The Artist’s Date: A Simple Practice to Refill Your Creative Cup
It was a Friday evening when I had a miscommunication that left me all dressed up and in the wrong borough, missing the party. Talking to the friend I was supposed to be meeting, from the other side of the East River, I started to tear up about my mess up.
“You sound exhausted,” she said. She was right.
The next day, I committed to taking the practice I sometimes struggle to maintain: The Artist’s Date. The artist’s date did more than cheer me up. It helped me feel connected, calm, and alive, the opposite of exhausted.
This is a recommended practice from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. Once a week, you go somewhere alone that you wouldn’t normally go to.
A car show was going on in Brooklyn that weekend, the kind of place I could pretty much guarantee I would know zero people. I brought my camera and went to explore, remembering all the things an artist’s date can do for you:
Expand your mind.
To go somewhere you don’t necessarily “belong” is to invite learning. You remember how big the world is, how small you (and your problems) are. It tells you that there’s no limit to the exploration. Wonder and surprise will be waiting for you, all your life.
Reconnect with your artist identity.
It was fun to tell people I met, “Oh, I’m a writer, and this is my artist’s date for the week.” (Then I would explain artist’s dates.) People love to meet others who are dedicating themselves to a creative life. And when you present yourself in the world that way, it reminds you, too, that you really are doing it! You are a writer living a creative practice.
So many story ideas!
I think the best story ideas come when totally different aspects of life bump and grind on the page together. It was actually an artist’s date from years ago that led me to be interviewing a donabe artist in Japan. You never know where these curious roads will lead you.
Need some ideas for artist’s dates?
Check out Eventbrite to find something happening near you
Go to a park you’ve never been to
Take yourself to a stationery store
Walk a new neighborhood you’ve never been to
Visit a spice shop and buy one you’ve never used, then find a recipe to use it in
Book a float tank, sound bath, or esoteric spa treatment (cactus facial? goat yoga?)
Try a new class, like improv
Go to a clothing store in a style you do not wear and try on an outfit that is SO not you
Go to a cultural festival outside your own background
Find the weirdest little local museum and check it out
When you take on this practice, you refill your cup so you can overflow on the page. And you know the perfect place to plan out your next artist’s date? During The Finishing School’s weekly writer’s refresh!