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I’ve written and spoken about this book many times before, and there is good reason. This compilation of letters, notes and lectures to the Robert Henri’s students are loosely organized by technical advice, inspiration and teachings that I come back to again and again. A favorite aspect of this book is how I can turn to any page and just jump in. I can’t help but feel like he was somehow a mentor of mine when I growing up… I found a paperback edition when I was around 15 at a used book store and it’s been dogeared and referenced ever since. No artist should be without this one! (On a side note, I’ve also noticed the my reactions to his paintings I’ve been fortunate enough to see at museums strike a very personal chord with me, the same feeling I’ve had before when seeing art professor’s works in galleries have on me. Since this book is all in text, it was much like being taught at school, without ever seeing the professor’s personal work but learning from their style and being schooled in everything they could pass on to me. Then: seeing everything come together in their vision on the wall, understanding how every brushstroke from their hand came onto the canvas for the first time… you understand that work more intensly, more intimatly, it’s a a non visual language that you understand from that mentor relationship.)
+ The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life by Twyla Tharp
I know a book is worthy of teaching me something great when instead of just sitting down and plugging through it, I reach for my notebook and pen and cannot stop taking notes through the length of it. There is an impression (stereotype?) out there that artists, because of their independent nature and willingness to change up the rules, don’t work well or are unreliable and flightly, etc. Though I know that holds up for some, Twyla proves in a stern fashion that there is a great discipline to craft, and it takes more than luck or talent to fulfill that potential. This one will whip you into shape!
+ Trust the Process: An Artist’s Guide to Letting Go
If you are going through a rough patch, creatively speaking. If you are lacking confidence. If you are not sure what step is next. If you doubt that you should even start on the path of being an artist. If you don’t know where or why to begin. This is the book for you, truly a favorite. (Hey, you might even avoid some psychotherapy picking this one up.)
+ Walking in This World by Julia Cameron
I read this so long ago, but had to include it in my list because I remember so many lightbulbs going off over my head while reading it. It was like a bouquet of wattage floating over my red hair, but I know I need to go back and reread it to recall exactly what it was. Most any Julia Cameron book will bring the artist to a good place in my opinion, and she certainly has a lot to choose from. I’ve read most of her books, but this one in particular is special because it inspired the theme to my blog from one little line, “When we express our creativity, we are a conduit for the great creator to explore, express, and expand it’s divine nature and our own. We are like songbirds. When one of us gives voice to our true nature, it is contagious and others soon give tongue as well.” (Bold added so ya’d notice the name there, grin.) I have tried to live by that since those words sunk in years ago, it’s become the spine in my work and I love to feel my enthusiasm build when I hear it flowing in my mind.
What about you, do you have some favorite encouraging books for artists? I’d love to hear your recommendations!
+ Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Lisa suggested this one as one of her favorites and I have to agree, there’s a reason it’s popular among artists! Go grab a copy if you haven’t had the chance to read it, it’s a slim little collection of letters, but you might want to take your time and savor it.
Counting with Wayne Thiebaud, for baby! I recently picked up this sweet treat at the Frye Art Museum gift shop and I’ve concluded that it has to be the coolest baby board book I’ve ever seen. (Eric Carle books are a close second…)
I recently acquired some school pictures of my very handsome dad when he was little, I wish my freckles were more prominent like his! He’s so adorable. We are the only two in our family of redheads with blue eyes.
I’ve been reading Iconoclast (a person who does something that others say can’t be done) and have found it to be really intriguing, especially since it’s written by a neuroscientist. Three natural roadblocks that hamper the innovative thinking:
1. Flawed Perception. (Chihuly didn’t begin truly having groundbreaking works until he lost vision in his eye, forcing his brain to literally see differently.)
2. Fear: Fear of failure/public ridicule. (Henry Ford realized how to deconstruct and reappraise fear, as warning sign, not a guide for action.)
3. Inability to influence others. (Be a Picasso, not a Van Gogh.)
It’s kind of fun to understand that the brain is a lazy muscle that tries to preserve efficiency by constantly taking the shortcuts, simplifying and categorizing. Once we have that realization, then we can be on the alert… continuously exposing ourselves to different environments, people, and novel experiences that will jog the perceptual system out of familiar categories. Trying to see things as they might be, and not as they are, is the challenge that will bring imagination out of perception.
Education consists mainy in what we have unlearned. – Mark Twain
I’m not the best at updating it often, but here is a little catalog of all the other books I’ve been looking at lately.
one thing we learned living outside of the country was realizing that people who enjoy pleasure in their lives are a better contribution to those around them because they are at one with themselves.
but what you might not expect is coming home and seeing the things that you don’t want to keep around. like the way you eat, oh man. what you might not know about the region of south america we lived in is that the people are predominantly of italian heritage. pizza, pasta, milanesas dominated the cuisine, and it was tasty. (and so was all that glorious meat, born and bred and eaten as nature intended, sigh!) when i went to italy at the height of summer and felt the rustic flavor of a tuscan bread soup melting sensuously on my tongue, it was like i had popped new taste buds. i really don’t know if words will describe that bowl of soup, but it was unforgettable! made with the ingredients found in a small radius of the villa we stayed at, it’s ingredients were never written down. that same trip, we would come back from painting in the sun all day and we took literally three or four hours to dine. (uruguayans and argentines know this pace as their own.) and during the break between a course, our group strolled outside to watch the sun dip behind the cypress trees…which was our cue to come in by the candlelight and have more. fact: italians = healthy, enviable relationship with their food. no wonder the slow food movement began in italy. they just get it.
