May 2025 Newsletter Give us Five, See A.R.T.S. Thrive!
Five minutes a day keeps the block away. Five dollars a month supports A.R.T.S. worldwide. Five minutes to read so A.R.T.S. thrives!
Do you have something to contribute? Please send us poetry, audio files, short writing, A.R.T.S.- related stories, images of your art (in jpg.)! Those who submit work retain their copyright, and a copyright statement is included by request. Email the editors at newsletter@artsanonymous.org
Meeting Contribution:Thank you to the following meeting for honoring the 7th Tradition to keep A.R.T.S. self-supporting:
Culver City A.R.T.S. Anonymous - $109.76
Sunday Step Study Workshop – Step Eleven:The Step Eleven Study Workshop will be held on Sunday, May 25 at 8 am GMT/9 am CET/7 pm AEDT.Click here to register.(This is not a closed group; you may participate to find out what the Step might do to help.) The link is also on the News page of the website.
April 2025 Expenses: Office rent and internet; online software and accounts (Quickbooks, Zoom, Mailchimp, Adobe Suite); Special Worker salary; processing fees for credit cards, Paypal and Ticket Tailor; Kindle royalties. Total Expenses for April 2025: $1,755.63
April 2025 Income: Donations from members, literature sales, Sharathon, Step Study Workshops, desk share. Total Income for April 2025: $1,368.70.
A.R.T.S. Anonymous had a loss of $386.93 in April. It is the members and the meetings who contribute to A.R.T.S. Anonymous in support of World Services. Please keep A.R.T.S. self-supporting by donating here.
Conference Policies and Procedures Committee Meetings:Every Tuesday beginning at 5:30 pm PT/8:30 pm ET. Members interested in developing a Service Manual to propose to the World Service Conference are welcome. Please email conference@artsanonymous.org with questions or for the Zoom link.
What is your “before and after” story with your creative process? Many members of A.R.T.S. find that an understanding of how they approach their creative expression can deepen or change with personal recovery. What was your creative process like before you came to A.R.T.S.? What happened to change it? And what is it like now? Members are invited to share their creative process story to be published in the newsletter in 2025. Please email your submission to: newsletter@artsanonymous.org.
Thank you for carrying the message of strength and hope to the still struggling artist.
Practising the Principles: A Reflection on Step 12
By Patrick O’., A.R.T.S. Ireland
On Saturday, April 19th, a workshop was on Step Twelve in A.R.T.S. Anonymous via Zoom. The meeting lasted from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM Irish Summertime (GMT+1), which translates to 10:00 AM Eastern Time and 7:00 AM Pacific Time in North America. During the workshop, a thoughtful question emerged: What are the ‘principles’ we are meant to practice in all our affairs, as Step Twelve suggests?
Step Twelve: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to artists and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
This question prompted me to reflect on my understanding of these principles...
Curious, Grateful, and Concerned (you decide which you are!) members of A.R.T.S. Anonymous are meeting weekly over the next several months to develop proposals about the Conference. How should it be organized? How will it be run? What actions take place during the year in preparation?
The idea is that there might be a Conference Service Manual that the Delegates can consider adopting at the next annual meeting of the World Service Conference.
All members of A.R.T.S. Anonymous are welcome to join the Conference Policies and Procedures Committee to work together on this important and unifying process.
The World Service Conference (WSC) might not necessarily be fun, but it is informative, at times interesting and even exciting. The Conference directs the actions that keep A.R.T.S. Anonymous functioning and growing. Actions taken by the Board of Trustees, the World Service Office and the Executive Committee are in response to ideas and concerns from the voice of insight and opinions form ALL members of A.R.T.S. Anonymous attending the WSC. What if we could have the most creative and alive 12-Step Program of recovery on Earth?
While in fellowship at the WSC, the principles of the program are practiced, such as unity, trust, autonomy, and responsibility. What is most inspiring is how the WSC serves “our common purpose”; the value many of us find in recovery from the suffering that kept us from expressing our creativity. We do this service for ourselves, each other and the world.
About a year after arriving at A.R.T.S. - and I credit my Higher Power for bringing me in – I found myself in a small group of visual artists who wanted to support each other in making their art. We have been meeting monthly for about six years now. Most of them are members of A.R.T.S. although not all. As a mutual support group, we set our own guidelines for how to run our meetings. The decision was made very early on that we were not there to “critique” each other. Instead, we were there to offer positive, affirmative feedback. In addition, if any one of us has questions or asked for help with the direction of their work, we only respond to what is being asked. Those were the guidelines our particular group decided on.
My Action Group has helped me see and experience my creativity as a growing, evolving and exciting journey. Members have shared their suggestions as to how I can approach my art in a way that has made it stronger and more satisfying. My Action Group has been a major contribution to my ability to create art that has brought me solo exhibits and prizes.
In closing, I would like to say that no matter how distanced we may feel from our creative sources, no matter how long it has been since we were in touch with our creative spirit, or how feeble may seem our creative impulses, they are reawakening in our Higher Power’s time, through this program and through our actions, no matter how small or how simple, a day at a time. I may not be able to see my own growth, or even to see my creations as beautiful, but I am able to see yours as inspiring and enriching my emotional, spiritual and physical world. We are not recovering merely to hide our light under a bushel; our creative gifts are a gift. To celebrate them, we humbly apply ourselves, sometimes to the work of art, and sometimes to play. May A.R.T.S. Anonymous teach us that our art, celebrated, will benefit and feed our own souls first, and the world’s second, for the world hungers as much for this beauty as for food. We meet here together to feed this deeper hunger.
