or have such
commitments in the early morning that they either skip writing first thing or save the pages until later. My take on this is that the writing itself is far more important that the timing. I can see that Ms. Cameron s I encouraging people to write when they are in that "half awake" stream in order to capture the
honesty and to keep the pages as "stream of consciousness" as possible.
However, I also think that we get equal value by writing at any time of day when
we will sit down and do it.
I also agree that the size of the page is not what's important. If you want to write a full three pages of college lined 81/2 X 11 sheets, that's great. If you use a Steno sized book, that's great, too. I am even in the "camp" that says writing in longhand is totally unnecessary. If you can "stream" on the computer, then by all means, write where you are most comfortable. Some people have problems with their hands and cannot sustain the longhand. So write in whatever day, at whatever time feels best for you. But do write - that's what's important.
Weekly Tasks
I have been writing out ideas for all ten of the weekly tasks so far, but Ima about to change that. From here forward (and I will go back and edit those pages for weeks 1 through4) I will only post ideas for three of the ten weekly
tasks. I will comment on the three that seem especially suited to beaders and bead designers. This way, we
will get the good out of the tasks without being overwhelmed by having tn thing added to our already huge "to-do" lists.
Extra Tasks Occasionally I find that there are, in the Chapters themselves, some extra tasks to help drive home the point of the week's lessons. Usually they are important enough to warrant an extra page from me with an outline as to how we can focus this on beading. If that is the case, and you are really limited to time, then do this task and read through the Weekly 10 in the book. Don't worry about doing everything; again, that's not the point as much as understanding the lessons is.
Artist's Dates
Have fun with these! Let anything that you want to count, count! Make sure you have a bit of time for yourself and your beads, as this is the biggest point of the Weekly Artist's Dates. Grab a few minutes to play with your beads or make yourself a quick necklace or bracelet. Take a look at Vicki Star's Blog to see how to "pace" yourself for these types of things.
She started a drive to make something, even if it is small, each day for a year
and to post her daily log on her Website. I am very excited to see this and want
to do something similar. As Vicki is proving, if you can find time for beads each day,
you will grow as a designer and artist.
Have Fun!
There is no faster way to end up blowing off any kind of self-help or growth based workshop than to have it become a drudge. If you're losing sleep over Daily Pages, struggling to keep up
Artist's date, exhausting yourself to finish all ten plus the extra tasks, then this is not going to work. Having no fun at all is not the point, but to
discover some of the behaviors and reactions we experience is. Getting back to the beads - whether finding the top of your bead table, making a
simple necklace once in a while or staring to design and make big projects is what you are aiming for. Everything you do in this workshop is right and correct. You cannot do wrong and you cannot flunk out
unless you decide to do so. I f you can only write a page a day and work one task, then you're still
ahead. So don't be hard on yourself. Have fun, relax and come read & hang out. You'll find what you need. As
Meatloaf (the very talented singer/songwriter) sang in the movie Roadie "everything
works if you let it" the same holds true for beads, beading and creativity.
Life is too short to stress out. Relax and enjoy!
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