Week 3 of the Artist's Way, getting in the groove
Week 3 of the Artist's Way, getting in the groove
featuring random trivia on bong joon ho
Hi folks! Over the next few months I’ll be sharing my progress with The Artist’s Way, a self-help book for creative recovery written in the ‘90s by Julia Cameron. You can read more context about the decision to start the twelve-week program here.
Week 3’s theme is “Recovering a Sense of Power.” The chapter starts by talking about anger and how it is our friend (“sloth, apathy, and despair are the enemy. Anger is not”). We can examine our anger to find out where our boundaries are and what direction we’re meant to go in. For example, getting angry about someone who is getting lots of acclaim for what we think is a mediocre piece of work points to the need to make work ourselves and take our own ideas more seriously.
Another section goes into synchronicity, which can also be described as lucky breaks or meaningful coincidences. This section dives heavily into alienating self-help rhetoric. Much like The Secret (which I have never read so am just coloring in my knowledge from Wikipedia), it promotes “ask and you shall receive” manifestation techniques and that we will find moments of synchronicity happening the more we verbalize and pursue our dreams. Like horoscopes and personality quizzes and all the fun lenses through which to look at our lives, I don’t doubt that we can find many moments of truth where the system makes sense. But I would add the caveat that complete reliance on these systems are dangerous—it’s easy to overinflate signs from the universe or your star chart to be the be-all and end-all, thereby ignoring both your personal responsibility to make things happen and the systems of inequity in place that greatly benefit some communities much more than others.
The last section covers criticism and how often it can shame the artist. As kids we don’t learn what differentiates useful and useless criticism. When our work is viewed through inexperienced eyes, most feedback will be shooting down the work instead of nurturing it into being. I think about when I have given feedback in writing workshops as a relative beginner and how easy it is to dissect work with a negative, nitpicky mindset. It is so much harder to uncover the writer’s intentions and help them tell the story they want in the most effective way.
Pointed criticism, if accurate, often gives the artist an inner sense of relief… Useful criticism ultimately leaves us with one more puzzle piece for our work.
Cameron includes some rules for dealing with any form of criticism:
Jot down notes to yourself on what concepts or phrases bother you.
Jot down notes on what concepts or phrases seem useful.
Do something very nurturing for yourself—read an old good review or recall a compliment.
Look at the criticism again. Does it remind you of any criticism from your past—particularly shaming childhood criticism?
Get back on the horse. Creativity is the only cure for criticism.
Morning Pages
Doing morning pages every day is a no brainer by week 3. I look forward to the activity; I don’t recall a day this week where I am dreading the task. On the flip side, I’ve stopped fully updating my daily diary where I log what I do and eat every day. Since I use much of the morning pages to write about the day prior, recalling and writing this information a second time feels cumbersome. I still make sure to write down the food I eat though (you’d be surprised how much you can remember a day by what and where you ate!)
Artist Date 1: All About Bong Joon Ho
After watching Parasite the week prior, I went all in on learning about Bong Joon Ho’s storytelling and directing methods. He storyboards every shot of his movies! He shoots one type of shot and edits as he goes! He loves subverting genres!
As one of my artist dates this week I commit to watching an episode of a Korean film talk show covering two of Bong’s movies, The Host and Mother. I haven’t watched either of these films, but I am also someone who spoiled the synopsis of Parasite for myself months prior and promptly forgot about it so I remain optimistic that I will still watch and enjoy these movies someday.
Some interesting points discussed on the show (no spoilers I promise):
Bong films much of The Host in a panned out view, mirroring the broadness of the movie focusing on society and international relations. However it was shot with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, subverting the expected widescreen ratio typical of these blockbuster movies.
Mother is a movie shot up close. It focuses on the main actress Kim Hye Ja’s soulful eyes, and was primarily dreamt up by Bong with specifically this actress in mind.
Large spaces typically conjure up feelings of peace and serenity. In Bong’s movies, these are the settings where bad shit goes down. The monster in The Host first appears in broad daylight at the park by Han River. Even thinking of Parasite, the beautifully manicured and seemingly peaceful lawn is a central location for…bad bad things happening.
Artist Date 2: Side Project Sessions
On Saturday, I go to a New York pop-up for Side Project Sessions. This is an event series offering distraction-free time to work on side projects, creative ideas, or random admin work. The session is set up to be three rounds of 45 minutes of work and 15 minutes of break, an adjustment to the typical Pomodoro method.
The morning goes incredibly well! The playlist was perfectly “productive coffee shop vibes” and I’m able to set up a local Wordpress server and figure out how to customize Gutenberg blocks for my WIP project Modern Doing. Mari Andrew sits at my table and I occasionally peek at her watercolors. I talk to other creatives during breaks and try fairy bread for the first time (it tastes exactly like the sum of its ingredients).
Reflections
My parents are in town this week, which means a very active schedule including lots of meals, going to a New York Philharmonic concert, and visiting the revamped MOMA. After seeing that I can maintain the morning pages practice and care for myself through their stay, I find that I am more relaxed about making sure I am sticking to the program. This is great because as much as I have been focusing on meeting my own desires and needs, I know the next step is to trust myself, relax a bit and shift to being more present for others.