Knee Deep in Kids and Books

I have been enjoying my summer as a taxi cab driver, a vacation lounger on my own front porch, a gardener, a tea drinker and a reader. Not much art in all of that, but I count most of this as inspiration for later. The kids are not kids for very long and I have learned an important lesson from the first two. Every story and conversation I have with them means something. When none of us remember the subject matter of these conversations, we will remember that we had them and how much we enjoyed them. I will never regret putting down my pencil, paintbrush or book to hear the happy sounds of laid back summer conversation. It is the honey on the biscuit!



I have read this cover to cover, but have yet to really dive in and do the exercises. I like the way it is written. It reminds me of The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity in the way it encourages you to explore the world you live in through writing practices. I am horrible about putting the book down and doing an exercise before continuing to read. My curiosity gets the best of me. I don't think it ruins anything in this book to do that.

I had every intention of starting the exercises as soon as I received the book, but the summer has been full of pleasant distractions. I am considering doing a series of exercises and thoughts on the book like I did with the New Earth Series.




I am still reading this book, but I have done some of the image streaming. Back in April, I came across some interesting links that eventually lead me to read the book. Even though most of the information is provided on Project Renaissance, I have a hard copy I can carry around with me and jot notes in the margins. Yes, I am one of THOSE people. If its non-fiction, I feel no shame in writing my books. I haven't done this yet, but I feel it coming. I have had some interesting results with the exercises I have tried and I look forward to trying out some of the problem solving ideas and variations.

I can see where this and "How to Think Like Leonardo daVinci" could work hand in hand. When I do decide to start up my notebook, I am going to include some of the ideas presented in this book as well.




Just in case I never make it to genius status with the other two books, I decided to get a back up plan!

Seriously..

This book has been on my wish list for a long time and for just a few extra dollars, after eliminating shipping costs, it finally became a reality. I am very glad I bought it. I have a feeling it is going to be one of those I keep on hand and refer to often as I try to improve my picture making. Its broken down into easily digested sections and has good examples of the concepts in each section. I am anxious to do a series of experiments, after reading this book.

We have to go on vacation in a week and shortly after we return, we will be having house guests. I think of this as recharging my inspiration battery. Normally, I would be grumbling about the lack of art time, but I feel like it is a waste of precious time to be grumbly instead of just enjoying what life brings you. If all I did was paint and draw, I would missing the whole reason an artist picks up an art tool. To feel. Maybe, just maybe, it will make a difference.

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Art, books, Children, creative thinking, creativity, Education, Image-streaming, self help, visualization