Artist’s Dates

I have mentioned in previous posts that I am going through The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, which is a guide for what she calls creative recovery. The book is set up by chapters meant to be completed week-by-week. I am taking a different path and going through it month-by-month this year, since I’m also doing my coaching training and going through a Book Camp through A Writing Room, which has me writing an hour a day as my goal for the 6 week program (in addition to doing Morning Pages, a daily writing practice from The Artist’s Way). I also just want to go through it intentionally without rushing, and so I am treating this creative recovery process and these exercises as my 2026 project.

I am titling this post as “Artist’s Dates", which is a bit misleading. The real post is about how HARD it has been for me to arrange for Artist’s Dates.

An Artist Date is an outing that you arrange for yourself, by yourself, each week. Think of it as an opportunity to connect with your inner child and treat them to something fun. Julia Cameron’s point is that, if you as an artist (which all of us can consider as a title for ourselves) are giving so much of yourself each day for your craft, you need an opportunity to fill your cup each week. She also says that it is one of the four Artist’s Way practices that most people find hardest to do. Including me.

My initial excuse for my reticence has been how cold it was in January. Here is what I have done so far-

January 16- Listened to Beyonce’s Renaissance on vinyl while chilling on the couch and reading the lyrics in the album insert.

January 22- Cut up magazines as ideas for a vision board.

February 1- Went to a coffee shop and sat with a coffee and read for an hour.

February 9- Went to the Museum of Contemporary Photography.

And now- I’m due for another artist’s date, but I am just struggling with this. I can’t keep using the excuse of it being too cold out, especially now that it ISN’T. The bigger issue? I’m finding it hard to treat myself. Here I am, not working. Taking time for myself in this way just feels wrong. An indulgence for which I am not worthy. There are deeper themes at play here.

This week has been a bit of a slog. I think winter has just hit me (LIKE USUAL), even though the temperatures are a tad warmer and I have appreciated the sunshine. Combine that with getting through a lifestyle medicine course with my coaching training (solitary work), plus writing (solitary work), and in general hitting that cumulative threshold for winter suddenly feeling so isolating. To conjure up energy to take myself on any sort of date (even lying on the couch while reading album inserts and listening to music) feels hard at the moment. I also feel like I don’t have time- which is funny, because I quit my job almost two months ago so have LOTS of time (though I envision myself lassoing that available time and using it for my training and writing and cooking and all the other things I’ve written about on this blog ad nauseam recently). There is that darn worthiness theme again.

Saying this- I really DID like my last artist’s date! I learned of the Museum of Contemporary Photography in an email newsletter from our WBEZ public radio station a couple weeks ago, and then goggled (no, not googled. I actually GOGGLED) at the location (600 S. Michigan Avenue)- because it is not even a 10 minute walk from where I live. I never even realized that this building I’ve passed countless times even housed this museum. And even then, my husband had to practically push me there. I went out for a walk with him to the big Chicago Hilton, where he works out, which is a block south of the museum. He ordered me to stick to the plan when we parted ways. He was a little pushy about it, to be honest.

And you know what? It was pretty fabulous. I loved taking the time to explore room by room, and the peace and quiet felt like it was just what I needed.

by Carrie Mae Weems, Untitled #2450, from the Kitchen Table series, 1990

And I was not expecting this- I found me! Of course this isn’t me, but when I was young I looked very much like this. I would have been 5 years old in 1986 so the child in this photo was likely a year or two younger than me, but in the spirit of an artist’s date being an outing for your inner child, this one struck me in a very tender way.

I’ll end here with this one- which I find to be super unsettling. In fact, it gave me the heebie jeebies. It’s really large and positioned along a staircase too, it made you feel like you were falling over to look up at it when ascending the stairs. I love the reflection of that ceiling light at the top right- it looks like a UFO.

So, I liked this visit at the Museum of Contemporary Photography. I just have to figure out how to excuse myself from the game of life and do something like this again. Because maybe, just maybe, I am worth it.