Artist Date Ideas for Summer: Exercises and Adventures
Photo by Morgan Sessions on Unsplash
Summer is a great time to get in some Artist Dates and do something different. If your Artist Dates, like mine, have veered more toward watching a movie on Netflix than anything really interesting, now’s the time to grab some new ideas.
What is an Artist Date? For those who don’t know, it comes from Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way. It’s a date with yourself, ideally done once a week, to take your Inner Artist out to play. It can be anything, really, as long as it fills your creative well.
It’s easy to get stuck in a rut with them, though, so this week I thought I’d offer a few suggestions.
Remembering Summer
Remember summer days as a kid? What did you love to do? How did you spend your time? What was your favorite thing to eat? To wear? To do? Take a trip down good ol’ memory lane and take some time to sit quietly and really remember. Remember the sights, smells, tastes, textures, sounds of your childhood.
Without really thinking hard, I wrote: The smell of Sun-In. Chocolate-vanilla twist soft-serv ice cream on a hot night – with chocolate sprinkles! Playing Marco Polo in my cousins’ pool. Coneys, french fries, and chocolate milk – my favorite meal from the neighborhood stand. The cool hum of the air conditioner while I fell asleep on Mom’s floor. Hiking along the scary stone ridge of Bald Mountain – and the amazing views. S’mores. Camp songs* and the smell of woodsmoke drifting on the air. The call of loons.
Write down as many of these memories as you can. It can be a list, or sentence fragments, or a freewrite. I bet once you get going, it will be hard to stop. If you get stuck, write I remember... and keep going with whatever comes up.
Bonus points to actually do something from your list. Get some sparklers and wave them around. Blow some bubbles. Join a summer sports league (okay, this doesn’t fit the “solo” criteria, but getting out and moving your body is a great way to recharge the creative batteries). You get the idea. Do some drawing – or fingerpainting! The point is, to get silly and have some fun.
Pick something evocative and write a poem, or a scene (or a story) around it.
*True story: my cousins and I were asked a few years ago to teach some of our old camp songs to some new families at the camp where we’ve gone for generations. We huddled and quickly realized: no family now would ever allow their kids to sing those songs. Our favorites were old frat drinking songs taught to us by my uncle. Singing about picking up lonely ladies in bars and firemen putting fires out with... not water... was probably not what these parents had in mind. We did manage to scrounge up a few G-rated ones, which we happily shared, while giggling over all the ones we weren’t. Of course, we remembered every word of the naughty ones, and struggled with the tamer ones!
2. Make a Summer Collage
Go through some magazines and cut out pictures and words that represent summer to you. Make a collage. Hang it where you’ll see it in the depths of winter and smile.
3. Go Exploring
Explore a new neighborhood, or town. Go to a new restaurant, or an indie bookstore. Take a hike on a new trail. Go to a museum – an open-air one would be nice. I’ve always wanted to take a tour of Fenway Park. Maybe I’ll get to do that this year.
If you can, make it a day trip.
Take pictures (if appropriate and legal). Or draw.
Write a poem about your experience. Or a scene or story. Or take your journal and imagine seeing what you’re seeing through your younger self’s eyes.
4. Go to an Outdoor Event
This might be a concert, drive-in or outdoor movie, theater in the park... of course, there are also tons of summer festivals, arts and craft shows, and fairs to attend. Going to a country fair puts me right in the summer mood. The food (fried), the rides, horse shows, exhibits and competitions (quilting, baking, canning...). Why not write a mystery set at one of these places?
Go to something you haven’t been to before, indoor or outdoor. I’m lucky to live in a city that has everything from afternoon high tea to drag brunches, but there is probably something in your neck of the woods that you haven’t been to – or at least, not in a long time. Farmers markets, flea markets, artisan markets, food festivals... the summer abounds with fun events to check out.
You never know what might inspire your next story, poem, essay, or novel!
5. Take a Class
Learn something new: painting, pottery, photography, a new language, a new sport. Take a cooking or baking class. Take a writing class in a new genre. Take an acting class – nothing like learning how to create a character form the inside out!
Obviously, you don’t have to do everything on this list! But hopefully it’s given you some ideas.
The main thing is to PLAN your Artist Dates. Don’t think that you’ll get around to it when you have time. Take 10 minutes now, and really think about what you’d like to do. Put it in your calendar. Aim for one a week, but of course for bigger events or outings you’ll need a little more time to plan. Try for at least one of these this summer!
Some on my list: Intuitive Art class; the Fenway Park tour; South End market. So far this summer I’ve done a trip to the North Shore to see some public art in Newburyport, and been to some Open Studios, and walked around Porchfest (musical performances on people’s porches - or on the streets).
Summer is short – we're in the first week of July already! So plan some fun Artist Dates and go do them! Let us know some of your plans and ideas in the comments.
