The Artist’s Way makes great effort to refer to all creative types when defining the word “artist” as everyone from painters to poets to producers. For singers, Classical Singer magazine editor CJ Williamson posed a creative-recovery challenge to three groups featured in this issue: the Boston Singers Resource, the Classical Singers Association of Los Angeles, and the Professional Women Singers Association of New York. Each organization was asked to start an “Artist’s Way Group,” and complete Cameron’s readings and activities for at least the first week. They were asked to then report on their experiences for the magazine. The required readings included the “Introduction,” which presented two tools—indispensable in Cameron’s mind—to be used throughout the book: Morning Pages and The Artist Date.
Morning Pages are three pages of longhand writing, strictly steam-of-consciousness, done the first thing in the morning. Cameron says that “they might also, more ingloriously, be called brain drain, since that is one of their main functions.”
For the singer-group participants, Morning Pages presented an inevitable challenge due to the tool’s imposition on their morning routines, and their tight personal and professional schedules. However, even the participants who resisted the time commitment eventually came to appreciate the effectiveness of Morning Pages, and more than half of them say they plan to continue the practice indefinitely.
Allen Riberdy, from the CSA group in Los Angeles, said that he dreaded Morning Pages when he saw it on the task list. But he set his alarm to ring early every morning and did the pages without question. To his surprise, he found them to be the most rewarding part of the experience. “The first page was just drivel,” he admitted, “but by the third page I invariably woke up and cleared my head.”
Madeline Abel-Kerns, a dramatic soprano in New York’s PWSA group, found herself looking forward to the Morning Pages every day. The limitation of three pages made it easier to face than an unspecified amount of journaling, she noted. “In the first week,” Abel-Kerns said, “my expectations of personal discovery have been met and surpassed. I have already had some intriguing and surprising revelations about my past, present, and future. I will definitely continue.”
Singer Janeanne Houston, whose 2002 new year’s resolutions are being followed by Classical Singer magazine, heartily endorses Morning Pages, drawing upon her own experience. “It’s a useful tool if you think you might want to jump ship and go into another line of work,” she said. “I was considering an alternate career, but that was thrown out almost immediately when I began studying the results of my written explorations.”
Though Cameron strongly advocates writing the full three pages in the morning, some participants found that they achieved positive results by tweaking the instructions to better fit their needs. In an on-line chat room meeting of the Artist’s Way Group of the Boston Singers Resource, a member said that she wrote “Evening Pages” before bed as a preparation for sleep, ridding herself of the day’s negativity. Lynn Shane, founder of the Boston Singers Resource, had difficulty with Morning Pages and the suggestion for Evening Pages seemed to be a good one. Said Shane, “I practice before work at 6:30 a.m. The Morning Pages cut into my time and were very negative, which is what I would like to eradicate.”
The second tool is the Artist Date—a block of time set aside weekly and used to nurture the creative conscious, or Inner Artist. Cameron says that the Artist Date actually needn’t have anything to do with the art one practices. She recommends “a long country walk, a sortie out to a strange church to hear gospel music … your artist might enjoy any of these. Or your artist might like bowling.”
Again, many of the singer-group participants commented that they didn’t have time to make an Artist Date commitment to themselves. But the participants who did take themselves out on an Artist Date were pleased with the experience. In the Boston Singers Resource chat room, one group member shared that she bought an orchid while taking a walk. And other member reported reading a book for pleasure. Abel-Kerns, from New York’s PWSA, took herself to an interesting play on Shaker women and then took a walk down Broadway to Lincoln Center, leisurely stopping to window-shop when she was drawn to do so.
Enough participants asked “does practicing count?” to make this point of Cameron’s crystal clear: artists must use Artist Dates as an opportunity to take the time to explore and be open to creative insight, creativity and guidance. Sabrina Francis, of the CSA group in Los Angeles, had this to say after her Artist Date: “It is such a shame to be so overly busy that I do not have time to really utilize the gift of the five senses and discover how I can use them as a singer.”
Following the “Introduction,” the book introduces several concepts in Week 1, including Shadow Artists (artists who work in the shadow, in positions that are loosely related to the arts but removed from opportunities to be creative themselves), and Affirmations and Blurts, an examination of core negative beliefs and the affirmative weapons that can obliterate them. Several of the singer-group participants noted that the Blurts and Affirmations exercise was the most applicable one for singers. Ruth Ann Cunningham, of PWSA in New York, said that Blurts and Affirmations are of significant assistance when auditioning. “Our mind sabotages our creativity with negative remarks,” she said, “and replacing them with positive affirmations allows us to concentrate on communicating our art.”
Each person interviewed said he or she would recommend The Artist’s Way to other singers and many said they already had. However, the book is not without its critics. Riberdy, of the CSA in Los Angeles, admitted that “the talk about the inner child is annoying. It has an air of condescension … mature adults are not children.” Leslie Holmes, of New York’s PWSA, was put off by the references to God in the book’s “Introduction.” “It made me think this was supposed to be a religious journey, rather than a spiritual one, whether you believe in God or not,” she said. “This did not turn out to be the case, but that is what I was thinking.” One singer-group member declined to participate altogether after reading the “Introduction” and its multiple references to God.
