Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance
by Julia Cameron
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Book Summary Information
Author: Julia CameronEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-12-28
ISBN: 1585424633
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Tarcher
Book Reviews of Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance
Book Review: The Lady Who Launched the Artist 's Way Revolution Triumphs Again!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
(An excerpt from my interview with Julia Cameron, see more on Amapedia)
Q:How does Finding Water complete the Trilogy set by The Artist's Way and Walking in this World?
A:You have to think of an artist's career in three stages: (1) The Artist's Way gets someone up on their feet and running with their creativity, (2) Walking in this World deals with the problems and situations of being an artist in the trenches, and (3) Finding Water is about the necessary discipline and spirit needed to keep one moving on in their career. The books are complementary with one another.
Q:Can an Artist go back and forth between the books?
A:A person with perseverance can rework The Artist's Way to jumpstart their creativity once again. Each set of tools in the different books reflects my own growth as an artist. For example, over the past seven years I have been working on a musical called Magellan. I needed to develop a "stick-to-it-ness" being such an active artist. This is a lesson I learned and now can turn around and teach.
Q:What are the 12 weeks of the Finding Water program designed to do for the artist? The Artist's Way, The Vein of Gold, and Walking in This World had this same 12 week format.
A:The book starts, as all the others do, with a basic set of tools that predate the weeks. They are common to all the books because in my 25 years of teaching, I discovered that if people just do these tools they experience a "see change". A "see change" is an awakening and a dramatic shift in their expression.
Q:Why does this see change happen?
A:The artist is essentially building a spiritual tool kit. The morning pages are a way of sending expression, the artists' dates are a means of receiving, and the walking is a form of integrating. The combination of all three is very powerful.
Q: In your 30 plus years of being a thriving professional artist why does the art of perseverance develop in some artists but not others?
A: This is a cultural problem. We live in a culture of instant hits and overnight successes. There are not many role models for going the distance. Americans are very different from Europeans. Artists have much longer careers in Europe. The people who persevere are people who have found their way to the same tools. These people also found an encouraging group of friends, were lucky with an agent and manager, and developed a cheering section and sense of community. This is pivotal in going the distance. Just like the 22 mile mark in a marathon, this support community of friends cheers you across the finish line. You need a lot of support for the process and the small steps but we have been culturally trained to think in giant steps. An artistic career is built on many tiny steps such as "I wrote three morning pages today".
Q:Explain the concept of the Diving Rod that you describe in Finding Water. How do people get such a vicious inner censor?
A:I think sometimes it is installed by a jealous teacher or an overly cautious parent. It is not always installed on purpose. In our culture we know a great deal about taking things apart. American schools criticize instead of build. Someone experiences a harsh teacher and they internalize it. A teacher may have only pointed out what was wrong and never said something was brilliant or wonderful. Maybe all the authority figures in a person's life were critical and now as an artist they bring this internalized message to bear on their works in its fledging stage. This is precisely when the inner censor needs to stand aside.
Q:How does the Diving Rod work in Finding Water?
A:Diving rods are a whole series of tools. Each essay in the book has a separate rod related to the exact passage a person has just finished reading, such as optimism or how to find the positive or beautiful in life. All the rod metaphors are carefully matched up with an essay.
Q:In the United States you see parents who push their kids to be stars and the public sees really young artists that make astronomical earnings and receive huge exposure. How does that impede on the collective psyche of Artists?
A:We definitely place an emphasis on product rather than process. When writing a book we wonder about the odds of being published and may just give up then. We are a culture that notices paychecks. If you read coverage of the arts they always talk of the artist's earning power or the actor's salaries. The regular civilian who is just beginning to practice an art form sees this and may think I am not really an artist unless I make millions. It is discouraging. The mythology is that real artists do art full time. Day jobs have long supported real artists. Virginia Woolfe ran a printing press, T.S. Eliot worked in a bank, Raymond Chandler sold insurance. We don't talk about these role models in this light.
Q:Some Artists I have met called themselves selfish ... what are your thoughts in the context of your comments on sobriety in Finding Water?
A:I think that if you work with creativity tools they make you more user-friendly. Working out of the fearful ego and self-centeredness grounds your work in comparison instead of how you are doing. I think that a lot of the ego and artists in the context of sobriety has to do with this being the first generation of sober artists. Sobriety is ego deflation and an awakening to higher forces. Those higher forces come into play when we are creative. Artists throughout the centuries have spoken of this. Brahms spoke straight away about a creative idea coming from God. Puccini also made reference to this. Artists have talked about divine inspiration. Nowadays we call this the muse. As you progress in your work and sobriety you do have an experience, even agnostic artists have had this, of being part of a larger something. The painting paints through you.
