Is your calendar missing "assigned play"? Here are 52+ fresh Artist Dates
Play, and its many benefits, may be just the thing you've been missing each week
I have beef with time. I never feel like I have enough. You too?
Interestingly, I recently completed a poetry prompt to write the poem, “I want to be present where my body takes up space”. In case you missed it, here it is (please forgive the wonky in-post formatting):
The prompt includes an excerpt from Wendell Berry’s poem, ‘How to be a Poet’,
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places.
and as I worked through the prompt, these two categories of places, sacred and desecrated, became illuminated and much to my surprise, TIME, indeed, was a desecrated ‘place’.
Busyness is a plague most of us have fallen victim to these days. Some of us simply can’t help it. I’m one of us. A very challenging family situation, extensive therapy appointments on the calendar for all of us, ministry work, sports for multiple kids, a social life, being a parent and life in general have forced my working hands to accomplish their work-work within a four hour daily window (some days it’s less). Those four hours, then, become precious and anything outside of the necessary work is deemed nonessential or frivolous. So long scrolling social media. Farewell using the bathroom. Ha ha, just kidding. But not really.
I got serious about my schedule and set forth to eliminate all non-essentials, but that’s when the surprise was revealed. I had been incorporating many elements of ‘play’ into my healing journey, which was taking up a large portion of my week. I thought surely that nonessential will need to go, ‘maybe just for now,’ I tried to convince myself, knowing, abstractly, it was helping in so many ways. However, after a scrupulous examination of my time and productivity, I found that ‘play’ not only helped me in my healing journey, it helped me help others in theirs (which became part of my ministry work), it provided fresh ideas and inspiration for my art and writing, and it fueled my creativity with energy and excitement. And here was the lightbulb moment: there was NO WAY play was going anywhere. In fact, I learned to reframe ‘play’ as an essential part of my work and thus its importance on my very time-limited calendar. I now genuinely embrace the words of Albert Einstein, “Play is the highest form of research.” It’s no longer a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have. Friedrich Nietzsche, a renowned philosopher, once said, “You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.” How lovely is that? Let’s, then, embrace the chaos as part of our work!
So, let’s get practical - what does that work look like on my calendar? The Artist Date.
The Artist Date
Artist, author, and according to The New York Times, “Queen of Change”, Julia Cameron, coined the term ‘artist date’ and wrote all about it in her wildly popular and international bestselling book, “The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path for Higher Creativity.”
According to her site, JuliaCameronlive.com,
Artist Dates are assigned play.
The Artist Date is a once-weekly, festive, solo expedition to explore
something that interests you. The Artist Date need not be overtly
“artistic” — think mischief more than mastery. Artist Dates fire up the
imagination. They spark whimsy. They encourage play. Since art is about the
play of ideas, they feed our creative work by replenishing our inner well
of images and inspiration. When choosing an Artist Date, it is good to ask
yourself, “what sounds fun?” — and then allow yourself to try it.
It’s likely some of us may need help with coming up with ideas for playing. Luckily for you, I’ve created a list of 52+ Artist Dates, one for every week of the year. Some are simple and can be accomplished in an hour or in your own home; some take a little more advanced planning and time. Some you may want to alter a bit to suit your “this sounds fun” needs. And some you may need to encourage yourself to stretch out of your comfort zone for the sake of new experiences. Therein lies part of the personal ‘mischief’ Ms. Cameron encourages.
If you have ideas or have been on Artist Dates that didn’t make the list, please share them in the comments! I’d love for this list to grow.
One final note on the artist date. This is something I always say on day one of small groups I’ve led, or weeks-long workshops:
you will get out of it what you put into it.
Be present to yourself on your artist date. You are worth the time and investment you are putting into yourself. I truly feel artist dates are not only for me, but because they make me a better person, calm my nervous system, give me fresh perspective and ideas, they are also for my marriage, my family, and my community. So, hey, there’s a lot on the line here, folks! Embody yourself. You never know what lies on the other side.
