Recent Painting

Finding Purpose and Value As an Artist

...... by Bill Hudson. 

With the world population over 8 billion, isn’t it amazing that everyone mentally processes life with a different sequence of experiences. As children, we begin sorting those differences into thoughts, feelings, likes, dislikes, attitudes, needs, wants, abilities, talents, skills, etc. Things begin to line up as pathways to preferred lifestyles. Those preferred pathways are often illuminated by affirmations of love, “coincidences”, accomplishments, recognition, etc. As we approach adulthood, those paths soon lead to marital/family decisions and occupational choices in fields as diverse as services, sports, health, medicine, food, teachers, engineering, science, business, law, the arts, construction, politics, religion, finance, etc. And, our initial decisions on family and occupation often change later in life. Life is complex, yet challenging, rewarding, and fun.

Many of us have chosen to pursue creativity through the arts. And for those who need to earn a living from their art, it must be creativity that is recognized and compensated for its value. That puts a lot of pressure on artists. Consequently, their art is often blocked by fear, self-doubt, perfectionism, and an aggregate of self-imposed negative excuses. I have often found myself tied up with excuses like “Maybe tomorrow, when I get inspired.”

Coincidentally, my granddaughter, Maggie Rose, is an actress. This is a recent photo of Maggie. As a child she grew up ice skating, Irish dancing, singing, graduating from the Orange County School of the Arts, acting in plays, being the Disney Princess, and consistently migrating toward the performing arts. She recently spent a year working for Universal Studios in Osaka, Japan as the lead in the Waterworld Show. She is now back home living around the corner from us and busy acting in movies. She is also a good writer who studies varied other paths within her profession.

A couple weeks ago as we talked about creativity, Maggie described and recommended, a 12-week course she was currently taking from a reference book. Three days later she gave me a copy of the book ... the 30^th Anniversary Edition of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron which has been translated into 40 languages and sold over 5 million copies. It is a 12-week course for creative artists of all fields (visual arts, photography & film, design & applied arts, digital & new media arts, performing arts, music, literary arts, crafts, and other leadership roles e.g. director, therapist, teacher).

The goal of the book is to stimulate creativity by unblocking personal beliefs and fears. The author, Julia Cameron, first introduces two tools …The Morning Pages which requires 2-3 pages of daily longhand writing about anything ( just a “stream-of-consciousness”), and the Artist Date which is a weekly block of time alone treating just yourself (e.g. 2 hours in an art museum).

In the subsequent weeks, Cameron introduces hundreds of exercises for recovering the enthusiasm for creativity and embracing faith in God and his support. The exercises are effective! Many students of the book have continued their Morning Pages for the remainder of their lives. And many have formed groups with weekly gatherings.



I’m only two weeks into the daily exercises. But I’ve read the entire book and will continue the course and the Morning Pages. I believe it is a valuable tool for restoring confidence and zeal in the creative arts.

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Merry Christmas & Happy New Year