How to have an Artist Date at Home

Creative Upkeep in the COVID-19 World 

This is not a blog post about how you should outline your entire novel during quarantine or use your social distancing time to start new projects. This isn’t even a blog post about how to return to your normal productivity. Because right now, our lives aren’t normal, and our creativity may shift along with our stress, emotions, mood and more.

But just because our lives aren’t normal right now doesn’t mean we need to abandon creating entirely.

We can’t return to normalcy, but we can let creative expression hold us, even heal us. Let’s dig in. 

Last year, I went through the Artist’s Way program along with a cohort of other writers and artists listening to the Truer Words Podcast hosted by writers Kathryn Benson and Melissa Baumgart. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron is a self-help book that’s been around for a while now and helps writers become unstuck through spirituality and all sorts of exercises aimed to inspire creative digging and breakthroughs.

Two of the main tenants of the program are morning pages and artist dates. Morning pages (which I still dutifully write each day) are three pages (long-hand) of any kind of writing. They are meant to allow us time to process our creative thoughts and get out of our own way.

Artist dates are like taking yourself out on a date (just you) with art. They range from a visit to a museum to gaze at impressionist paintings, to a walk in the botanical gardens or a local greenhouse. They can be a simple alteration in routine: purchasing a vintage dress or a brilliant bouquet from the local florist. The challenge here is to refill your creative well. We can’t create without reserves to draw on.  

Well, if ever there was a time for our reserves to be at an all-time low, it’s now.

It’s okay to be unproductive right now; it’s also fine if productivity is getting you through. But I think, even if we aren’t writing the projects we thought we would be writing, it’s vital to maintain our creative energies and spirit and to refill those wells. This isn’t because it will help us write more (though it might do that), but it will help us feel more human, more in touch with our spirits at this present moment.

So, the focus of these at-home artist dates aren’t to write the great American novel, or even to write a novel at all. In fact, they don’t have to be directly related to our creative output. They are about sinking into art as a way to heal. Art grounds us to our inner cores, allows us to rebuild what has crumbled. We remake ourselves again and again as we experience newfound beauty.

So how can we do this from home? Museums and parks are closed. Stores are no longer joyful places to be inspired. I decided to make myself a list (and share with anyone who might need this too) so that if I felt empty, I could take myself on a little, stationary date.

1.           Don’t forget to read

Reading allows us a portal to escape our own skin and slip into the shoes of someone else entirely. With everything in this world feeling tight and anxious, it’s a relief to set aside my screen and “go” somewhere new.

I sometimes find myself feeling guilty about reading, especially in the morning or after lunch on a workday, but I’ve found that even just fifteen minutes can help relieve the pressure of the sameness of quarantine.

2.          Podcasts!

I don’t know about you, but I am screened out. From my workdays of typing, writing and proofreading to evening zoom chats with friends and family, my eyes could use a break.

Podcasts offer us a vehicle to learn and get lost in a whole new world. Podcasts on creativity can help us consider our work from new angles or feel less alone. Alternatively, you could get lost in a myriad of other subjects: true crime, money, therapy, stories and more.

A new podcast that will help you deal with the reality of being an artist in the midst of the pandemic is Sugar Calling with Cheryl Strayed. The first episode, where she calls her mentor, George Saunders, is pure magic.

3.          Listen to an album all the way through without doing anything else

Pour a glass of wine or brew a cup of tea and go on a date with some of the best musicians in history. As an analog-minded millennial, I love the format of an album and have been saddened to see more emphasis on singles and mixes (though I am hopelessly addicted to Spotify at this point).

Take a new album you’ve never heard before or retreat to the comfort of a classic. 

4.         Read fairy tales, folk tales and ancient myths

I have been returning to ancient stories, almost instinctively, during the last month or so. Fairy tales offer us concise, uncanny imaginings of dark, human struggles tinged with the electricity of magic and the unknown. It’s helpful and eye-opening to return to old tales and observe the ancient renderings of human strength, dark themes and subversive humor.

There is a wide range to choose from: Greek mythology to Grimms. I happen to own many collections of these types of tales, but so many retellings are available online as well.

5.          Write letters … to others or your future self

Connection: something we are all craving right now. Letters help bridge the gap in a non-Zoom induced way. It’s stressful not being able to see family, to physically be there for them, but a letter is something that can be held, akin to touching fingertips, albeit days apart.

Another idea is to write a letter to your future self. Think of this like a journal: write down thoughts, feelings, observations and hopes for where we can go from this pandemic world; hopes for how we can change. Seal the letter up and don’t open it for six months, a year, or maybe just a week to help you note the shift in your mood and feelings.  

6.         Do an art project that has nothing to do with your discipline

Take stock of the art supplies you have on hand or consider ordering some from a local store that could desperately use the help (if you are able). What can you make? Don’t worry about form, rules, or making something for a particular purpose. Just focus on the act of making as a meditation.

7.          Walk!

One of the few vehicles left for actual mobile artist dates, walking frees up your mind to reflect while also taking on new sensations. This helps us enrich our internal creative mindscape and textures our lives. 

As you (safely) walk, focus on what can be enjoyed or observed, rather than what you are missing out on because of social distancing. Are there flowers in bloom? Animals? People? Allow movement to recharge your creative battery.

8.         Recite poetry

Writing, by and large, is a solitary, silent occupation, but reading doesn’t have to be. Poetry is meant to be spoken, letting each word breathe. So, try reading one or two out loud. It doesn’t have to be performative. Even a whispered poem under your breath before your family rises allows a little spark, a little magic to catch in the calm, morning air.

9.         Challenge your film watching

Instead of binge-watching Love Is Blind or re-watching Parks and Recreation for the billionth time (guilty as charged), use your streaming accounts to alter your perspective on film, story and color.

There is a plethora of film options available on various streaming sites to meet needs: classic films like Fred & Ginger musicals to critically acclaimed favorites from last year (including Parasite and Little Women). Allow yourself to be present to what you are watching instead of thumbing through Twitter while blazing through a new Netflix series.

10.     Learn something new … not for your side hustle, but for you

There has been a bit of a push on social media to use this time to learn a new skill that will benefit you monetarily or otherwise. However, what strikes me is that we could just learn new skills … for the sake of learning new skills! Not everything has to be in service of a side gig or a career improvement plan.

Slow down. Get back to basics. Cooking, knitting, tarot, gardening, weaving, language learning, sewing, painting are all skills that will help stretch your mind and broaden your set of inspirational activities. Pick up that guitar, not to make a Youtube video, but to reacquaint yourself with chords. Skills in the home can be like old friends, guiding you through the hours, connecting us to communities and ancestors, stirring the pot of that creative well.

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And there we have it!  A list to recharge our lethargic creativity. It’s important to be gentle and forgiving of yourself in times like this. Instead of looking at creativity as a weight that must be lifted, see it as a warm bath or cool misty lake waiting to take you in.