looking for fellow creatives to form an Artist's Way study group

New York City NY

Description

Hey friends, I just finished reading The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. For those who don't know, it's essentially a 12-week, 12-step recovery program for artists and generally creative people, with the prime tools being Morning Pages and a weekly Artist's date. Tried to go through it alone, got sidetracked, resistance came up, fell off the morning pages wagon, have barely done the weekly tasks from the book. Then I was talking to a friend who suggested forming a group, which is how she went through it, and she said it really changed her life. So I'm looking for ideally a group of 3 - 5 people who are interested in committing to meeting once a week for 12 weeks, 3 hours per session, in which we go over the reading for the week, do the tasks together, share our reflections, and do some journaling. No creative experience is necessary; you can be a musician, an artist, a filmmaker or playwright, or maybe you have been creatively blocked, are afraid of art or have always wanted to like, basket-weave or something--or are just curious and want to see what appears. But I will say, be forewarned: this is a journey of struggle, of self-exploration, and painful things will appear. Be ready for a full psycho-spiritual creative scrubdown. The requirements are 3 pages, written out by hand in long-form, stream of consciousness, every day, no excuses; a 2-hour "artist's date" which you schedule in your week for yourself to take your inner artist out on a date; and a weekly exploration of some of the tasks in each chapter, for which the group meeting would be helpful in terms of accountability and providing a space to explore them. The group needs commitment and accountability. This is not for the faint of (he)art (see what I did there?). You will be bored to tears. You will be embarrassed. You will be angry and scared and overwhelmed. You will go to deep places in yourself. But if you stick with it, you may come out the other side as a beautiful butterfly of an artist. As for me, my name is Michael, and I'm a recovering creative. I'm a writer, a singer, a mediocre piano player, an improvisational actor, and zen meditation student-teacher; I support myself financially as a licensed massage therapist and working at an extended day program for pre-K children. Being creative is in my bones, in my lungs, and in my blood, but I'm struggling with it and I'm trying to get back to that core of creativity. I would love some fellow travelers on the path to creative recovery. If this sounds like something you'd be interested in joining, please send me an email and we'll find a time to chat, and then finds a time to meet as a group. We could meet in person or online.