Book Review: The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron is a book that anyone searching for a more creative life can find merit in. It is both a poetic, insightful look into the psyche of an artist’s soul, and a workbook for those seeking to bring more artistry into their lives.

If the reader faithfully follows the workbook, they can expect to get a lot out of it. From daily pages, where you are encouraged to write 3 pages every day no matter how you’re feeling, to ‘Artist Dates’ where you take time for yourself to do something artistic that you’ve always wanted to do, this book is a helpful journey for those struggling to find their way through art.

The book also has a strong emphasis on artistic creation through spirituality. She emphasizes that the ‘creator’ is also an artist. She suggests that working through whatever is holding the reader back from being artistic will help the reader to have a truer relationship with the divine creative power that is personal to them.

Many people have stories about giving up on artistic dreams because of negative criticism. Ms. Cameron’s workbook offers ways to work through the negative feelings these events may have caused, and to bring them out again through art.

What I like the most about this book is that there is no ‘level’ that the reader has to be at to follow the workbook. Whether you were artistic in your youth and haven’t done art in more years than you’d like to count, or are someone who has never done an artistic thing in your life, this book is a great guidebook for finding the artist within.

Beautifully written and easy to both understand and to follow, this book is an exploration and celebration of creativity in a way that has not been presented before. Recommended.