How to Avoid Making Art
Written by: Julia Cameron
Editorial Reviews:
This hilarious look at creative blockage and blunder is a laugh-out-loud tribute to artist procrastination.
In How to Avoid Making Art, the bestselling author of The Artist's Way delivers a (tongue-in-cheek!) guide to doing anything and everything you possibly can to avoid making art. Anyone who is engaged in a creative pursuit will no doubt identify with these wonderful cartoons by award-winning artist Elizabeth Cameron of creative wannabes doing everything except actually getting down to work.
"For most people creativity is a serious business," says Julia Cameron. "They forget the telling phrase 'the play of ideas' and think that they need to knuckle down and work more. Often, the reverse is true. They need to play." Ultimately, the characters in this book show us how we can turn our procrastination into play and our play into great work. With this delightful volume, Julia Cameron once again hits the nail on the head on the subject of creativity.
If you like "How to Avoid Making Art, you might also like ...
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:
Summary: My Junior High School Student Loved IT!
Comment: I took this book to my tutoring session, where a very bored Naisa wanted to leave early. When I offered her this book to read, some out loud, she perked up. Kids are often bored. She asked to borrow it, so I said YES. On the last day, she did not have it with her, so I told her it was a gift.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Get on with it!
Comment: Julia Cameron says we are creative but we so often say not. The Artist's Way, her first book, kicked this excuse in to touch with its guide to defeating inner demons and rewarding creative angels. In a nutshell, write a morning journal on anything for three pages to ambush your inner critic and go out alone weekly to any artistic event to refresh your imagination. It works...honest! An Art Exhibition got me thinking about writing in these ways.
* A picture with images falling out and in...so why not a story of characters and events that fall in and out of the main plot
* Victorian prints mixed with photographic images and unnaturalistic stencils combine to create eerie and disturbing images... so create a story by taking a random handful of images cut from magazines as a starting point
* Pictures of ordinary objects made macabre... have images in the story at odds with the readers expectation, make the corpse of a women erotic, the murder comedic
Don't get it? Then read How to Avoid Making Art (or Anything Else You Enjoy) which attacks those inner demons with witty cartoons. Recognize any of these...
*Read all the forwarded emails from your friends instead of writing your novel
*Choose someone feels their dreams and goals are more important then yours
*Understand no circumstances make any art just for fun
Play and creativity follows is what she wants you to accept. Writing or painting class are still needed to learn the tricks of the trade but your imagination is already waiting to burst out.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A great reminder to artists who somehow don't make any art
Comment: Oh, come on - you know you do it, too. You tell yourself you're going to write that novel, or paint that picture, or learn that song, but somehow you end up doing anything and everything else. With humorous illustrations, this book shows artists how they themselves are their own worst enemies when it comes to actually creating art... and reminds us all that avoiding something is not the way to get anything done.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Charming and helpful for dealing with creative blocks.
Comment: I love this little book. I found it after reading The Artist's Way, and like how it illustrates, simply, all the negative things we say and do that keep us from making art. It captures and shows the absurdity of self-imposed creative blocks -- letting me laugh at myself and see how unreasonable my inner-critic and self-saboteur can be. This book helps put my creative blocks into perspective. Afterwards, it is easier to get down to just doing the work.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This is what I'm doing when I should be painting
Comment: This book spoke to me; as a writer and artist, I can talk myself out of creating, and this book confronts the reader with all the excuses. The whimsical drawings and insightful remarks inspire me to go to my studio and make art. I pick it up any time self-doubt surfaces, and I plan to buy copies for my friends who write and paint.
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Amazon Remainders Account
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 144
Publication Date: 2005-09-08
Publisher: Amazon Remainders Account
Studio: Amazon Remainders Account
 | Format: Paperback List Price: $13.95 Our Price: $4.94 Your Save: $ 9.01 ( 65% ) Availability: N/A Average Customer Rating:  |
Editorial Reviews:
This hilarious look at creative blockage and blunder is a laugh-out-loud tribute to artist procrastination.
In How to Avoid Making Art, the bestselling author of The Artist's Way delivers a (tongue-in-cheek!) guide to doing anything and everything you possibly can to avoid making art. Anyone who is engaged in a creative pursuit will no doubt identify with these wonderful cartoons by award-winning artist Elizabeth Cameron of creative wannabes doing everything except actually getting down to work.
"For most people creativity is a serious business," says Julia Cameron. "They forget the telling phrase 'the play of ideas' and think that they need to knuckle down and work more. Often, the reverse is true. They need to play." Ultimately, the characters in this book show us how we can turn our procrastination into play and our play into great work. With this delightful volume, Julia Cameron once again hits the nail on the head on the subject of creativity.
If you like "How to Avoid Making Art, you might also like ...
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:
Summary: My Junior High School Student Loved IT!
Comment: I took this book to my tutoring session, where a very bored Naisa wanted to leave early. When I offered her this book to read, some out loud, she perked up. Kids are often bored. She asked to borrow it, so I said YES. On the last day, she did not have it with her, so I told her it was a gift.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Get on with it!
Comment: Julia Cameron says we are creative but we so often say not. The Artist's Way, her first book, kicked this excuse in to touch with its guide to defeating inner demons and rewarding creative angels. In a nutshell, write a morning journal on anything for three pages to ambush your inner critic and go out alone weekly to any artistic event to refresh your imagination. It works...honest! An Art Exhibition got me thinking about writing in these ways.
* A picture with images falling out and in...so why not a story of characters and events that fall in and out of the main plot
* Victorian prints mixed with photographic images and unnaturalistic stencils combine to create eerie and disturbing images... so create a story by taking a random handful of images cut from magazines as a starting point
* Pictures of ordinary objects made macabre... have images in the story at odds with the readers expectation, make the corpse of a women erotic, the murder comedic
Don't get it? Then read How to Avoid Making Art (or Anything Else You Enjoy) which attacks those inner demons with witty cartoons. Recognize any of these...
*Read all the forwarded emails from your friends instead of writing your novel
*Choose someone feels their dreams and goals are more important then yours
*Understand no circumstances make any art just for fun
Play and creativity follows is what she wants you to accept. Writing or painting class are still needed to learn the tricks of the trade but your imagination is already waiting to burst out.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A great reminder to artists who somehow don't make any art
Comment: Oh, come on - you know you do it, too. You tell yourself you're going to write that novel, or paint that picture, or learn that song, but somehow you end up doing anything and everything else. With humorous illustrations, this book shows artists how they themselves are their own worst enemies when it comes to actually creating art... and reminds us all that avoiding something is not the way to get anything done.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Charming and helpful for dealing with creative blocks.
Comment: I love this little book. I found it after reading The Artist's Way, and like how it illustrates, simply, all the negative things we say and do that keep us from making art. It captures and shows the absurdity of self-imposed creative blocks -- letting me laugh at myself and see how unreasonable my inner-critic and self-saboteur can be. This book helps put my creative blocks into perspective. Afterwards, it is easier to get down to just doing the work.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This is what I'm doing when I should be painting
Comment: This book spoke to me; as a writer and artist, I can talk myself out of creating, and this book confronts the reader with all the excuses. The whimsical drawings and insightful remarks inspire me to go to my studio and make art. I pick it up any time self-doubt surfaces, and I plan to buy copies for my friends who write and paint.
Technical Details
Binding: PaperbackFormat: Bargain Price
Label: Amazon Remainders Account
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 144
Publication Date: 2005-09-08
Publisher: Amazon Remainders Account
Studio: Amazon Remainders Account