An ‘Artist Date’ idea for every week of the year
Go to the library and gather ONE genre of book, find a comfy spot, and read away - or skim, or look only at the illustrations. A few ideas for genres: children’s picture books with the loveliest covers, poetry, gardens, and travel. Why one genre only? Because, if you are like me, I can easily get overwhelmed with a free hour or two and when it comes to books, ‘my eyes are bigger than my stomach,’ so I find myself overwhelmed in excitement with wanting to get too much in. One genre simply helps to reel it in. If you don’t have that challenge, do it your way.
Walk through a historic cemetery, particularly one with trees in the fall to enjoy the foliage. Pay attention to the epitaphs. Take photos of your favorite. Then, write your epitaph or an epitaph for a loved one.
Process a magazine, meaning once you have finished reading the magazine, use scissors to cut out all of the images, words, phrases, and anything else interesting that you may be able to use in your art later. Extend this experience even further by doing it in a fun place, like a coffee shop. I like to do this when we are on long drives (and I’m in the passenger seat). I bring my magazines, scissors, and two plastic baggies - one for words and phrases, and one for images - and cut away. If you want to try this, be sure to bring an extra small bag, like a plastic grocery bag, for all of the little clippings and papers to recycle.
Take an hour to organize your books in any way that feels nourishing or more life-giving to you. You may want to put genres together, or make a ‘to read next’ area on your shelf. Maybe you’d even like to create an inventory for the books you own in a spreadsheet for quick reference and include a rating or one or two major takeaways from the book so you’ll know what books you own and your summarized thoughts about each one all in one area.
Purchase a blank card set from the craft store (or online) and use painted papers or old art to cut out the ‘front’ of your card. Glue down the rectangle and use a flat edge to press out all of the air bubbles. You could make entire sets to use as gifts for your friends and family1 or keep them to use for yourself. Then, write notes to your friends and mail them.
Bring a picnic blanket and your phone to a large, wide open grassy field on a ‘Charlie Brown’ blue-sky, fluffy cloudy day. Lay on your back and take photos of the cloud shapes. Use the ‘markup’ feature in your phone app to draw/create creatures from them, or wait until you get home and print them and draw the creatures on them.
Bring a small notebook and pen and go on a slow sensory nature walk. Be mindful about each of your senses, one at a time, and record your discoveries. Notice the obvious, yes, but then, try to stretch beyond the surface. For example, instead of only noticing the beautiful, colorful leaves, also notice a mushroom growing inside a dark, hollowed log. Instead of only hearing the crow’s chattering overhead, listen for the squirrel chewing a nut from a limb above your head and notice how you can hear both the chewing, and the pieces falling to the ground on top of the crunchy leaves.
Go on a ‘feelings walk’ through your home. Pay attention (and record your discoveries, if you feel inspired to do so) to what brings you joy, what causes stress and anxiety, and any other emotions that may arise. Then, make some changes based on these findings. I always recommend using a feelings wheel to help you name what you’re feeling. I have a lot more to say about this later and in my ‘The Healing Home’ series coming up. Check out this reel:
Spend an hour, or more, exploring fresh, new music. Allow yourself to go down a rabbit hole with it. Create a playlist. Create multiple playlists for different moods. I absolutely recommend making a summertime playlist with at least 50 songs so you can play it on repeat while hanging out at the pool or with friends. Don’t filter what you like. If Tribe Called Quest, Fleetwood Mac, and Otis Redding bring you joy, put their songs on it despite the variation. Make it uniquely yours
Visit a forest or nature-rich area and make a nature mandala. Take a photo of it and print it like a piece of fine photography art. Frame it.
During the fall, on a nature walk, gather beautiful leaves and bring them home to press. During the summer, do this with flowers. Of course, make sure you are allowed to pick and bring your specimens home, first. Get creative with how to use them.
