If you asked me 10 years ago to describe myself, I would have defined myself by my creative hobbies. I would have said I was a writer or a cartoonist; a photographer or a videographer.1 If I was feeling bold, I may even have called myself an artist or a creative in general.
This all changed in 2018 when I started law school. To say that law school took over my life would be an understatement. A mentor in my early legal career once told me that in order to succeed as a lawyer, one has to let the law consume them. Succeeding (or, more accurately, treading water) in the legal profession required me to eat, sleep and breathe the law. The process of becoming a lawyer shaped me into a different person with a new way of thinking, and left me with little time or enthusiasm for creative pursuits.
I realized very early on in my legal career that although I found my work to be interesting, important and impactful, being a lawyer was not “spiritually” fulfilling. Something was missing- in particular, the joy and fulfilment I had always felt when creating. I quit my job in private practice, moved to the public sector (which offered more flexible working hours) and tried to rekindle my creative passions, but was never able to reignite the spark I once had. I continued to take pictures, though, only on my cell phone while my DSLR camera sat gathering dust. I took a handful of creative writing classes, but was only able to write in short spurts in response to assignment deadlines. Today, if you ask me to define myself, I will tell you I’m a lawyer.
A few days ago, I picked up a copy of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. The Artist’s Way is a book, originally published in 1992, containing a 12-week creative recovery program. I’d heard about The Artist’s Way before- in fact, thousands of creatives have been very vocal about working through the program themselves, including author Elizabeth Gilbert, rapper Doechii and singer Olivia Rodrigo.
The Artist’s Way interests me insofar as it promises to help me get over my artist’s block and encourage me to live more creatively. So- I am making the decision to start the program for myself, beginning August 11.
The Artist’s Way involves doing daily and weekly tasks, including writing morning pages (“three pages of longhand writing, strictly stream of consciousness”) and going on artist dates (“a block of time… especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness”).
In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron speaks about the importance of “filling your well” of creative resources to draw upon in your work. You fill your well by feeding yourself sensory experiences- sights, sounds, smells and tastes. This notion made me reflect on how much of my sensory experience these days comes from the internet; and, in particular, social media. It led me to question whether social media is really a good place to be deriving inspiration. The types of sensations we experience from social media are limited. Our feeds are driven by algorithms, which limit the amount of “new” or “challenging” content we see. We are shown the same type of content, over and over again, because the algorithms know we will look at it. Finally, because social media are designed to keep users on their platforms for as long as possible, we spend a lot more time than we should, or even want to, online.
With all of this being said, I decided that an essential part of committing myself to The Artist’s Way program will involve disconnecting as best I can from social media. This will mean no Instagram, Facebook (with the exception of Messenger), Pinterest or Reddit. Perhaps most painfully, I will also be drawing strict boundaries around my YouTube use. I hope that by curbing my time on social media, I will leave myself open to experiencing the world beyond the 4 corners of my screen.
Julia Cameron would seem to agree with this approach. She describes the creative recovery process as a withdrawal “from” life as we know it “to” our creative selves. In order to (re)establish our identities as artists, we need to distance ourselves from our set routines and ways of thinking- much like I had to do in the process of becoming a lawyer.
This is where Substack comes in. Even though I am taking a hiatus from traditional social media, I still want an outlet to share and document my life throughout this 12-week journey. I am hoping Substack can be that for me. As far as I can tell (I am admittedly completely unfamiliar with the platform), Substack seems to offer users more freedom and flexibility than traditional social media with less distracting properties.
While taking part in The Artist’s Way, I am not committing myself to one artistic medium in particular. I am leaving myself open to creating in any way inspiration happens to strike. Beginning to regularly post on Substack seems to be the start of a new creative pursuit as well. I hope you, the reader, stick around to accompany me through this journey.
With love,
Laura Kate
- I would have also told you I was a Gemini Enneagram 4w5 Ravenclaw, but that’s neither here nor there. ↩︎
Laura Katherine 