The Artist's Way [Hardcover]

I really enjoyed this book, I have it for years, and I keep going back to it. If there is a time when I am too distracted with my life, and I feel that I am no longer in touch with my inner self, I start to read this book again, and do some of the exercises, and it truly helps. I think when one becomes very overloaded with work and family affairs, it is natural that one can become less creative. Reading this book and doing the exercises recommended, I found that I felt more concentrated in my work, and better all round. It is definatly a book that I recommend to anyone that could use some help in living for themselves as well as for everyone else.

I read and began working my way through this book a few years ago. Before I go on, let me first say I am somewhat of a skeptic. I think we all are to some degree though or we wouldn't need things like brand names to reassure us in our everyday lives.

It was no coincidence that my creativity began to transform like a tidal wave at the time I was working through this book. In fact, I had been supressing it so much through daily distractions that it was too much for me to handle at the time. My creativity has since reached a nice medium and I finally feel ready to bring this book back into the process.

I decided to read the other reviews for fun. I am not at all suprised that their is a lot of cynicism. Everything has an equal opposite, that is a fundamental law of nature. People are entitled to their opinions and there is no specific thing in this world that appeals to everyone.

I just find it ironic that one of the biggest stabs at this book is "well I shouldn't have to do exercises to be creative, I should be spending my time being creative instead." That point has some validity to it, but if that was the case than why did they turn to a book about creativity in the first place. Even the greatest artists cannot be inspired all the time and lose their path through life from time to time. On top of that, if you compare the art and architecture of the Roman times and music of the past to today, you can see a pattern of things becoming more and more formulated. We need inspiration at this point in evolution.

The other thing is people say 'where are the authors creditials? What else has she done?' If you took piano lessons from a recommended teacher, would you base their teaching skills on whether they have taught anyone famous before? That is why we have teachers.

It all comes down to one thing. This book will bring out your inner self if used properly and if you are cynical and negative, you will probably return here to make a point of it. If you are open and creative you may very well begin to channel that energy the way you need to.

Every time I pick up this book, I'm put off by the author's style -- it's so full of cutesy affectations, dumb little puns, and hokey metaphors repeated too many times -- the bad habits that good writing teachers steer their students away from. So it's hard for me to trust this person as a teacher of art-making, if writing is supposed to be her own art form and she does it so sloppily. Nevertheless, her course WORKS! Her style may rub you the wrong way, but the content is very effective. In the three years since I first read it and started doing the exercises, it's turned my creative life around, with astonishing results. So thank you, Julia Cameron, cutesy-wootsey prose and all.