The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

The artist date is a weekly commitment to designated play time. Essentially, the artist takes themselves on a date to do something fun and inspiring, and it should be done alone. This doesn’t have to be expensive or extravagant, but it should allow the artist’s inner child to play, take risks, and explore. This could be anything from collecting pretty rocks outside to going scuba diving. It can be as simple or outlandish as desired, as long as it’s consistent and fun. The artist date is first introduced in “The Basic Tools” chapter and is referenced throughout the book, especially when discussing hesitations around finances and during check-ins.

The creativity contract is a commitment to completing the course, even if that means the contract has to be slightly amended. It must be signed and dated. The idea is to clearly lay out the expectations for the course and form a binding contract with oneself to commit time to creative practice. This is introduced at the end of “The Basic Tools” chapter, and there is another version of it presented at the end of the course between the close of Week 12 and the Epilogue. The contract at the end differs from the original by accounting for all the work undertaken by the course participant and making space for the idea that the creative journey is an ongoing process beyond the 12 weeks. In Cameron’s view, life itself is a creative practice, so closing the weekly course with a new contract solidifies the idea that the end of this course is only the beginning of another. Many of her students, including renowned author of Eat, Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert, have completed this course several times throughout their creative careers, which demonstrates how this creative spiritual practice never truly ends.

Kriya is “a Sanskrit word meaning a spiritual emergency or surrender” (81). It is a crisis of the spirit as change occurs and is introduced in Week 4 to show how this kind of identity is integral to the creative process. This idea comes up again later as creative U-turns are explored due to inner turmoil and change. Although it is only mentioned by name a few times throughout the text, the concept is applied throughout and reinforces the notion that creative practice requires spiritual surrender.

The concept of the shadow artist is mentioned a few times throughout the text but has its own dedicated chapter in Week 1. The shadow artist is the artist who lives in the shadow of all the conditioning and neglect the artist has struggled with throughout their noncreative lives. Shadow artists are primarily those who have a deep appreciation and passion for the arts in some form—art collecting, ballet or symphony season tickets, etc.—but feel they are not artists themselves. Usually this is due to some kind of conditioning in the artist’s childhood, such as a parent pressing that the child must pursue a more traditional profession or a teacher being unsupportive of a child’s artistic efforts. The shadow artist surrounds him or herself with the products of other people’s arts but never really feels completely fulfilled.

Cameron presses the idea that The Artist’s Way is a spiritual endeavor and often references God as the source of creativity. Cameron insists that the God she references does not necessarily need to be the Christian God but could simply be an acceptance of some kind of creative energy inherent in the universe. In this way she hopes to ensure that her program avoids alienating any artists with more secular mindsets. Though some secular artists might be tempted to eliminate the spiritual aspect of The Artist’s Way, Cameron makes it clear that successful completion of the program will be inhibited without an acceptance of the underlying spiritual nature of creativity.

Discussed in Week 2, crazymakers are people who consistently interfere with the flow of creativity and serve as blocks for the artist. Cameron uses the example of a mother who always calls with some kind of problem when her adult daughter needs to study for final exams for a much-delayed degree while caring for her own children, or the mother who always questions decisions the artist has made in an effort to “protect” their child. Crazymakers divert attention from artistic goals and interfere with an artist’s creative growth.

The Censor is the part of the artist that discourages creative play and exploration. The Censor is often agitated with the efforts the artist takes on the artist’s journey and inspires an artist to self-sabotage and stay on the same blocked path. The Censor is often rooted in a lack of artistic nurturing in childhood, and it finds comfort in the blocks that have kept the creative from reaching their potential.