Customer Reviews

Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

5 star:		(93)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I purchased this book about 3 years ago. I have read it continously the past 3 years. I have given it as gifts to numerous friends and family. I am not a professional artist by any means...I sell electronic components/widgets. For years I knew I wanted to get in touch with my "creative" side, but couldn't find the how to's or make the "time"..sorry excuses. Well, this book came into my life and I started following Ms. Cameron's exercises...A whole new world opened up for me. I started noticing simple things, like birds! Flowers blooming, sunlight reflecting on the pond down the street from where I live. And I followed her MUST DO instructions of keeping a Morning Journal. One must write LONG HAND 3 pages of stream of consciousness ramblings. You can write anything..it isn't an exercise in creative writing. It is a ritual of clearing your self out so you can allow NEW stuff to enter into your creative soul.
I recommend this book very highly to EVERYONE!
Artist, salesperson, auto mechanic, mother, teenager..everyone can benefit from this easy and enjoyable book to read.

I felt like I hit the jackpot when I found this book. I signed up for a 12-week course based on The Artist's Way, and got a lot more than I'd bargained for. Julia Cameron is a muse for this generation. In this astonishingly honest, insightful book she inspires the reader to step outside one's self-imposed box and literally reach for the stars. This is a life affirming book that generously provides a step-by-step method of "..harnassing universality and making it flow through your eyes." Forget chicken soup, this is creme brulee for the soul.
No matter what your occupation or avocation, you can benefit from The Artist's Way.

Julia Cameron's book was so inspiring and encouraging. This book is for anyone who wants to recover their creativity. I learned that everyone's creative. She changed my beliefs of what's possible for me as an artist. She made a connection between spirituality and creativity which I had never previously considered. She helped to keep me from becoming a bocked writer with her artist's dates and with filling the well. Though it may seem silly the artist date is like a play date for yourself and Julia Cameron explains that as you take images out of your "well" you must keep "filling the well" with new images or the well will dry up. If the well dries up you can become a blocked artist. The artist recovery course is a total of twelve weeks. She shows the reader how to deal with rejection and disappointment. She has a few quotes on the suject such as one quoted by Blake Edwards, "...he concluded that creativity, not time, would best heal his creative wounds." She also offered a great piece of advice. When struck by loss or rejection as an artist instead of saying why me or what's the point, ask "what next?" The rough translation is,and I quote, "Don't let the bastards get you down." One of my favorite things about the book is that throughout the entire book she has inspiring and encouraging quotes on the sidelines of the pages. I loved reading them all. There's too much information to sum up the book up well in a review. You have to read the book, but one of my favorite questions she had was this one:

Question: "Do you know how old I'll be by the time I learn to really play the piano/act/paint/write a decent play?"

Answer: "...the same age you will be if you don't."

This is not an unabridged reading of the Artist's Way Book. It is an author read abridgement and Julia Cameron herself opens the audiobook discussing the abridgement process she and her friends went through to boil the book down for this audiobook.
The material covered here is good and insightful, and that's why it still merits three stars. It's worth listening to, but you deserve to know what you're getting.

I admit, I didn't read the whole thing. I flipped through a few pages and found myself really liking what she had to say...then I stopped myself. I could have wasted tons of time reading her book and doing her exercises, which would have been fun (but so is computer solitaire) or I could have sat down at my desk and written. Even if nothing came out but 20 pages of 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,' I would have been writing instead of reading a book about it. I also found myself not trusting this woman, as she appears to be making her money writing about writing instead of writing fiction. What are her credits? If you want to read a truly nuts and bolts, informative book about writing by someone who's written some stuff you might actually have heard of, check out Stephen King's "On Writing." Part autobiography and part how-to, both how-to write and how-to ignore the people who want to tear down your art, from a man who's actually spent 30 years in the trenches.

If you do the work in this book, you will not only unblock as an artist, but the rest of your life will begin to become coherent. It's an amazing work...

There are only two books I recommend artists of any kind to read, Natalie Goldberd "Writing Down the Bones", and this book by Julia Cameron. I have read more how-to creativity/writing/journaling/artist books than my poor shelves can hold. I stopped buying them after this book.

I'm an avid journal keeper, it helps me free my mind. There are times, however, when my mind wants to remain locked. This book, complete with freeing exercises, changed all that. I keep the morning pages every day now and have little trouble with my creativity. This book was a god-send to a generation who finally realized that all things in life require some creativity and that unlocking it is the key to a healthy, fullfilled, and well-lived life.

I cannot recommend this book enough. I also recommend the companion "Morning Pages Journal", but only if you aren't sure where to begin. If you are certain you can pick up a blank notebook and begin following the advice she gives, then the journal isn't really necessary.

This is the book that every artist and journaler needs.

The Artist's Way is designed to help the most creatively repressed, damaged souls in the world. It assumes nothing and asks its readers to take charge of their own recovery effort. It helps artists examine their lives and better utilize the power of their imaginations.

If you think you're a hotshot artist, The Artist's Way can help you in ways that you hadn't thought to consider. While the entire program may not be right for everyone, simply answering the questions and doing the exercises are enough to help better define even well-toned creative muscles.

To get the full dose of artistic understanding and creative power, read How To Learn Anything Quickly by Ricki Linksman before you read The Artist's Way.

(And do the exercises. Trust me on this one.)

Julia Cameron has produced a masterpiece. By simple means she shares her invaluable experiences with the reader, and leads the us towards rediscovering the creative self. Even though it is intended - and works! - as a practical self-help course, it is packed with wise remarks, and will apply to everyone who in one way or other feels 'blocked' creatively in whatever area or profession. It is in fact as much a treatise on living as it is one on creativity, and perhaps the two can hardly be separated. Read it, enjoy, and feel the changes happening. Thank you, Julia.