Macy Gray waxed lyrical on this very subject in her first album. ‘I’m gonna ride with no one else’, she goes on to say, in an anthem that for me reinforced the importance of an artist date. I was introduced to this concept by Julia Cameron, who wrote that book that freed many an artist in hiding: ‘The Artist’s Way’. In this, she talks of taking your artist self out on a good old fashioned date.
Confession time... I love taking myself to the movies – especially the trash chick flicks. But an artist date goes one step further – doing something that enables your creative self to sparkle. Needing some sparkle, I drove myself to Rutherglen for a recent spell of artist dating. And the experience exceeded my expectations. Wine, table under the trees, weekend papers, musical birds in the background... am I painting a convincing enough picture for you?
It is often the case that the lead up to an event is often more anxiety provoking than the event itself. I whinged to my barista buddy that my actual date had cancelled and I didn’t really feel like going it alone. A feeling along the lines of how I would look being the only one dining alone. To which she responded with a look of confusion and bewilderment. The day earlier I had paraded my proud independence before her as I shared my New York Christmas plans with her – my solo plans. We are indeed complex beings and one of the great things that going to a yoga class gives me is breathing into this. Take a breath, imagine…
John Lennon changed the world when he brought this song to the world. And it is one that I’d like to think still has the power to move mountains.
So you can imagine my barista’s confusion. She bragged about how good a place my Rutherglen winery is and gave me a good old ‘throw caution to the wind’ pep talk. And it was indeed a beaut place. And what’s more, often when you go it alone, you get all this attentive service and random conversation. And don’t get me started on the photo opps. I guess that was Julia’s point when she wrote about the whole dating thing.
And being the romantic that I am, I’m all about choosing places that I believe are great date worthy. In one of the lines from ‘Imagine’, we are asked to imagine a world without heaven. And my response to that is that heaven is within us. We can either retreat or run from that fact. When I capture a gorgeous sunset with my camera lens, complemented by a melt-worthy soundtrack, I am often only left to wonder why I was ever hesitant of the solo experience in the first place.
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