1. Describe your childhood room. If you wish, you may sketch this room. What was your favorite thing about it? What’s your favorite thing about your room right now? Nothing? Well, get something you like in there—maybe something from that old childhood room.

When we work at our art, we dip into the well of our experience and scoop out images. Because we do this, we need to learn how to put images back. How do we fill the well?

Chekhov advised, “If you want to work on your art, work on your life.” That’s another way of saying that in order to have self-expression, we must first have a self to express.

7. Inner Compass: Each of us has an inner compass. This is an instinct that points us toward health.

9. List five people you wish you had met who are dead. Now, list five people who are dead whom you’d like to hang out with for a while in eternity. What traits do you find in these people that you can look for in your friends?

CHECK-IN

THE ARTIST DATE

1. Receive the criticism all the way through and get it over with. 2. Jot down notes to yourself on what concepts or phrases bother you. 3. Jot down notes on what concepts or phrases seem useful. 4. Do something very nurturing for yourself—read an old good review or recall a compliment. 5. Remember that even if you have made a truly rotten piece of

BURIED DREAMS, AN EXERCISE