Anxiety, Part Two: Julia Cameron's Books

[Linda Brandon]

I wasn't going to post a discussion of these books because The Artist's Way and the related books (The Vein of Gold and Walking in This World, to name just two) are well known, best selling guides to living a life in the arts. However, I'm posting this in case there are Forum readers who haven't heard of Julia Cameron but would benefit from her approach to managing the creative life.

The Artist's Way and its progeny are especially useful to beginning or thwarted artists who are trying to decide whether to take the plunge into art as a profession. The exercises in the books force the reader into confronting one's own artistic nature and the level of one's desire to make art. Will you be able to sacrifice what you need to sacrifice in order to make art? Do you have the level of self-discipline? These are tough questions that have nothing to do with talent.

I think these books would be useful to many Forum members who - my opinion only - are trying to paint portraits, but maybe they shouldn't be. Maybe they should be figurative painters, or landscape painters, or still life painters, or non-realists altogether. Who will tell you these things, if not your own heart? And if you don't ask these questions, will you spend years of frustration trying to pound your round head into a square hole?

Cameron's books also deal with issues of confidence, assertiveness, and the ability to take criticism. Here's a quote from Walking in This World:

Center stage belongs to those who are willing to move there, some talented and some not. Rather than angrily decrying the behavior and lack of talent of the "arrogant spotlight-grabbers", we need to use our anger to turn our own voltage up a little despite our fears. We need to say our own names as artists.

(Think about that one when some shlocky, aggressive, egomaniacal painter sells or charges more than you do.)

As with all self-help books, the Cameron books get a little squishy for some people but many others may find them indispensable, even life-altering. Julia Cameron also has a website: http://www.artistswayatwork.com/index.html