Ordinary Life
The first step in the hero’s journey
A NOTE ON THE PRACTICE
Ten Minute Artist is your daily companion in building a sustainable creative practice one reflection, one prompt, one ten-minute session at a time. Whether you're just beginning, returning after years away, or making space for personal work, these prompts create a pocket of possibility in your busy life. Your daily practice becomes a way to show up consistently, find your voice, and join a community of artists who share your commitment to daily ritual
TEN MINUTE ARTIST PROMPT
Draw 10 objects that Characterise Ordinary Life
The objects can carry their literal meaning, or you can pick some objects that represent a part of your ordinary life.
Recently I’ve been reminded of the ‘Hero’s Journey.’
If you’re new to this idea, here’s a recap:
Joseph Campbell studied all the ancient stories from great literature to ancient text and found that for the most part, there exists a pattern. He calls this pattern The Hero’s Journey, he even wrote a book about it called “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”and became one of his most famous works.
Though equally inspired by fairy tales, westerns, and 1930s sci-fi serials, George Lucas based the framework of the story for the original Star Wars (1977) around the theories of Joseph Campbell’s book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The book tracked common mythological motifs and argued that myths from around the world that have been passed down through generations—like Beowulf or King Arthur—share a basic structure. According to Campbell, “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won; the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.” Lucas simply grafted these ideas onto his story, with Luke as the main hero.
As we path our own Creative Journey, I thought it might be useful to look at this pattern that categorizes all great adventures, to equip and prepare us for the adventure of our own lives.
I’ll be walking us through a simplified 7- step version of the hero’s journey.
The first step being ‘Ordinary Life’.
Here we are looking at where we are currently.
It’s the beginning of our adventure, maybe the pre-beginning as we’ll soon discover. More on that in the coming days… today’s exercise is designed to give us a sense of the starting point of the adventure that is to come.
Tell us a bit about what you drew in the comments, I think it’s a good conversation starter, and way to get to know each other a bit better, which will be useful as we go on this journey together…
5 out of 10 items I drew are liquid, 2 made of papers, 1 electronic, 1 metal, and 1 fluffy 🐶
Considering 60% of human body is water, that makes sense haha! Oh, I just realized I left out my pickleball racket!
I drew my glasses, can’t see without, a skillet because I cook at least once every day, my Jeep, laptop, paintbrush, a big heart with initials of my family, my phone, a tea bag, exercise bike, and a water bottle. Fun exercise.