Reading Notes

7-9 Minute Read | Laptop or Tablet Recommended

Topics and Themes

The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron; A journey of a hard-working film producer exploring her creativity; The transformation we can expect from getting in touch with our creativity.

In 9th grade, I permanently borrowed The Artist's Way from my Mom. The title arrested my attention... I had no idea why, but I just needed to liberate it from her bookshelf and keep it for my very own. Sorry, Mom! Only later did I realize how pivotal that act would be for my personal and professional life.

If it weren’t for The Artist's Way, I probably wouldn’t have become a professional musician. It is widely regarded as one of the most influential books on the topic of creativity. In it, author Julia Cameron invites readers to roll up their sleeves and get to work opening the channel to greater creativity. The book does not wax poetic about the wonders of creativity or how the master artists were so creative. Instead it teaches readers how to dig in and become creative themselves through a 12-week program of self-exploration.

The Artist's Way ignited my creativity by teaching me that journaling, often referred to as the morning pages, helps unlock a creative mindset. At first, I struggled getting up before other members of my family, but I got used to it eventually. I began in earnest to write my morning pages. I began to enjoy the feel of the pen in my hand. I needed a place to vent my teenage frustrations anyways... a dual bonus!

I continued writing my morning pages (and going on artist dates) for many years. I still find time for both of them in my busy life, today. I find them indispensible for my creative process. Regardless of whether I'm working on a film score or an album, the common denominator has always been the daily task of the morning pages. They have nourished me for 30 years.

So, when my good friend Mary Beth Minnis asked me if I had ever read The Artist's Way, I couldn’t contain my excitement.

Mary Beth Minnis is an American movie producer known for her work in documentary films. She most recently collaborated on the projects Refuge, Juneteenth: Faith And Freedom, and Jump Shot, each of which addressed lesser-known stories that needed to be told. All of the films are worth watching. She’s currently working with directors Laura Waters Hinson and Claudia Myers on the film The Test, a film about a maintenance man at a Virginia retirement center who dreams of becoming a citizen so he can reunite with his wife and children in Ghana. With his future at stake, he enlists the help of two elderly residents to prepare for the biggest test of his life: the US Citizenship exam. I saw The Test at Austin Film Festival in 2023. It was the only movie from that year that made me cry. I highly recommend it.

Mary Beth’s career as a producer is highly competitive and energetically intense. She once told me she dedicates an average of three years to a single film. It requires a lot of her, but she loves it.

When Mary Beth casually asked me if I had ever read The Artist's Way, I spilled my guts about my absolute love for that book and all it can do for anyone who commits to it. I was also thrilled that my friend, this high-powered, absolutely badass film producer, seemed eager to explore creativity on a deeper level. I couldn’t help but offer to be a guide and accountability partner as she went through the book.

We agreed to meet up each week to discuss the book, chapter by chapter. I’d pester her about doing the morning pages and the artist's dates, and we’d move forward to the next chapter.

At first, Mary Beth had a little trouble fitting the morning pages into her busy life. She also had a little trouble grasping why she needed to do the artist's date. To provide context, the artist's date is a scheduled hour or two full of fun. It’s about doing something interesting to our inner artist in an easy, effortless, playful way. It often feels like we are wasting time doing it. At first, she didn't see the point of doing it.

Yet, she kept on reading the book, doing the morning pages, and going on the artist's dates. She dug in! She had no idea what was going to happen. Me? I was super excited. I knew I was in for a big surprise and I couldn't wait until it revealed itself.

Gradually, moments of spontaneous creativity burst into her life. One day, a recipe for a cake unexpectedly came to her mind. She approached it with a sense of curiosity and playfulness. She explored it without pressure, without needing to complete it immediately. She gave the recipe the space to breathe and become what it wanted to be.

Let’s back up: You need to remember that Mary Beth Minnis does not slack off in her job as a film producer. It was quite a juxtaposition for her to explore a recipe so casually, in such a carefree way.

Instead of saying, “I have to get this cake done or I’m not creating,” Mary Beth allowed herself to have some fun exploring the recipe of that cake. She flowed. She adjusted how much more, or less, of each ingredient she wanted in the cake. Eventually, she found just the right balance. She put almost no efforting into the entire process.