Go for a car ride, get lost or don’t, but intentionally find your number one pick for a karaoke song in case the opportunity arises when you may need to know one on the spot. You never know when someone will hand you a mic and you will want to be ready at all times. Please don’t miss this one, friends. Even if you aren’t a ‘vocalist,’ you should know your karaoke pick. I have more than one but mine include ‘Killing Me Softly’ by Lauryn Hill, ‘Come Sail Away’ by Styx, and of course since I have a killer Michael McDonald voice, and a thing for early 90’s, ‘I Keep Forgettin’.’
Research and find a beautiful church with stained glass windows or incredible art that welcomes visitors to come and sit in their pews/rows to worship. Spend some time alone in prayer, surrender, or worship. Perhaps you’ll want to photograph or sketch the stained windows, too.
Practice your Christian testimony out loud. Do it in the car, or while you’re getting dressed, or in front of your mirror. Just practice it ‘til you find a version you love and then, go out and find ways to use it!
Head to a coffee shop and plan to doodle the entire time, either on some napkins, scratch paper, or in your art journal. Just remember to bring a good pen. I like the Uniball Air Mirco Pen.
Sign up for and go on a historical walking tour, or any walking tour (urban art, restaurant district, etc.), in your or a nearby town.
Make a date to think. In
’s fabulous book, The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy in the Everyday, he suggests showing up to a cafe (or wherever suits you) ‘and commit to absolutely no distractions from whatever you want to think about'.Attend a silent retreat. Some places offer half and full days if you aren’t yet ready to commit to a full weekend.
Plan to do something, ANYTHING, exciting and out of your comfort zone. I recently went to a poetry slam where I was the minority and the poetry topics were not my typical genre of interest, but I learned so much from the experience and despite my discomfort, it was well worth it.
Visit a florist shop. Bonus if they have their own cutting garden on property that you can walk through and explore. Extend this even further by creating your own bouquet of all the flowers that you found the prettiest. You could also sign up for and take a floral bouquet arrangement workshop.
Cut dead flowers and beautiful ghost-plants and arrange them in a vase. Ask permission if it’s not on your property. Take artistic photos of your creations.
Go to a busy diner and eat by yourself. People watch and bring a notebook and sketch what you see or write notes of your observations. Eavesdrop and record conversations or quotes around you.
Visit an art museum. Make it a different experience if you have already been many times. Get creative with how you might do this but some examples are: find a piece of sacred art and practice visio divina, read everything on the museum labels and scan the QR codes to learn more about the artists, sit to watch their videos, or write poetry about pieces that speak to you.
Go antique, thrift, estate sale, or yard sale shopping.
Pray prostrate on the ground.
Take a free online art workshop. There are many artists offering them and I will be one of them soon!
Set aside a specific amount of time to play, explore, and make discoveries with forgotten art media or art media you don’t get a chance to use too often. I’m looking at you, gouache.
Visit retails stores of something you have an interest in but don’t buy often for yourself, or at all. For me, examples might include visiting a unique, hand made jewelry store. It could be a custom hat shop, boots or fancy shoes, perfumes or lotions, or gems and minerals. You may need to fake a little confidence if it makes you uncomfortable to go into a store and know you aren’t purchasing anything. Just remember, they don’t know you and I have found, if you are completely honest and say that you just really love whatever it is and want to look around, clerks are happy to allow your window shopping experience to continue without any judgement. Get curious and ask questions about the products. Some shop clerks love talking about their products even if they know you won’t purchase anything because they have a passion about it and desire an opportunity to talk about it.
Pin an insect.
Find a small, beautiful bowl (either one you have on hand or one you purchase from an antique or thrift store) and fill it with something beautiful. Ideas are nature finds (goodness, there are a ton: birds nests, sea coral pieces or sea shells, seed pods or antlers to name a few), golf balls, rocks, scrabble tiles, crayons, or anything you find beautiful. We have these all over our home because they bring such joy to all of us. Mine are all filled with nature finds.