The CSA’s Francis stated that the actual creative-recovery experience has differed from her expectations because “some of the methods seem pedestrian since they are techniques I have heard before. … However, it is great to see it put within a structure so that it is very possible to digest, follow through and monitor growth.”
A fourth group also took up the creative-recovery challenge, and it was made up of undergraduate students at The Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin. They’ve completed five weeks of The Artist’s Way in a class reading project headed by Teresa Seidl, a faculty member and seasoned performer who is passionately devoted to supporting young singers at a vulnerable time in their training. Most of the students feared the book would be a “cheesy, self-help book,” but when Seidl told her students that the book had changed her life, they gave it a chance.
Comments from the students sound much like those from the professional musicians at the Boston Singers Resource, PWSA and CSA. Jessica Bozeman, a sophomore vocal performance and art history major, said that The Artist’s Way process “has allowed me to take myself more seriously as a musician … and to enjoy more completely the other creative venues in my life.” Through Morning Pages, Laura Fessler realized how little time she gave to self-reflection and that self-reflection is a necessity for her as a person and as a singer. “The Artist Dates, Morning Pages, a feeling of accomplishment, and increase in creativity have improved my life and my overall sprit, which really affects my singing,” Fessler said.
Asked if they thought the book was applicable to singers, the students responded affirmatively. Senior Joe Nelson examined the effective connection between singers and the process, and concluded: “For singers especially, the most exciting aspect of (the) Artist’s Way is the personal development. Even historically, singers have not been people so much as just performers … many singers who have rebelled against this and tried to have lives outside their art have crashed and burned in meteoric ways. … Thus for us as people and as artists, the personal reflection, development, and processes offered in this program are extremely important.”
Seidl noted that introducing the program to her class was challenging because students were hesitant to share the intimate and personal information discovered in the process. The Artist’s Way is a deeply personal experience for everyone, not just college students, and many people choose to undertake the process on their own, as opposed to working with a group. Psychotherapist Marta Luzim has used Cameron’s activities in groups, both as a facilitator and a participant, and concluded that there are benefits to each method: “The benefits of working with a group are the feedback, camaraderie, and support,” Luzim said. “But if there isn’t chemistry and trust between members, then things get slowed down in the process.”
The PWSA Artist’s Way Group in New York consists of five women who met once a week over coffee or a meal. Each participant in the group commented on her delight that the group was varied in personal and professional backgrounds. Abel-Kerns summed up that feeling: “How dreary it would be if we were all similar!” The PWSA’s Cunningham added that “doing the individual work is much more fun and interesting when you are part of a group.” She said that she’s become more outspoken since she began working with The Artist’s Way.
While Cameron suggests that groups are most effective when they don’t have facilitators, it’s necessary for at least one person to act as a coordinator to set up meetings and distribute information. “I was not sure how chatty people would be, so I prepared questions to keep the conversation going,” said Boston Singers Resource founder Shane, who set up the group’s chat room on America Online. Since members are scattered in a 1-4 hour drive from one another, meeting online is the best option for this group. While the first Artist’s Way session took some adjustment as members became familiar with the chat room, by the time the first twenty minutes had passed, they were sharing openly and offering a bounty of support to one another.
Russ Herbert organized the first meeting of the CSA’s Artist’s Way Group in Los Angeles, during which he introduced the book and explained the basics. He described the overall feeling of support in the first meeting: “From the onset, it was shared that none of us is alone in the challenges, lack of moral support, or understanding from one source or another at various times in our singing careers. The only difference is the amount of life experience we’ve had to reinforce our sense of confidence in our abilities.”
This acknowledgment of the fact that we are not alone in our feelings as artists is central to The Artist’s Way, whether it’s explored individually or as a group. The CSA’s Francis explained that her experience thus far “has met my expectation of locating some of my insecurity demons and helped me to realize I am not alone in this battle of the human creative mind.”
Is a course in discovering one’s creative self applicable to singers? Herbert of the CSA answered “yes, if creativity is interpreted as how the singer approaches and interprets the musical piece, and makes choices in bringing their character to life.” He adds that it’s important to develop the skills of singing and acting alongside the deeper creative work. The PWSA’s Holmes summed it up, saying she believes that “singers are not just purveyors of songs and arias, but emotional interpreters of and vehicles for the text. Therefore, the more we know about ourselves, the better able we are to communicate our honest emotions to the audience.”
Seidl, the mentor of the young students at Lawrence University, asked a powerful question that was indicative of her dedication as well as the emotional plight of many singers: “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were no need for recovery because artists would have all been nurtured on a college level?” Until then, artists are fortunate to have a companion in The Artist’s Way to help them along the journey, beckoning them to be their very best.
