I've been reading The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and following her suggested process with a group of ten or so other people who also want to claim or reclaim their creativity. I'm not an artist in the painting sense or an artiste in the performing sense. But I do like to write and I want to expand my thinking so that it gets more curvy, less linear and analytical.
Cameron talks about shadow artists - people who have suppressed their own creative impulses and so align themselves or get close to those who are doing the thing they most want to do. So a frustrated writer may work for a publishing house, an unexpressed artist marry a sculptor and so on. There's more to it than that but it struck a chord with me.
Guess who gave up her corporate job and now works for a theatre company? I don't think I want to perform. I did once stand on the stage at the Dome Concert Hall in Brighton (as part of a tour, I hasten to add) and it felt great. Does that mean I want to perform? The idea of joining a clowning workshop fills me with horror. Acting? Nah. Stand up comedy? Aaargh.
Still, food for some curvy thought...
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