The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart
Category: Books,Reference,Writing, Research & Publishing Guides
The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart Details
Review “For those seeking the wellspring of creativity, this book, like its predecessor, is a solid gold diving rod.”--PUBLISHERS WEEKLYPraise for THE ARTIST'S WAY....“THE ARTIST’S WAY by Julia Cameron is not exclusively about writing—it is about discovering and developing the artist within whether a painter, poet, screenwriter or musician—but it is a lot about writing. If you have always wanted to pursue a creative dream, have always wanted to play and create with words or paints, this book will gently get you started and help you learn all kinds of paying-attention techniques; and that, after all, is what being an artist is all about. It’s about learning to pay attention.”--Anne Lamott, Mademoiselle “The premise of the book is that creativity and spirituality are the same thing, they come from the same place. And we were created to use this life to express our individuality, and that over the course of a lifetime that gets beaten out of us. [THE ARTIST’S WAY] helped me put aside my fear and not worry about whether the record would be commercial.”--Grammy award-winning singer Kathy Mattea “Julia Cameron brings creativity and spirituality together with the same kind of step-by-step wisdom that Edgar Cayce encouraged. The result is spiritual creativity as a consistent and nourishing part of daily life.”--Venture Inward “I never knew I was a visual artist until I read Julia Cameron’s THE ARTIST’S WAY.”--Jannene Behl in Artist’s Magazine “Julia Cameron’s landmark book THE ARTIST’S WAY helped me figure out who I really was as an adult, not so much as an artist but as a person. And award-winning journalist and poet, Cameron’s genius is that she doesn’t tell readers what they should do to achieve or who they should be—instead she creates a map for readers to start exploring these questions themselves.”--Michael F. Melcher, Law Practice magazine “This is not a self-help book in the normative sense. It is simply a powerful book that can challenge one to move into an entirely different state of personal expression and growth.”--Nick Maddox, Deland Beacon “THE ARTIST’S WAY (with its companion volume THE ARTIST’S WAY MORNING PAGES JOURNAL) becomes a friend over time, not just a journal. Like a journal, it provokes spontaneous insights and solutions; beyond journaling, it establishes a process that is interactive and dynamic.”--Theresa L. Crenshaw, M.D., San Diego Union-Tribune “If you really want to supercharge your writing, I recommend that you get a copy of Julia Cameron’s book THE ARTIST’S WAY. I’m not a big fan of self-help books, but this book has changed my life for the better and restored my previously lagging creativity.”--Jeffrey Bairstow, Laser Focus World “Working with the principle that creative expression is the natural direction of life, Cameron developed a three month program to recover creativity. THE ARTIST’S WAY shows how to tap into the higher power that connects human creativity and the creative energies of the universe.”--Mike Gossie, Scottsdale Tribune “THE ARTIST’S WAY is the seminal book on the subject of creativity and an invaluable guide to living the artistic life. Still as vital today—or perhaps even more so—than it was when it was first published in 1992, it is a provocative and inspiring work. Updated and expanded, it reframes THE ARTIST’S WAY for a new century.”--Branches of Light “THE ARTIST’S WAY has sold over 3 million copies since its publication in 1992. Cameron still teaches it because there is sustained demand for its thoughtful, spiritual approach to unblocking and nurturing creativity. It is, dare we say, timeless.”--Nancy Colasurdo, FOXBusiness Read more About the Author Julia Cameron has been an active artist for more than three decades. She is the author of more than thirty books, including such bestselling works on the creative process as The Artist’s Way, Walking in This World, and Finding Water. Also a novelist, playwright, songwriter, and poet, she has multiple credits in theater, film, and television, including an episode of Miami Vice, which featured Miles Davis, and Elvis and the Beauty Queen, which starred Don Johnson. She was a writer on such movies as Taxi Driver, New York, New York, and The Last Waltz. She wrote, produced, and directed the award-winning independent feature film God's Will, which premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival, and was selected by the London Film Festival, the Munich International Film Festival, and the Women in Film Festival, among others. In addition to making films, Cameron has taught film at such diverse places as Chicago Filmmakers, Northwestern University, and Columbia College. She is also an award-winning playwright, whose work has appeared on such well-known stages as the McCarter Theater at Princeton University and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Read more
Reviews
I credit Julia Cameron's Artist Way series with helping me work through my art block issues (stemming from my upbringing). It irritates me whenever I read negative reviews of her books. To other people I seem like the most confident and adventuresome person they ever met. But to those of us who want to follow a dream in the arts, we know finding our voice, our style, is a ton of WORK and is risky/scary/vulnerable even for people who grew up in environments that supported them! Julia is a mentor who can help you stay on track, or get back on track if you lose your way. She is basically sharing combined knowledge of our tribe to encourage us. There were other books that helped me along the way, but only Julia's books are heavily annotated and frayed to pieces from the miles of introspection and goal setting that came from reading them. I have gone from victim of other people's plans for my life in my 20's to trying art again at age 27 to folk artist and published illustrator by age 50 ( I raised 5 children- I didn't have much time to devote to art during my child rearing years). Thank you, Julia, for your part in helping me. I really appreciate it. I hope I can be as useful as you are in encouraging other people to try their dreams too.The Vein of Gold is appropriately named. This book seems geared toward helping artists find their authentic voice and their own stories, where the Artist's Way trilogy helps artists to name their dreams, to try, and to protect themselves and their dreams. In The Vein of Gold, she encourages us to use the same tools as her other books, adding new insight or stories, not just rehashing old material. I have read about half of the book so far. I love that she has many exercises mining our own memories and impressions, especially from childhood. I've always believed that those impressions are the gold of our voice and style. I did an exercise called The Blame Game where you turn your "If Only's" into possible actions and I decided to give myself the same opportunity that I have given to people I've mentored. It was a powerful exercise that ended up causing me to establish new partnerships with artists who are already thriving. That blessing is turning out to have major impact. I have no doubt that this book will help me along my continued journey as an artist.