i really like the optimism to be found in the “slow food” movement. the ideas seem intuitive and easy to grasp, and once hearing them i just don’t want to let go. so often causes worth fighting for focus so much on other people’s faults and what is wrong with society that negativity clouds whatever good might be trying to float to the top. and that easily turns me off. but how can loving a heirloom tomato be bad? and how did we get to this point anyway? where did food, in it’s natural state, become a new fangled thing? it’s all in our culture, but i don’t want the focus there. i just like the artistry involved, even as a little girl i would ask permission to bake a batch of cookies with the same eagerness one might ask for her first tube of mascara. mmm, always loved cooking. arranging and having a gorgeous presentation of home cooked meals is a labor of love i give to my boys every single day. i’ve always felt that if i didn’t care so much for the fine arts i would have gone to culinary school. (setup: audrey hepburn as sabrina fairchild in paris. 1, 2, 3…crack! new egg!) but i guess the culinary arts, well, that is still an art, huh?
sometimes it’s hard to find people as deeply interested in the arts, maybe it’s always been that way for me. so i find that food is an immediate bridge that quickly joins people who would otherwise have no connections. last week i blogged about how fashion mattered because everyone has to get up in the morning and get dressed…but that doesn’t mean that everyone cares about what they throw on. do you think that the same is true about what everyone puts in their body? everyone eats, and unlike an outfit, that eating occurs a few times in a day, so it would seem that more care and thought would go into such an occurrence.
like anything worth doing, relearning my relationship with food takes time. especially living in the city, where extra efforts will need to be made. there is a lot of undoing to take place, years of modern conveniences and fast-food prove it to be a challenge, but i’m determined that good, pleasurable dining can be simple. i’m one of many in a delicious revolution, and i find it best to refer to books, because inside their covers is usually where i find inspiration. hopefully you may find something wonderful from them too. and if this strikes a chord with you, please mention your sources too. my appetite for this topic is ferocious. and while i suspect this won’t by the last you’ll hear about it, i thought this next week i’d share some of my favorite and inexpensive beauty secrets with you. now onto the list…
“the way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world.” -michael pollan
i’m sure many, if not most of you (?) have already read the omnivore’s dilemma, but if you haven’t read it before, i just want to share that it’s one of the best books i’ve come across in the last few years, truly. and i think i could write an epic post here about why, but i really don’t want to spoil it for you if you haven’t come across it. i was actually in uruguay looking through my husband’s audio book library when i remembered he recommended it to me a while back. and i was feeling the need to hear something in english… soon after reading, i remember going to dine on free roaming, grass fed beef that night, while contemplating his investigations about food. which, i might add, was so refreshing in his journalist’s perspective since most voices in this topic can so easily be so holier-than-thou.
i can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t benefit from reading it either. it’s a broad scope that he delivers to everyone: the environmentalist, the consumer, the foodie, the agriculturalist, the health nut, the scientist, the parent in charge of preparing dinner every night for their family, those hooked on food taboos and fads…. it will even take out any drudgery or anxiety harbored in having to go to the grocery store. it may have you wanting to hunt for truffles and never look at a corn field the same way again, but mostly, it will really give you a sincere appreciation for what is one of life’s greatest pleasures: the gathering, preparing and eating of food.
p.s. has anyone read pollan’s new book, in defense of food? it’s been on my wishlist…
p.p.s. though we lived just next door to the blue star diner, we never once ate there. it was greasy spoon southern fare that i heard stuck to your ribs, but boy did i love that sign.
julia also sent me this little red riding hood book illustrated by one of my favorites, carmen segovia. the gorgeous inky watercolors give such depth to the classic story…
look at this splendid machine…put in your money… pull the handle… out comes a miniature book! in their delightful small format, there is an infinite variety to fit in pockets, made for the conditions of the metropolis reader. contemporary and agile, the redeemed publications await without special gestures in the machine with the speakers of the buses and the hurry of the pedestrians all around it. (rough translation from the book intro…)
a tale of 12 kitchens, or, the gorgeous item to have in hand when a girl confesses she brings home arm loads of cookbooks purely for reading enjoyment. (do you read cookbooks too? does this make us odd? perhaps we should start a club…) (more…)
who doesn’t love audrey hepburn? she’s certainly a tremendous influence to my own style. whether it be picking out a coat / my affinity for ballet flats and black cigarette pants / choosing to pile my hair high on my head or giving in to that insatiable desire to trim my bangs again and again, she’s an icon for me. so when i saw this little gem of a book at a shop here, i had to give in! you know, to properly practice my spanish and everything. here are some of my favorite spreads…from which you’ll recognize the greatest films…
