Letters to a Young Artist, by Julia Cameron: A Review

Everyone has advice for artists who are just beginning their careers. Some people even have good advice. Julia Cameron imparts some valuable wisdom in her 2005 book Letters To A Young Artist.

Julia Cameron is a writer who writes a lot about writing. She has a lot of experience and she knows what she's talking about. Her book Letters To A Young Artist is just that: a series of letters addressed to X, a young artist making his (or her, it could be either) way in the world. The letters are steady and passionate, full of sensible advice for X. The book takes on the feel of an epistolary novel as the story of X's artistic growth.

A lot of the same advice can be found in other books such as Stephen King's On Writing. For instance, both King and Cameron discuss daily productivity and how one doesn't have to be a black-wearing alcoholic to be an artist. It's all good advice, worth reading several times in different author's words. Sometimes it helps to hear suggestions in a gentle, sensible voice such as Cameron's.

If this book has a fault, it is the way Julia Cameron brings God into everything, but that's a matter of me and my personal philosophy. She views God as the "Great Artist," the source and cause of all art, regardless of the art's subject, and keeps bringing it up. Much of her advice and viewpoint on creativity I agree wholeheartedly with, but not all. My favorite piece of advice is "you experience "art" as a form of the verb "to be."" (p.103)

I would not have purchased this book on my own. It was a gift to me, and I would recommend it as a gift to any sort of young artist. This is a good book to share and a good book to treasure.

This is not just a book for young artists, though they are the people it is addressed to. I strongly suspect artists of all ages and expertise levels can gain something from spending a day or two reading this inspirational, brief book.

Quotes taken from Julia Cameron's Letters To A Young Artist.