Revisiting ‘The Artist’s Way,’ now for parents
Fans of “The Artist’s Way,” published more than 20 years ago with the goal of helping readers tap their creative spirits, have been pestering author Julia Cameron to write a version for parents for nearly as long.
For many of those years, her answer remained the same: A separate book was unnecessary. Channel your own creativity, she told her audience, and your children will follow.
But when Cameron’s daughter, Domenica, recently began a family, she realized her response was inadequate, she now says. After all, many new parents scarcely have time to eat and shower, much less undertake a comprehensive self-improvement plan that doesn’t seem directly to involve their kids. Her resulting work, “The Artist’s Way for Parents” (Tarcher/ Penguin), co-written with Emma Lively, seeks to do for parents what “The Artist’s Way” did for other adults. And Cameron, a prolific writer as well as an artist, songwriter and poet, assures us that all children are innately creative.
“We go into parenting, and we discover that we don’t have the answers,” she said. “We are at a loss. I wanted to write a book that would give parents a sense of ease.”
Indeed, Cameron spends much of her book reassuring parents that it’s not only OK but also essential for them to prioritize their own needs.
“There’s this mythology that parents are supposed to be parents 24/7 and are supposed to be completely fulfilled by their kids,” she said. “That’s not the case. We need to make our own passions a priority.”
Much of Cameron’s advice is drawn from her own experiences, first as a child growing up with six siblings in a busy Midwestern household, and later, as a single mom in California and Chicago.
Though the two situations seem vastly different, Cameron elaborated on the commonalities. In each household, a mother provided her child or children with tools — paints, musical instruments or plastic horses, for instance — and expected them to get busy with their imaginations.
The tendency of today’s parents to hover can hamper artistic expression, Cameron maintains.