Time Travel Part I: Interviewing the Kid In Me

Time travel: my inner artistic child

I'm starting the second week of my Artist's Way journey. I've decided that setting exact dates isn't the best formula for me. I usually take a day or two longer than the seven prescribed days to get through all the stuff inside me and do all the exercises. I'm not pushing myself to stick to the timeline. I think as long as I'm doing something to further my journey every day, then who cares how long it takes?

This week is all about time travel. Back to the basics of my inner child. the next several posts will be a mini-series: the time travel blogs.

Today starts with a really basic overview from lists of questions she has in the book. This gets you thinking in the mode of a child, reminiscing about the makings of that inner child that is responsible for creating all the art in you.

I wasn't your average ordinary kid. I'm not really your average ordinary anything, if you want to be technical about it. :-d I spent all my time in my imagination--playing dressup, playing creature hiding under the covers on the bottom bunk of my best friend's bunkbed... any excuse for a story with magic in it was a good game to me and my best friend, Julia.


1. My favorite childhood toy was . . .
barbies, polly-pockets, Russian nesting dolls, anything I could use to represent a character in the story I was currently immersed in. My best friend and I were forever pretending with our polly-pockets. WE set them up along the edge of her wooden framed bed in huge long rows, just like a little village. We played so many different games with those things: boarding school (like the one we attended), town--there were hundreds of little polly-pocket people, and each one felt slightly different. Each one had her own name and biographical information for us. We were writers even then.

2. My favorite childhood game was ...
Imagination! My best friend and I lived in a world of our own. We pretended to be DJs on the radio, famous singers (or wives of famous singers), characters in our favorite books... my mind was always far away in some make believe kingdom.
If I sat down to play a game, my favorite was Kerplunk. A tall cylinder had sticks poked through the middle in a web formation. Then you poured a bag of marbles on top of the sticks. You turned the mouth of the cylinder to face you, selected a stick, and pulled it out very carefully. The object of the game was to keep the marbles from kerplunking into your tray as you pulled the stick out from under them. I like living on the edge... doing things just to push the limits of my abilities and see if I can do it is my fun in life.

3. The best movie I ever saw as a kid was . . .
Milo and Otis. Such a simple movie, such a wonderful story, and such awesome characters! Plus I love animals.

4. I don't do it much but I enjoy . . .
Buying something really nice for myself, going someplace fun alone, or being in the middle of the ocean on a sailboat, just me, the wind and the waves.

5. If I could lighten up a little, I'd let myself...
Go dancing and not care if I don't know all the sexy moves.

6. If it weren't too late, I'd . . .
Go back to school and finish my music degree.

7. My favorite musical instrument is . . .
Harp

8. The amount of money I spend on treating myself to entertainment each month is ...
um right now? pretty much only what I spend on the internet service and my cell phone. Yeah, I need to make time to get out more.

9. If I weren't so stingy with my artist, I'd buy him/ her ...
A gorgeous concert dress, a new full concert harp, weekly vocal coachings, and an SSL recording console and nice studio suite.
More practically? the vocal coaching and an Ipod.

10. Taking time out for myself is ...
common enough, but I'm usually too tired by then to do anything artistically useful with it.

11. I am afraid that if I start dreaming ...
I won't have what it takes--the means, the resources, the abilities--to accomplish it.

12. I secretly enjoy reading ...
urban fantasy--witches and demons, elves and fairies, anything with magic and legend in it, goth stuff

13. If I had had a perfect childhood I'd have grown up to be ...
loved and respected for following my dreams and my callings of God to create art.

14. If it didn't sound so crazy, I'd write or make a . . .
film about my life, it's a miraculous story, with lots of amazing people in it.

15. My parents think artists are ...
Dreamers, not responsible, unable to make a living long-term, (in the eyes of one parent); facing a hard road, need to keep working on it, dreamers (to the other.)

16. My God thinks artists are ...
blessed with unique and wonderful gifts. we are called to use them to spread His message of love, hope and light.

17. What makes me feel weird about this recovery is ...
wondering if it will be something that lasts.

18. Learning to trust myself is probably . . .
one of the hardest things in the world for me to do.

19. My most cheer-me-up music is ...
anything that I can groove to. Something I don't work with professionally, hiphop or alternative. Currently it's the song Super Massive Blackhole by the Muise.

20. My favorite way to dress is ...
Like an artsy urban hippy gypsy

buried dreams

1. List five hobbies that sound fun.
Dancing, painting, sewing renaissance clothing, creating perfumes and oils, gourmet cooking

2. List five classes that sound fun.
french, ancient Egyptian history, business management, Yoga, dance

3. List five things you personally would never do that sound fun.
Karate, mountain-climbing, scuba diving, fencing, flying an airplane

4. List five skills that would be fun to have.
impersonations, graphic design, designing clothing, wind-surfing, architecture

5. List five things you used to enjoy doing.
ceramics, horseback riding, rock-climbing, goalball, archery

6. List five silly things you would like to try once.
Pole-vaulting, mushing with sled-dogs, skiing in the alps, time travel, sex on the beach (not the drink, the real thing)


*** Note: Questions come from Julia Cameron's Artist's Way and are not to be circulated around the web like those quiz survey thingies. I.E. please don't do the classic copy and paste to your myspace or facebook account. Use them for personal knowledge; that's what this blog is, and I'm giving her credit. Please respect her if you use these questions, and give her copyright info when or if you use these questions in a public setting. We're all artists, let's respect each other's work. Thanks.