Oct 2020 - Jan 2021
How might the tools and strategies of artistic practice, which often privilege creative isolation as a path to self-knowledge, be experienced together and shared with others to contribute to transformation at both individual and collective scales?
Starting from Julia Cameron’s bestselling self-help book, The Artist's Human Way was a 12-week self-guided creative residency held in collaboration with Prem Krishnamurthy that prototyped a method for self-discovery plus group understanding in pursuit of individual and collective clarity. Starting in October 2020, small “crews” of creative practitioners (moving beyond self-described “artists” to include design, writing, music, architecture, movement, cooking, breathing, living, etc.), unfamiliar to each other at the start and dispersed around the globe, worked through Cameron’s simple daily tools while meeting periodically to discuss their progress.
In the later weeks of the project, each group was given access to occupy the Home Cooking Instagram platform for a week in order to achieve its members’ own individual and collective goals. The project culminated in a final gathering of all participants and a self-reflection on the process of continuous learning.
The entire process was offered for free and available to the first 50 people who applied online and committed to participating for the entire period according to the project guidelines. All of the readings for the project are available for free online.
Photograph by Prem Krishnamurthy. 2020.