An Ending and a Beginning

One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.

Andre Gide

Arrival

Last weekend, I managed to complete the twelve week journey that is The Artist’s Way. Like many journeys, it has had moments of stunning vistas and moments spent in a traffic jam on the motorway. Yet, strangely, I never felt the urge to give up. Each chapter and exercise brought me new understanding and while working through writing the daily morning pages, I was able to take mastery of that knowledge.

Perhaps this is the ultimate self-help book, because it doesn’t offer any answers only questions to prompt your growth. ‘It is intense,’ as a friend who has also completed it said. It is also, if you choose it to be, life changing.

Accepting the call

After decades of wandering about with a niggling feeling that there was more that I wanted to do with my life, I came upon this book. I love teaching and I have always felt it my vocation and privilege, but hours preparing and being with students (and my children) didn’t leave a lot of time for anything else and my creative urges were always subsumed by a never ending to-do list.

The Artist’s Way proposes that we are all creative beings and to neglect that element in our lives will lead to unhappiness. Of course, she does not advocate that we all become artists (though her focus is on the creative arts) but that we find a way to live more creatively. For some, that may mean spending more time in their gardens, for others a complete career shift.

When I began the book, I wasn’t sure which path was the one for me. After all, I do love art and music as well as writing. However, as I moved through each chapter and my morning pages, I realised that my happy place was sitting somewhere with a pen in my hand and when I was denied that, I was miserable. Other art forms are my entertainment. Writing is my oxygen.

And so I have accepted the call to write: to think of myself as a writer who also teaches, rather than a teacher who also writes. There, I’ve said it. And it matters not a jot whether I am commercially successful or get publication for the novel I plan to write or if people think I am bonkers or delusional. What matters is getting words on the page (or screen), learning my craft and enjoying the process.

Since accepting the call, my mind has been fizzing with ideas. One poem is already sent off to the local book festival and another is in draft form. Yet more are complete. Novel ideas are piling up in my notebook. I can hardly keep up.

Fellow travellers

Of course, any journey is more enjoyable with company, and though I didn’t have a group to go through the book with, I have found others who have now embarked on their artist’s way – including my husband.

At the very least, it is vital to have someone respect that you need time and space for the enterprise; however, if you can find folks to discuss your discoveries with, it is even more exhilarating!

And if anyone is tempted to start after reading this, let me know. I should love to hear how you get on.

Sanctuary

A sanctuary is a place of refuge, where no-one can assail you. Artists need a sanctuary too – a place where they can create freely and without distraction.

It doesn’t need to be a large space or a particularly elegant one, mine is in my garden shed. But it does need to belong solely to us and our endeavours. My husband kindly built me a beautiful shelf, which I have filled with books and pens and pretty plants. I also have some delightful lights to cheer me during the dark winter months.

Any space can be made into your creative area – even the corner of a room. Decorate it with things you love from crazy plastic toys to elegant objects d’art. Whatever you choose, let it make your heart sing when you see it.

My shed has a comfortable chair, a small table for writing equipment and a soft-back tray on which to balance my notebooks. It also has a magnificent view of the garden and Hermione can chase her ball endlessly while I write. (Between ball tosses, of course!)

Begin again

Once I had finished my book, the next task was to reread it, which I am doing, slowly. Progress is seldom linear, as we are so often taught, but circular, spiralling up to ever greater understanding.

I have committed to write daily and to keep up my practice of visiting a place of artistic interest once a week.

Reading my artist’s prayer each morning helps to confirm the commitment that I have made and the hope that others will support me in this venture and I them. Above all, it reminds me to be grateful for the gifts we have been given.

Looking forward

In addition to my written journals, I’m keeping a pictorial one. It is a place to doodle and dream – to visualise new adventures and goals.

Somehow, committing them to paper makes them seem that much more achievable. Sometimes we just have to visualise our dreams to make them happen.

The page above reads: ‘”Beware all enterprises requiring new clothes” – or not! When I win my first creative prize money, I shall buy a Gudrun outfit’ (my favourite, affordable designer). The outfit is now hanging in my closet.

Oh the places you’ll go

I love the book by Dr Seuss of this title, because we will all be going places. In an ideal world, we want to go to the places that interest us rather than where we are taken.

Choosing a more creative life needn’t mean abandoning one’s current one, only enriching it. My goal is to do three hours of writing/ creative practice per day. Sounds like a lot? Well, it is considerably less than the amount of time the average person spends on the television or screen.

Put down your phone. Pick up your pen, or paintbrush or needle and who knows what places you’ll go!