A appointment with the artist in Medellin It is an individual and weekly outing to feed your creativity with the city: explore the graffiti of Commune 13, walk the Botanical Garden, climb Nutibara Hill or look at the Botero sculptures in the square. The constant spring weather and outdoor life make Medellin an ideal setting for Julia Cameron's creative outing.
Why Medellin is a perfect city for a date with the artist
Medellin unfolds over a valley surrounded by green mountains, and its mild temperature invites you to be outside all year round. The city has reinvented its image through urban art, public architecture and meeting spaces, which turns it into a mosaic of visual stimuli for those who come out to look.
For the Artist's Way, the great advantage of Medellin is its culture of public space: parks, libraries, squares, gardens and the metro and metrocable itself are places where you can observe life without spending money. Your date with the artist here can be as simple as a cable ride over the rooftops.
15 corners of Medellin for your date with the artist
You don't have to spend money or go far. The appointment with the artist consists of going out alone, without a cell phone or company, to a place that gives you images, textures and silence. Here you have specific ideas, ordered by type of plan, so you can choose according to your week.
Commune 13
The tour of graffiti, escalators and music of this transformed neighborhood is an explosion of color and story. Going on a calm day, looking at each mural, is an intense creative date.
Medellin Botanical Garden
Free entry and a lung of tropical flora with orchideorama, lakes and birds. Walking slowly with the notebook fills the well with greens and sounds.
Pueblito Paisa (Cerro Nutibara)
A replica of an Antioquian town on the top of a hill, with views of the entire city. The perspective from above reorders ideas.
Plaza Botero and Museum of Antioquia
Twenty-three monumental outdoor sculptures by Botero and a museum next door. Looking at those round volumes in the historic center is a lesson in form.
Arví Park
It is reached by metro cable through the forest: the reserve offers trails, clean air and silence on the outskirts. A nature date without leaving public transport.
Wishes Park
An open water, planetarium and meeting space in front of the university. Sitting down to watch students and families is an appointment of urban observation.
Explora Park and surroundings
The northern area concentrates science, gardens and recent architecture. Walking it is a walk of modern stimuli.
How to plan your appointment with the artist in Medellin
Take advantage of the fact that the weather is almost never bad in Medellin: set your weekly appointment and stick to it. Use the subway and metrocable as part of the experience—travelling above the city is in itself a date with the artist—and avoid rushing. The instruction is to go alone, without headphones and without using your cell phone except to orient yourself.
It alternates neighborhoods of color and story (Commune 13) with spaces of green calm (Botanic Garden, Arví Park). When you're done, don't tell anyone what you saw yet: keep the images to yourself. They will reappear at your work when you least expect it.
The best time and time for your appointment with the artist in Medellin
Medellin is the city of eternal spring: mild temperatures all year round, with more frequent rains in the afternoon. This makes it perfect for outdoor dates almost any day, although it is a good idea to bring an umbrella just in case. Timing well makes the date flow rather than becoming a fight against the weather or crowds. The artist appointment works best when the environment is with you, so adapt the plan to the season you are in.
As for the time, the first in the morning and the last in the afternoon are usually the most magical: there are fewer people, the light is more beautiful and the city has a slower pace. Set aside a block of at least an hour—two if you can—and don't fill it with errands. The date is not productivity disguised as a walk: it is time dedicated exclusively to receiving, looking and playing.
Combine the quote with the artist and the morning pages
The date with the artist is only one half of Julia Cameron's method; the other are the morning pages: three pages written by hand every morning, as soon as you wake up, without objective or judge. While the quote fills the well with images, the pages empty the mental noise that covers up creativity. They work as a pair: one receives, the other downloads.
In Medellin you can easily combine both practices. You can write your pages in a cafe in El Poblado or in Wishes Park and then take the metrocable to Arví Park. Writing the pages outside the home, on a bench or a quiet table before starting your walk, turns the entire morning into a creative ritual. They don't have to be different days: a long quote can start with the pages and continue with the observation.
Common mistakes that ruin the date (and how to avoid them)
The most common mistake is turn the date into a social outing. As soon as you invite someone, it stops being a date with the artist and becomes a plan with friends, which is very good but serves another function. Loneliness is not a defect of the date: it is its active ingredient.
The second error is use mobile. Taking photos, checking messages, or searching for information breaks the mindfulness that makes going out valuable. The urban art of Commune 13 cries out for photos; Go on a quiet day and spend time looking at the murals slowly rather than capturing them. The third mistake is to demand a result: the quote does not have to produce a specific idea or be justified with something "useful." Its value appears days later, when the images you collected reappear on their own in your work. Go, see, enjoy and trust the process.
A fourth, more subtle error is treat the appointment as another obligation on the list. If you experience it as a task that must be crossed off, it loses its meaning. The appointment with the artist is a gift you give yourself, not a duty; Approach it with curiosity and lightness, like someone going out to play. And if one day you can't make the full outing, do a small version—fifteen minutes looking out a window also counts—rather than skipping it. Imperfect consistency is worth much more than sporadic perfection: it is the repetition week after week that, over time, truly transforms your relationship with creativity.