CoastLine: Julia Cameron On The Artist's Way, Moving Beyond The Skeptic
Rachel Lewis Hilburn www.whqr.org rachel-lewis-hilburn
The Artist’s Way, A Course In Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self, first landed in booktores before the age of Amazon – in 1992. Almost three…
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WHQR
The Artist’s Way, A Course In Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self, first landed in booktores before the age of Amazon – in 1992. Almost three decades later, Author Julia Cameron can point to a long list of published works, more than 40, fiction and nonfiction -- many of them bestsellers. They include The Vein of Gold, The Right To Write, Finding Water, Transitions, and her own memoir, Floor Sample. The woman who "invented the way people renovate the creative soul", according to The New York Times, has used her own life as a laboratory for developing her processes.

New York Magazine reports Cameron’s books on creativity sell to the tune of 100,000 per year; The Artist’s Way alone had sold more than four million copies by 2019. By 2020, that number has grown to five million.

Long lists of celebrities credit Cameron’s work with their own creative journeys – including Author Elizabeth Gilbert, Photographer Helmut Newton and musicians Alicia Keys and Pete Townshend.

Julia Cameronis also a screenwriter, playwright, songwriter, and poet.

But the reason we called her for this conversation had less to do with profiling one artist’s life – although we learn about her. We had questions about where and how the call to creativity is emerging now. While millions of people around the world self-isolate to slow the spread of Covid-19, some are finding new ways of skidding down a flight of stairs. Others note in excruciating detail the pair of mallards visiting the backyard each afternoon. Still others are fostering or adopting new pets. But how is this new space in our lives taking shape? As the busyness of the world is put on hold, are there new opportunities to hear a deeper, more meaningful call?