La via dell'artista: come ascoltare e far crescere l'artista che…

I probably shouldn't review this book because I only got a little over half-way done. I will finish it later. The reason I didn't finish was that I was struck at that point by an idea for a book I wanted to write and I have been researching the topic and taking notes ever since.

Whether or not The Artist's Way was the cause, the gates have been opened, so to speak, and ideas have been flooding for the past eight months. I'd like to think this book had something to do with it. I was following the exercises exactly.

At the time I began, I had a kind-of, sort-of plan for my future. This book seemed to solidify all the diverse, unconnected ideas I had floating around. I would recommend it to anyone who finds themselves "stuck" on what to do next, whether artistically or just in life. I believe it helped me get in touch with my deepest self. And I don't think that's a bad thing. ( )

Five and a half stars for anyone thinking of taking their art to the next level. ( )

No. ( )

Helpful in some ways, pretentious in others. However, this did help me a lot in some respects and I appreciate it for that. Personally, only a couple of chapters really helped me, but those couple of chapters were big boosts for me. I probably won't need to re-read this one ever again, and if I do I'll almost certainly cherry-pick which sections I read. Your mileage may vary. ( )

I tried. I really did. But this was just not my cup of tea. I made it through about 5 weeks, then I finished reading the book to see what was coming. I realized I was not going to do the whole program.

This is very much a recovery book, complete with its 12 weeks. Each chapter/week is titled "Recovering a Sense of [something]." God and spirituality play a prominent role in this program. And this is all well and good for people who feel the need to recover their creativity. But there is a large sense of victimhood permeating it. She mentions tossing "a low self-worth shirt into the giveaway pile." What does this even mean?

And with victimhood comes the idea that other people have been keeping us down all our lives and now it's finally time to be assertive and not let all of those people tell us who we are. In other words, it's time to be selfish, and start acting like a spoiled artist so we can become one.

We are urged to repeat the mantra, "Treating myself like a precious object will make me strong." (What happens when nobody else treats you that way?) She feels sorrow for a man who wants a darkroom for himself, but instead his family buys a needed couch, and for another man who wants to vacation alone but knows it will hurt his wife's feelings. Because, this is all about treating the artist within as child, and "re-parenting" yourself. Who cares if that child becomes a spoiled brat?

There are a couple of good things I took away from it, the two things most people seem to take away from it: morning pages and the artist's date. But they don't need to have the spiritual recovery patina on them in order to work. Just use them to explore.

Overall this just wasn't for me. I'm more of a "Do the Work" kind of person, someone who believes "the muse" shows up because it knows where to find you: sitting at your desk or in your studio or wherever it is you sit your butt and work every day. ( )