Buy ‘found word’ poetry refrigerator magnets and take some time to play with them and create art. In addition to allowing them to breathe life for a while on your fridge, take pictures of your creations. Here’s a word of warning: this always takes way longer than I anticipate, which is why I’ve dedicated this as an entire artist date.
Practice asemic writing to music. Vary your styles with different kinds of music.
Go on a color walk. You could either seek one color only or try to find as many colors as possible. Take photos or sketch and makes notes about them in your art journal. Another similar idea is go on an alphabet walk. Try to find the entire alphabet, in no particular order, in the trees and other things around you. Take photos to capture them. When you’ve finished, spell words with your nature letters and print them out!
Look through old photographs, either alone, or with someone, particularly someone who could tell you stories about them. Write notes on the backs so you won’t forget.
Make ugly art (visual, musical, with words…in any medium) that you don’t intend to show to anyone else, ever.
Choose a specific, contained area to thoroughly clean out and organize, like a junk drawer, under a sink, your desk, your pantry or refrigerator. Organize it in a different way (one that hopefully serves you better) as you put it back together. Perhaps even consider buying something to make it better, like compartment organizers. Add a little touch of joy, whatever that may be for you.
On a nature walk, or your back porch, enjoy an hour listening to the birds and use the Merlin app to identify the birds you hear. If you have a nature journal, be sure to add them to a new journal page or sketch the birds you observe.
Cozy up in bed with a hot tea (or cocoa, cider, coffee, or bag of popcorn with salt and cinnamon/sugar ) and watch an old classic move; it can be any kind (Christmas, black and white, 80’s). I recommend ‘Rear Window’ by Alfred Hitchcock.
Gather some scissors, a glue stick, and some of the items you’ve accumulated around your work spaces (desk, bedside table, car, creative space, etc.), including ‘post it’ notes and other ‘scratch note’ type items, doodles, mementos (ticket stubs), receipts, and glue them down one a page in a commonplace journal, or your ‘everything journal2’ to capture the ‘junk’ you accumulate.
Make a date with the space where you create. Spend some time there NOT writing, typing, or creating and think about what you might like to add to this space to enhance your experience while there. Perhaps you’d like to beautify it, make it more functional, add an inspiration board, or re-organize it. Perhaps recently you’ve thought about wanting/needing something there, like post it notes, tape, a journal, or specific book type. Go ahead and make those changes while on this artist date. Your date may include a trip to Walmart or Amazon.
Dedicate a table in your home for your puzzle working station and work on a puzzle. Many people rarely use their dining rooms. Turn that space into a puzzle space for a while. I dedicated an entire Instagram post on the significance of our puzzle table in our home if you’d like to check that out.
Write a letter. Write many letters. Make writing letter writing your entire date. The recipient can be anyone: future you, younger you, a pen pal, a friend who has been sick, a niece or nephew (who likely don’t get many letters these days), a family member, your future grandchildren, someone you will never be able or want to give the letter to, even your own children whether they are living at home right now or not.
Attend the symphony orchestra, opera, ballet, a theater production, or even a movie. Another fabulous idea that I have only recently learned about is attending your local high school theater department’s productions. We have seen some A-1 productions this way! If it feels wildly uncomfortable going to something like this by yourself, I hope you will at least give it a try one time before you say no. Once the production begins, you will likely not feel as much discomfort about being alone. Plus, then you get to completely immerse yourself in the production and experience without needing to keep elbowing anyone to keep them awake. Oh, is that just my husband who does that?
Go play literal games. Here in North Carolina, there is no shortage of arcades and ‘game night’ hot spots where you can show up solo and jump in on someone’s BINGO, Dungeons and Dragons, or Pokemon Go games (and many more), or step up to the Dance Dance Revolution, Ms. Pacman, or pinball machines and unleash your inner child.
