The magic of the artist date
Adventures of the ordinary
Hello welcome to my newsletter today. It’s rainy here in in Northern Michigan and as my digital boundaries continue to be steadfast I find myself waking up with more ease and peace. With little to no thoughts other than my own flying between my ears.
I have been working on a new website that more accurately displays how I want my readers and students to feel when they’re looking for new classes to take, podcast episodes, and creative advising. I pitter patter away on Squarespace while I rewatch Schitt’s Creek and June curls up next to me. One of my favorite things about June is that after she has her breakfast and goes outside she comes back in, gets on the couch, and goes right back to sleep for at least an hour, no matter what time it is. Also June never gets up before me, I have to wake her up every day.
I find that without my own access to Instagram I am entering an inventory phase of how my digital container does and does not reflect my goals and hopes for my work. I am always walking the line between artist who teaches online and online person who makes art. I don’t usually identify as a business owner although that is technically what I am in addition to being a writer and artist. Not in addition to but woven together, I am many things all at once.
Gemini season has stirred these thoughts up to feel like a chaos rush, instead of a pleasant reordering of what does and doesn’t work. I have never put too much effort into a website, almost priding myself in its simplicity using social media as the place to express my ideas and imagery to go alongside my art and writing. As I shift away from that place it requires new orders of business. I don’t believe just disappearing from social media makes sense if you’ve built your whole identity there without moving towards other channels for creative expression. This is why I tell everyone to make a newsletter.
I have been eating frozen dinners lately and while it is a great way to get my vegetables I find myself missing living with another person and the shared responsibilities of a household. Only one person to take out the trash, walk the dog, cook the dinner. A routine I find that 95% of the time I am so grateful to do alone and 5% I find myself wishing for every old life I ever had.
The thing I am most looking forward to in the Artist Way Book study is doing my weekly artist date. I have been through Julia Cameron’s books many times but I have never managed to do an artist date every single week of the 12 weeks.
The artist date is an invitation to take your inner artist on an adventure of sorts, nourishing the part of you that needs art and creative expansion to survive. A trip to the museum, taking your camera out in the woods, going to a movie by yourself, watching a documentary and drawing at the same time. The possibilities for artist dates are endless.
In our book study each week we will report :
How did your artist date go
How were morning pages
Three sentence reflection about the week
The book study is for paying subscribers of this newsletter, each Friday for three months starting June 16 (the first week we will share our intentions) you will receive an email pep talk where you will share these reflections in the comments, with a zoom meet up during week six and twelve
I find that going through the book brings me back into consistency with my morning pages, and I am always looking for something to bring me back to my routines and habits that keep me in the middle, not too down and not too up.
Something about the artist date always eludes me. I think I can trick my way through the process and that “everything I do is an artist date”. This is not true. There is a a specific intention behind planning this time with myself, alone, and the artist that I am and that lives inside me - that fills me with the deep knowing of who I am and my role and purpose in the world.
When I stray from this, I stray from trusting my own experience and my own values. I let what other people think of me, my work, and my life take up space in my mind and I let this distract me from my writing and sewing and dancing.
I feel now more than ever the dire need to protect my energy, time, and resources. This is actually the way to be most of service to those who read my work, and those who I am close with outside of the digital spaces I exist in. As a recovering people pleaser and codependent it is my first impulse to take care of everyone else’s needs first, when this is actually the backwards path to generosity.
What a gift to romance the person I will be in relationship with the longest, myself. To take in the art of others as a gesture of self research and fulfillment.
It is no joke when I say working through The Artist Way has changed my life and completely shaped how I offer my gifts to the world. Giving me the confidence to call myself what I am : an artist. No longer making excuses for what I am and am not, it has given me an entry point to find myself again and again.
May my artist dates feed my creative spirit
May my artist dates give me a chance to reinvent myself
May my artist dates bring me into more artistic knowledge
May my artist dates help me discover new artists
May my artist dates show me the way forward
May other people’s artist dates show me what is attainable
May the book study bring hundreds of people into the reality of what is possible and the delight and responsibility of being an artist while the world is burning
Listen to the newest episode of Common Shapes
For me, as an artist and a writer and a teacher, I don’t want to encourage constant consumption of the email form. And so to me it’s really important to make my Monday newsletter be a container that holds so many different things — my writing, the new episodes of the podcast, the things I’m paying attention to, and the things I want to promote that are happening in my own business ecosystem.
I can’t recommend
newsletter this week enough. Especially if you are making work and sharing it publicly. The critiques will come, and it is our job to stay true to ourselves and protect our energy.
A portion of June’s paid subscriptions go towards the Grand Rapids Pride Center
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⌇⋰ Email : info@marleegrace.space
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On Saturday I wrote about no longer having access to my own social media account and how the water is where I find the answers : read it here
I'm looking forward to re-reading this with you! There are so many juicy nuances to it. One thing that sticks out to me that Julia said is that, the morning pages are for clearing the creative / divine channel. And that the artist's dates are time devoted to letting the channel be open & to receive, from god / higher power / universe / etc. Hence the rules about having the date alone. Also probably means to use as little phone / text as possible (I'm a single mom so if my child is at school etc. I always need my phone on me and turned on. But we do the best we can).
I'm going to list a few simple artists dates that work for me. These might help other people who are broke, or have kids, or other constraints. Also because sometimes I think we're asking artist's dates to be something bigger than they actually need to be, to have the spirit in it.
1. Walking in nature quietly, in the woods or on the beach. With no headphones or any such thing. Sometimes I do bring my child along, and it can still makes a potent artist's date.
2. Thrift store. - in the short window of time between getting off work and picking up my child from school, I can browse a local thrift store - and sometimes buy nothing. But I get to browse books, old art, old dishes, a wide array of textiles, and it feels similar to looking for shells one the beach. It feels like a treasure hunt. -- I have found many truly life-changing books and beautiful pieces.
3. At-home in the evening artist date (maybe just because you want to, or maybe because your child/baby is sleeping and you certainly can't go anywhere, but this is prime alone time) - turn off the phone. Get a few poetry books and sit on a patio or porch or step outside if possible. With a tea or whatever. And write or doodle or scribble about what you read. Or don't. Or do a Marlee online class - take notes! Or put a vinyl in the record player and play it all the way through while you lay on the floor or hula hoop. Or watch a movie you've never seen before, maybe a classic or maybe something new -- no phone, no multitasking -- and make some popcorn to go with your movie, or a weird snack plate / charcuterie from scraps of things left to eat.
4. An accidental artist's date - a few times, I have realized I was completely undeniably on an unplanned artist's date. Which maybe mean the other artist's dates have been working / helping. So the spirit of it and the open feeling of it is there in an unforseen happenstance - and it's still fruitful despite the unintended nature of it. It's like the mandatory artist's dates are to ensure you are not depriving yourself - yet your inner artist is with you at all times. -- on one such day, I dropped my child off at school, grabbed the most bitter iced coffee (that's my preference), drove the scenic route, found a very unusual garage sale by accident with a ton of beautiful fabrics and plants and woodworked pieces. Got a couple things. Drove more of the scenic route and found some gorgeous flowers to gaze at on the way home.
Hi Marlee, do you have a separate journaling practice, or do you find the morning pages practice is enough?
Also, I feel very seen when you write about artist dates, and everything I do is an artist date! I have very often thought that, and so last time I did the Artist Way I didn’t manage many dates either. Looking forward to the book club sessions ☺️