The Artist's Way

Envy, backbiting, criticism, have no place in our midst,
nor do ill temper, hostility, sarcasm, chivvying for position.
These attitudes may belong in the world, but they do not
belong among us in our place as artists.
Success occurs in clusters. Drawing a Sacred Circle
creates a sphere of safety and a center of attraction for our
good. By filling this form faithfully, we draw to us the best.
We draw the people we need. We attract the gifts we could
best employ.
The Sacred Circle is built on respect and trust. The image
is of the garden. Each plant has its name and its place. There
is no one flower that cancels the need for another. Each
bloom has its unique and irreplaceable beauty.
Let our gardening hands be gentle ones. Let us not root
up one another’s ideas before they have time to bloom. Let
us bear with the process of growth, dormancy, cyclicality,
fruition, and reseeding. Let us never be hasty to judge,
reckless in our urgency to force unnatural growth. Let there
be, always, a place for the artist toddler to try, to falter, to
fail, to try again. Let us remember that in nature’s world
every loss has meaning. The same is true for us. Turned to
good use, a creative failure may be the compost that
nourishes next season’s creative success. Remember, we are
in this for the long haul, the ripening and harvest, not the
quick fix.
Art is an act of the soul: ours is a spiritual community.
I have been a working artist for twenty-five years and for
the past fifteen I have taught creative recovery. In that time,