Marry Your Muse: Making a Lasting Commitment to Your Creativity [Paperback]

Jan Phillips (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1997

Working and would-be writers, photographers, painters, journal keepers, sculptors, musicians, poets, and creative folk in every field will find inspiration and practical suggestions in this joyous book. This complete course in creative expression is based on Jan Phillips' smash "Marry Your Muse" workshops, and was chosen a Ben Franklin Award gold medal winner for 1997. In Part One, the stirring affirmations of The Artist's Creed empower us to become more confident and productive. In Part Two, anecdotes, photographs, quotations to ponder, fun and effective exercises help us discover a deep and satisfying form of self-expression. In Part Three, the heartful stories of working artists inspire us to fall in love with the artist within.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jan Phillips developed Marry Your Muse during workshops sponsored by the International Women's Writing Guild and other organizations. Her award winning photographs and feature articles have appeared in the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Utne Reader and many other national and regional publications. She has spoken and presented multimedia works at dozens of universities. For the past three years, she has been a contributing artist and coeditor of the annual Women Artists Datebook In Praise of the Muse. She lives in San Diego.

Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: Quest Books; 1ST edition (October 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0835607593
• ISBN-13: 978-0835607599
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #452,308 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jan Phillips is an evolutionary artist, author, workshop director and social activist. She is co-founder and Executive Director of the Livingkindness Foundation (www.livingkindness.org), a global network of grassroots philanthropists turning creativity into compassionate action. Jan is also co-founder of Syracuse Cultural Workers, publishers of artwork for social justice and global consciousness. (www.syracuseculturalworkers.com)
She has taught in 23 countries, made a peace pilgrimage around the world, produced 2 CDs of original music, and created several videos on the power of creativity to transform consciousness. Her other books include The Art of Original Thinking-The Making of a Thought Leader, Divining the Body, Marry Your Muse, God is at Eye Level--Photography as a Healing Art, Making Peace, Born Gay, and A Waist is a Terrible Thing to Mind.
As a performing artist/speaker, Jan brings music, poetry, and images to all her audiences, using the arts to inspire as well as inform. Blending east and west, art and activism, reflection and ritual, Jan's presentations provoke original thinking and evolutionary action. With stories, humor and cutting edge creativity, she connects the dots between science, spirituality and social action. Visit www.janphillips.com for her books, CDs, videos and calendar of workshops.

No matter what our attempts to inform,
it is our ability to inspire that will turn the tides.
--from Marry Your Muse

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a little too intense and heavy, April 3, 1999

By 

Connie M. Vaughn (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Marry Your Muse: Making a Lasting Commitment to Your Creativity (Paperback)

I have read pretty much all the books on creativity (The Artists' Way, Natalie Goldberg, etc.) and maybe I'm just getting tired of all the "psychological work" that is beginning to get in the way of actually producing any art itself....I do like Jan Phillips' personal stories a lot, and as a fledgling writer, fashion illustrator/designer and performer I can relate to all the blocks and fears she discusses. But enough already!! I do not get the sense of "joy" that the PR blurb uses to describe her book at all, but much like Julia Cameron's, her art sounds like a prolonged, painful and complicated birthing process. Personally I am experimenting with taking a road of less resistance, trying to actually follow my own lightness and desire, and who knows, maybe I will come up with a helpful workshop of my own someday! In the meantime, I would recommend Sally Warner's "Making Room for Making Art" as a down-to-earth, practical view into how mostly unblocked, working artists effectively structure their lives and time.

47 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MYM is about the sacred transformation we call creativity., June 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Marry Your Muse: Making a Lasting Commitment to Your Creativity (Paperback)

If you haven't yet realized the joy and self-empowerment of participating in one of Jan Phillips' workshops, MARRY YOUR MUSE comes as close to that experience as any book could. Jan manages to infuse the magical energy she brings to her creative sessions into print, providing a wider audience with her inspiration and her affirmation that we are creative, spiritual beings--no matter what we've been led to believe. For those lucky enough to have written, danced, laughed, cried, created in a Jan Phillips workshop, the book is further confirmation of the promise of our Muse: that we can in fact partake in the joys of creativity, that this sacred transformation isn't reserved for a few elite individuals. "Do not doubt that you are born to create," she says, "Do not believe that the realm of art belongs only to others..." MARRY YOUR MUSE evolved from "The Artist's Creed," a prayer of commitment to her creativity that Jan wrote some years ago after leading a workshop at the annual International Women's Writing Guild summer conference (an event held every August at Skidmore College in Saratoga, NY, at which she still teaches a weeklong session). However, the book is more than just "The Artist's Creed"--it's a meditation and a plan for action and a litany of stories about the joy of living a creative life. It dispels those nagging doubts about the existence of creativity in our lives-- and it stresses the importance of creating our art NOW, making time for it. My favorite Jan-quote is, "There are a lot of things we don't have in life, but time is not one of them. Time is all we have. One lifetime under this name to produce a body of work that says, 'This is how I saw the world.' Your work is worthy of whatever time it takes." As a Regional Representative for the International Women's Writing Guild and a facilitator of a women's writing group, I am often asked about books/tools I suggest for enhancing creativity, "getting started", dispelling writer's block--and MARRY YOUR MUSE is the first title out of my mouth (generally followed by Julia Cameron's THE ARTIST'S WAY, Natalie Goldberg's WRITING DOWN THE BONES and WILD MIND, and Dorothy Randall Gray's SOUL BETWEEN THE LINES: FREEING YOUR CREATIVE SPIRIT THROUGH WRITING). And then, after you've read MARRY YOUR MUSE, done the exercises, crafted your own imaginative work-- you may just find yourself wanting more... perhaps seeking to attend a live Jan Phillips workshop--to see where this creative lady is headed next and if you can thumb a ride. I know I'm looking forward to my next dose of Muse Magic in August!

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GENTLE support for Creativity!, May 5, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (LA, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marry Your Muse: Making a Lasting Commitment to Your Creativity (Paperback)

This book is very encouraging about honoring your own creative gifts, without making you feel GUILTY, which was my reaction to the book everyone goes on about, THE ARTIST'S WAY by Julia Cameron - just made me want to curl up in bed and go back to sleep!! It was just too demanding - Do this! Do that!! Like you had all the time in the world to devote to "Creativity" - MARRY YOUR MUSE is a lot more accepting of who you are... there are suggestions for exercises you can do - and some good ideas and inspiring words, but they're not COMMANDMENTS - Thou shalt be CREATIVE!! Now, JUMP!!!! ("Too hard" says me - "let's see what's on TV!?") Jan Phillips takes it MUCH easier - she encourages rather than commands! My reaction is, "Sure!! This is DO-ABLE!! And worthwhile! And validating! What's next?"