Before she knew it, she had a cake recipe that she liked. She baked the same cake for friends at a potluck and didn’t tell anyone it was hers. The cake vanished in a few minutes. Everyone raved about it. She began to share the recipe with friends who baked it and loved it. She felt like she might be onto something!

Then, even more magic happened: New recipes flowed to her in a remarkably easy way. An ingredient she used in one recipe inspired another. The same thing happened, over and over again. She was thrilled! She was opening up and enjoying the process of creating new recipes just for the sake of creating, and they were pouring out of her imagination.

Again, I want to underscore a really important point: It's super difficult to be a film producer. Film producers are by-and-large responsible for the success (or failure) of a film. They think in hard terms of fiduciary responsibility, management, and business productivity. They corral people together to get a project done on time and under budget. Mary Beth excels at producing films. But, since her involvement was more on the practical side of filmmaking, she doubted her ability to create.

And yet, she ended up completely immersed in the process of creation. It just wasn’t in a way that she expected. Perhaps she thought that creativity was reserved for those with that innate creative gene. Still, she found herself lost in the joy of creating new recipes. I didn’t expect it either! And that’s the point. We never know what we'll create until we are open and carefree enough to try.

I can’t help but marvel at her transformation. What a joy to witness!

If Mary Beth's journey resonated with you, I humbly recommend The Artist's Way. This book will teach you how to embrace your creativity if you commit to it for the 12 weeks it asks of you.

It’s worth it for the joy, alone.

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I was just musing: Is the fact that most musical territory has already been explored necessarily a bad thing?

The argument many people have with music is something like, “That’s not original. Someone else has already done that.” Well, no shit Sherlock.

Let’s take an obscure example: Coltrane practiced Slonimsky’s Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns towards the latter part of his life. He explored it deeply, and had he lived longer he could have explored it more fully. However, Coltrane applied this to his music. His group towards the later part of his life (after McCoy and Jones and Garrison) was his vehicle to bring that study into sonic format.

Now onto the thought experiment: What if a band with an established voice, like Radiohead for example, started to study the same text that Coltrane studied. Would Radiohead make free jazz? Maybe, maybe not. But undoubtably, it would sound like Radiohead. And yes, I’d buy it too.

The age where original musical ideas created on brand new theoretical ideas is pretty much gone, with exception to those lone classical voices creating music in academia. The age of original voices using the same established theoretical models is happening now.

In other words, pop and country and hip hop inspired beats mixing together to form bro country is just one iteration. All it takes is an original voice willing to explore something different to give us all something brand new, fresh, and exciting to groove on.

Originality is overrated. It’s better just to establish a voice and then take it on a musical journey from there.

Here’s a thought, according to the BBC, people have creative peaks in their 20’s and 50’s. This means for any creative in their 40’s, the next creative spurt is yet to come:

“Professor Weinberg says that young people who feel they’ve got more to accomplish should keep going.

”Someone who is experimental and is accumulating knowledge gradually over time is someone who really, really should not give up.

”I mean we don’t necessarily know how eminent they will get and how their achievements will be.

”But for that type of person they will do their best work - at least their best innovative work - later in their careers and they should be aware of that and keep going.””

— https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-48077012

One statement I hear from other artists is “I hope I’m not being egotistical, but...” Then, the artist tells me of what they created.

I get it. No one wants to be remembered as a narcissist. But perhaps there’s a better way to frame it.

To accomplish a kinder share of our creative output, include the following proviso:

Hey, I created this [work of art, music, etc] and thought to share it with you. I don’t want you to write me back and tell me how much you like it, especially if you don’t. I require no praise, and besides, I’m so slammed that I won’t remember sending this to you in the first place! I’m only sharing it to make your day a little brighter. That’s all. Take good care!

Here’s a quote from Alan Fletcher’s book “The Art of Looking Sideways”: 

 Ivan Chermayeff does much of his thinking in taxies, Lon Dorfsman on planes, Steve Guarnaccia on the subway. Designers also talk of getting ideas when they are on the sleep borderland...”

Challenge: Can you successfully not pick up your smart phone in a taxi, on a plane, on the subway, or in that sweet transition from sleep to wakefulness? Can you do this in the service of idea generation?