Make a date with the sky. That might be setting your alarm to wake up before sunrise, or planning to be somewhere special to view the sunset, or finding a special place with low to no light pollution to star gaze. Bring anything along on your date that may enhance your time together, such as your Bible, an app to help identify the constellations, an art journal and your watercolors to capture the scene on paper, or your journal to capture your awe and gratitude to the Lord for his beauty and your ability to enjoy it.
Commit to visiting new bookstores - or record stores, or libraries within your county, or parks, or nature preserves. The point is to choose a theme and each time you go on your artist date, choose a new location of your theme to explore. One of my goals when I moved to the Raleigh area was to visit every bookstore on Google maps in the area. I have worked my way through the list and found some favorite little indie bookstores in the process.
Go through the prompts and write your own, “I want to be present where my body takes up space” poem
Set out on a photography adventure (using your phone’s camera is just fine) to collect photographs of a specific subject. Ideas could be as simple as small churches and barns, or quirky and interesting chain link fences with plant-life spiraling through or things that grow in between the cracks in sidewalks. Your subject should be anything that appeals to you. This is an ongoing project for me, but I certainly could turn it into an intentional artist date. I love photographing windows, chairs, and old, small churches…as well as plants spiraling up a chain link fence, and small flowers growing through cracks (and many other things).
Spend some time with an elderly friend or stranger. Interview them. They have so many stories to tell and I promise you will be blessed. I recently had the joy of sitting with Dot. She didn’t offer stories but when I asked, she was delighted to share.
Finally use this time you’ve craved for so long to create an inspiration board (or update your current one) for your creative space. I have two: one at my writing desk (it’s clean, organized, and neutral-colored and it soothes my nervous system) and one in my art studio (it’s colorful, full, chaotic, and it energizes me).
Write am ‘I am’ poem. This can be such a fun exercise. I have created a prompt worksheet to help you with it! If you are an art journaler, have some fun with your answers and turn them into a two page spread!
Plus, a few more tried and true Artist Dates
Bring your picnic blanket and a book, journal, or sketchbook and visit a park, playground, vineyard, botanical garden, or any place beautiful and read, write, or create.
Treat yourself. Go to a bakery, ice cream shop, or some place that has that extra special treat you rarely ever have and order something special for yourself. Savor every last morsel of it and have no guilt about any part of that experience. You could also bring your book, journal, or sketchbook to work in here, too.
This one is similar to the last, but instead of a treat shop, make it a coffee shop. If you always order the same kind of coffee drink, try switching it up this time or indulging yourself in the shop’s fanciest, seasonal selection.
Take a luxurious bath (bath bombs, bubbles, candles, essential oils, anything that makes it luxurious for you). Listen to music, read, rest, or pray while you’re soaking.
Try a work out you’ve never tried before and promise yourself you will get through it even if you discover you don’t like it within the first
83 minutes. I recently tried ‘wall pilates’ and was trying hard to talk myself out ofcussingquitting so I wouldn’t have to continue feeling like my muscles were a bowl of jiggly Jello.
52 Artist Dates in 2025
There you have it! Which sound exciting to you? Which might you try right away? Perhaps 2025 will be the year you go on 52 artist dates! Perhaps I’ll join you!
Be sure to comment with other ideas for artist dates that I missed.
Let me know how your dates go and please be sure to share this post with a friend who might also enjoy this list.
As always, thanks for reading!
xo,
Kelly
*This post contains affiliate links. If you’d like to purchase the items mentioned, please consider doing it through my Amazon link. I earn a tiny commission which helps to buy more art supplies.
Soon I am posting about the importance of normalizing home and hand made gifts. Hand made cards will be one that makes the list! Stay tuned.
An ‘everything journal’ is a commonplace journal that contains all things you wish to collect and keep in one area. They vary greatly and are completely personal. My everything journal has sketches, notes, collage art, paintings, doodles, lists, and glued down scrap papers and notes (and more).