Week 8 - Recovering a Sense of Strength

This week was all about dealing with our artistic losses. Julia Cameron states, "We must be alert to flag and mourn our losses." She's talking about the variety of losses we might suffer as artists, like getting poor reviews or being shut down by mentors.There's also a focus on seeing these losses as new beginnings, that we can't get too hung up on the painful events of our artistic lives. If we do, they'll fester inside of us and block our future attempts at artistic endeavours. This kind of thing usually doesn't sit with me all that well, I'm more of a, "just get down to work," kind of of fella, but I think there is something to recognizing the pain you feel when the art you create isn't received well by others. My second book, The Further Adventures of Jack Lime, is up for a few awards and I'm feeling like things are turning around for it, but initially things were pretty slow and way too quiet. That hurt a little, I have to admit. I can't dwell on it, though, and writing my third and fourth books were the best remedy for taking my mind off of things. Recognize the pain, don't dwell on it, and then move forward, take that next small step toward the next thing.