Kimberly O'Connor

Hello!

At my most recent Denver Public Library presentation about The Artist’s Way, I promised that when this blog got 10 new subscribers, I’d write here about five artists dates before the end of 2024. So here we go!

As I shared in the presentation, artists dates are hard for me. If you’re not familiar with the concept, artists dates are one of the two main tools that Julia Cameron promotes in The Artist’s Way for living a creative life. An artist date is an outing you take yourself on, alone, to do something fun. You are supposed to do this once a week. “The morning pages acquaint us with what we think and what we need,” she writes, and “in the course of the release engendered by the artist date, we begin to hear solutions” (20).

Morning pages, which are three handwritten pages that you write as soon as you can after you wake up, are easier for me. I can sit sit down with my coffee and get them done. But artist dates, I just cannot get going on. I am busy. I have lessons to plan, papers to grade, and a child to drive around. I have a dog to walk. I do yoga. I read. I just cannot figure out how to set aside the time to “play” with my inner artist once a week.

But–I am usually pretty good a sticking to what I’ll say I’ll do on this blog, so let’s see how it goes: I hereby set the intention to go on and write about at least five artist dates by the end of 2024.

Cameron says that when we choose artist dates, we should “think filling the well, think magic. Think delight. Think fun. Do not think duty… Do what intrigues you, explore what interests you; think mystery, not mastery” (21).

With that in mind, here are some dates I have sketched out for myself. If you like, you can do something similar to what I have planned, and play along with me!

a teal, abstract sparkly background that could be a close up of glitter glue
or bubbles and makes me think of magical energy

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

date 1–by November 8–I’ll go wander around an art museum or library

date 2–by November 22 –I’ll walk the labyrinth at a nearby church

date 3–by December 6–I’ll collect some pretty paper and nice pens and write gratitude cards to people I am grateful for and to

date 4–by December 13–I’ll bake some yummy new cookies or muffins

date 5–by December 27–I’ll go alone to a theater and see a movie

See you back here in a few week!