Jan 17 2009
An Artist’s Date
A few years ago I read ‘The Artist’s Way ‘ by Julia Cameron , and it helped me recover my creativity from a writer’s block I’d suffered ever since a university poetry course killed my urge to write for writing’s sake and turned it into a ‘production’.
One of the keys of recovering your ‘artist self’ according to Julia Cameron, is the ‘artist’s date’, which involves committing to doing something once a week for at least an hour, to nourish your source of inspiration. And it has to be done alone. I used this tool for a couple of years until it fell by the wayside because of life’s general business and my task-orientated lifestyle - and then, of course, motherhood making alone time a rare and precious commodity.
Today, however, while my partner took care of the Pibler, I took an impulsive visit to the Brighton Royal Pavilion Museum and Art Gallery to take in an exhibition called ‘Paintings Unwrapped‘ which was fascinating. It’s been a long time since I allowed myself to drink in some artwork, and it left me inspired and seeing things with a fresh eye. I’m not someone who knows a great deal about art, but the juxtaposition of paintings and the notes explaining the commonalities and differences between them, helped me to understand and see deeper than I ever had before.
After that I treated myself to some writing time over a latte at the Museum cafe, where I started work on my short story entry for the Cats Protection Competition. I then walked down to the sea and drank in the music of the crashing waves underneath a misty-blue winter sky. It felt like heaven.
I returned to chaos again as the Pibler was desperate for a nap and had been too busy ‘mopping’ alongside his dad’s cleaning (very ‘continuum ‘ 
) to do so. So he started screaming when I, starving hungry and becoming hypoglycaemic as I’m prone to do, really needed to eat a snack first before sorting him out. He conked out and a bit later my friend visited from outer London - it was great to catch up and have some lunch. I definitely think that Artist’s Dates should become a regular part of my life again. It’s so important to get some fresh air into one’s life and do something out of the ordinary routine, and something solitary. Maybe once a month is more realistic for me though!
