Artist Way Creative Workshop Ch.12 Rediscovering a Sense of Faith 9/9/23 Final of Series

It is hard to believe that our journey together over the past few weeks is coming to an end. First, I want to thank everyone who participated in this special beta workshop offered through Mi Florecita Artshop. It has been an amazing, enlightening, and fun experience. This final chapter, Rediscovering a Sense of Faith “acknowledges the inherently mysterious spiritual heart of creativity. We address the fact that creativity requires receptivity and profound trust – capacities we have developed through our work in this course”. Therefore, “creativity requires Faith. Faith requires that we relinquish control”. This process is frightening for most of us which causes us to resist.

We have been discussing all the different self-destructive ways we resist our creativity over the past few weeks. We examined how we threw up roadblocks to give us an appearance or illusion of control. We also examined how depression, like anger, and anxiety manifesting in our sluggishness, confusion, and overall spinning our wheels are also resistance that creates disease in our physical bodies. Part of this fear is derived from the fact that most of us are not accustomed to believing “that God’s will for us and our own inner dreams can coincide. Instead, we have bought the message of our culture: that this world is a veil of tears, and we are meant to be dutiful and then die”. Julia Cameron stresses that this is not the Truth. She explains that “our truest dream for ourselves is always God’s will for us”. This holds true for those who are considered “artists” and those who are considered “hobbyists”, “it is the inner commitment to be true to ourselves and follow our dreams that trigger the support of the universe”.

Creativity in its truest form is a mystery, an unknown, and in some cases a dark unfamiliar place. How can this be a place where God wants me to go? This may be one of the biggest questions we may have for ourselves. I have come to think of these opportunities to connect with God and the mysterious as a very real way to remain connected to the vine. In the Bible, it says that God is the vine, and we are the branches, and as long as we remain connected with the vine we shall flourish. If we are cut off, we will wither and die. Julia Cameron presented a great body of work to help us work on these activities like the morning pages for meditation and affirmation, exercise and movement, and creative artist dates providing us all with tools for improving our relationship with our God. This does not end when we close this book. God willing, we will all continue this journey of healing through our serious commitment to taking ourselves more lightly, being silly, and having more fun by setting goals and boundaries.

The artist date activity for this week is Painting. There will be three different mediums and painting projects broken into three videos so that everyone can do the one that best fits everyone's needs. Watercolor Still Life, Acrylic Pumpkin and canvas pour, and Oil Landscape on Canvas. Feel free to give each a try. I am looking forward to getting photos from this week’s artist date activities, and photos from the past completed activities. I will be putting together a photo album that will be posted on the Mi Florecita Artshop website.

Future plans: I intend on posting Artist Date Activity Videos and corresponding blogs throughout the fall and Holiday Seasons. Keep an eye out and please continue to have fun creating with us at Mi Florecita Artshop.