Q:Another myth of artists past and present who have achieved legendary status are those of people whose lives reflected the pattern of being emotionally tortured to create art that captured hearts everywhere. What do you make of this?
A:I think artists can learn to be happy. I think of the mythology of an angry young man making art. Watch the trajectory in filmmakers by looking at the careers of some Europeans. They produced lots of angry films and then create work with a sense of humor. When they were old men they made films that had this benevolent detachment. There is a progression of all the arts. The New York Times ran a week long piece on Judy Collins and how her work has a timeless trajectory.
Q:You have said that fame and competition is a spiritual drug ... is this why you have a practice of writing a humble letter to God in Finding Water?
A:I think fame is a spiritual drug, a test, and very very difficult. When you read the tabloids you learn how hard it is. People don't screw up on purpose, they don't enter into a marriage expecting to divorce, people implode under the stress of fame. Working with a spiritual toolkit (Buddhist, 12 step, etc) helps people stay grounded.
Q:Finding Water talks a lot about the power of friendship in art but unfortunately some artists don't have any positive reference point of a nurturing relationship. What can they do if they have no experiential template so they can be on their way?
A:I would urge them to forge Artist's Way groups or join Arts Anonymous. What they are looking for is "believing mirrors", who mirror back their strengths, positive attributes, and potentialities rather than doubts, discouragements, and pessimism. They want to have an open mind of where to find this kind of help. It could be someone in their 80's or their grandmother.
Q:What is the fastest remedy to a fear of success that you have come to know?
A:Morning pages are the answer to this. They are very grounding. One becomes conscious of delight in their current actual life and feels a sense of continuity. The divining rod is to do grounding actions. People who get famous should fold their own laundry, do their own mending, clean their own house because all these actions ground us. These are the very things often successful people delegate.
Q:Why are feelings not facts as you explore in week 6: uncovering a sense of resolve? Sometimes artists have feelings that are so intense they really can seem true.
A:People can have an enormous self-contempt and self-loathing and these things rear in their heads as they progress in art. It is a saboteur to success. Go on a walk or go on an artist's date because they are concrete self-nurturing activities. Do a contrary action. Doing something self-caring like getting good groceries or scrubbing the bathroom don't sound connected to creativity but they are.
Q:Do you see any redemption for some of the not so nice elements that create artists sabotage in American culture? Fame and Hollywood are American inventions. Can some of the elements of Europe that foster longer careers be adopted over the Atlantic?
A:Yes. Somewhere between 2 to 3 million people are currently working the Artist's Way in North America. What has happened is that people have also forged groups in cyberspace, Artist's Way blogs, meetups, and this is a sort of grassroots movement to dismantle the toxic culture. People have told me "I worked your tools and here is what I published". I feel that we made a definite dent. I am hoping that will continue to be progressive.
Q: The Artist's Way groups are independent and you don't receive royalties. Why did you choose this route?
A: I wanted it to follow the archetype of AA which is a free program but one is welcome to make a donation. This is exactly what I wanted to do so all people needed was a book and the desire. They just find a friend and a group. I was offered a franchise opportunity and it was a controversial decision that was met with personal criticism. It has made me work hard as an artist and I wouldn't change my decision. I wanted as many artists as possible to have access to the program. If I had licensed it, it would have taken me out of my own art work, I would have had to start administering over fees. I didn't want to become corporate and regulating. This would have pulled me away from my own career. I felt that I could be the most useful as a floor sample of my own tool kit.
Summary of Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance
This third book in Julia Cameron's bestselling trilogy on the creative process-beginning with The Artist's Way and Walking in This World-offers guidance on weathering the periods in an artist's life when inspiration appears to have run dry.Julia Cameron presents a new twelve-week program for addressing those periods in an artist's life when inspiration is lacking. Finding Water offers advice and wisdom about tackling the most challenging issues an artist faces, such as:
- making the decision to begin a new project;
- persevering when a new approach to your art does not bear immediate fruit;
- staying focused when other parts of your life threaten to distract you from your art; and
- spotting possibilities for artistic inspiration in the most unlikely places.
This powerful new installment in Cameron's groundbreaking body of work on the creative process will guide readers to discover enduring inspiration-it will lead them to water.
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