by Kirby Laney, posted 1 May 2018
On May 7th, Kate Gavigan of The Seattle Artist’s Way Center is offering classes in the inspiring bestseller ‘The Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron. The 12-week class, on Monday evenings, shares lessons from ‘The Artist’s Way’ through inspirational exercises and clarifying discussions, all taught at Windows Art Gallery in East Fremont.
On May 4th, Gavigan is also offering a class in Cameron’s new book, ‘It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again: Discovering Creativity and Meaning at Midlife and Beyond,’ intended for adults retiring, or in any transition period, to teach them how to tap back into their youthful wonder, and to enhance their life with more adventure and fun. This is also a 12-week course, on Friday mornings, that walks students through Cameron’s book, using tasks and reflections that enhance creativity.
The classes are offered separately, without pre-requisite, but a few students have chosen to try both. Over the last two years, Deborah Gooden took each class, and she recommends them. When asked why, she simply stated, “Because of Kate.” According to Gooden, Gavigan makes it easy to get excited about the material, and the learning. “She is endlessly creative,” Gooden praised, “She goes through the experience with you.”
‘The Road Not Taken’
According to Gooden, “All my life, I’ve had this second part of myself, on hold.” As she explained, “I was very practical,” and instead of art, she spent much of her adult life focused on her career, and being a mom. Art, for Gooden, became “the road not taken.”
Her son was a very important project, and one Gooden gave her whole heart to. Yet, she also enjoyed her work, as a “very dedicated” affordable housing developer. “I identified myself as a working woman,” she acknowledged, considering herself fortunate to have a job she found so satisfying, and rewarding to others.
“I was anxious about retiring,” Gooden recalled. “About a year, or two, before retiring I found ‘The Artist’s Way’ class on-line,” she explained. “I took the class while working.”
After retirement, “I had difficulty adjusting,” she acknowledged. “I’d heard of [Julia Cameron’s] new book. It’s got a great title!” The author, also in mid-life, writes from within the experience, according to Gooden, with spot-on observations. In the new book, “she builds around the same concepts,” as in ‘The Artist’s Way,’ Gooden explained, but this time focusing on transitions, and helping Gooden see, “that the transition is an opportunity as well as a fearsome thing.”
Forming ‘Fairly Close Relationships’
For Gooden, and many of Gavigan’s students, the classes are not entirely about the material presented. Gooden talked about the connections made among her fellow students. “Being creative in a group broadens your understanding of what is possible,” she observed. Gavigan keeps class sizes small – only 11 for this series, this year – and allowing everyone to participate as much, or as little, as they like. Gooden enjoyed hearing how others approached the materials, and solved problems they encountered.
People can buy Cameron’s books, and read them alone, but Gooden found the classes engaging. Gavigan helps keep attention focused on the lessons, plus meeting others and sharing with them gives the experience an element of accountability.
“When I retired,” Gooden observed, “it was hard to form relationships.” She’d had friends at work, but retirement cut down on those interactions. A year after finishing their class in ‘Never Too Late…’, Gooden and some of her fellow students still gather to talk about their continuing efforts to be creative and address transitions in their lives. “You form fairly close relationships,” Gooden said about sharing in class.
The people she met through the ‘Artist’s Way’ classes “are all different from me,” Gooden acknowledged, yet they have a common interest in creating a livelier, more authentic midlife. Like Gooden, they want to stretch themselves and grow.
Gooden observed how each of her ‘Artist’s Way’ friends have carried away different concepts from the classes. Some people use the exercises daily, and others use them informally, or as needed. While they all have increased their creativity, they’ve applied it in so many different ways, from gardening to body movement.
Gooden also signed up her husband for the class, as a birthday present. “He didn’t quite get as much from it as I did,” Gooden acknowledged, but it still helped them to communicate their desires to be more creative and be adventurous.
One of the lessons of ‘The Artist’s Way’ is the artist’s date, where people are encouraged to explore and observe places in new ways, on their own. Gooden’s husband has continued to take these ‘dates’, sometimes without her, and “without a censor, and unedited by me.” As Gooden explained, “Julia [Cameron] encourages us to suspend our censor. That voice can shut down avenues in your life.” In her relationship with her husband, Gooden observed, “I’m the powerhouse. Sometimes he needs to be the leader. A lot of times that is stifled, and I don’t mean to stifle it.” While Gooden may take the lead, she also likes seeing him set his own path of discovery. “To see other people grow is an exciting thing,” she explained, “almost as exciting as growing ourselves.”
‘Something You Want To Do’
Gooden acknowledged that sometimes ‘The Artist’s Way’ scares people. So many think that being an artist, and being creative, is a special role accessible only to others. Yet, Gooden encourages everyone that the class “has nothing to do with whether you are an Artist or not. If there is something you want to do, but aren’t doing,” the class can take you there.
“Almost all of us have, ‘I would love to…’” Gooden observed, “somehow we stop ourselves. We blame it on others, usually.” Yet, she found, “it’s our own censor,” and liberation in Cameron’s encouragement to experiment without criticism.
Gooden found Cameron’s new book, ‘Never Too Late…’, even more helpful than ‘The Artist’s Way’, particularly in times of transition. “It’s a good time to review,” she observed about the class, “even if you can’t fully execute the lessons, it’s a good way to process.”
Since retiring, Gooden has seriously pursued illustration and painting, but she acknowledged that she may yet find it isn’t what she wants. Still, she’s been getting better, and she’s learning how to do something not for an outcome – not for money or for a grade – but just for herself, and for the art. Again, it’s been a liberating, if scary, proposition. In a class at Gage Academy of Art, “I didn’t have to be regulated by anything but my own standard,” she said, and like in her career, Gooden found herself to be unbelievably productive, but this time, “there was no payoff besides my getting better.”
‘Getting Better’
For anyone interested in tapping their creativity, or exploring why it’s ‘Never Too Late…’, visit The Seattle Artist’s Way Center on-line. Registration for the classes with Kate Gavigan can be found there, as well as information on the next series of classes, taking place in the Fall.
Being an artist doesn’t require a secret code or a permission slip. Maybe it is time for you to find your own youthful wonder, sense of adventure and ‘Artist’s Way’ this summer!
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©2018 Kirby S. Laney. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.