Fear This Book: An Odd Discussion of Fear and Art

Today I finished reading Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils and Rewards of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland. Let's just start off by saying that this book is not a How-To manual. The writers discuss how to art-make and all that comes with that hyphenation, but the book is a shallow dip into such subjects. While giving the reader a healthy dose of how artists and their issues, the writers do not give artists a way of working out such issues.

I know the reviews on Amazon rave about this book, but I was not moved, consoled or even angered by this book. The writers offer pithy advice that in some sense may be useful. But on the whole the book is flat and I feel, more useful as a justification for artists who are having a hard time. Others may disagree and argue that the book was useful for them, or that I'm not really an artist because I wasn't moved by the writer's advice or regaling tales of how the art/publication world works. Either way, I might recommend this as a starting point for this conversation, but I definitely would not recommend it as any sort of authority on the subject.

I enjoy a discussion on theory and craft, as well as the next writer-painter-illustrator-craftsman, but after reading the same ideas repeated again and again, I began to doubt the validity of the whole work. When I picked up this book I expected slight suggestions with the authors offering encouragement. Instead, I got a book of platitudes and observations easily deduced from an artistic life, while also dealing with paranthetical insertions from the authors or badly designed boxes full of italicized maybe-funny maybe-clever advice. But then again, maybe I'm just not enough of an artist to get this book.

Holding the Line.
Bri

Viva La Revolution

The Year of Books and Financial Aid

Today, I attended my first classes of the semester and then after two hours of being nice and getting nothing, I got pushy at financial aid. I got my loan money though, so I don't mind having to push to get my way. While I like to be a nice person, sometimes a little force is what's necessary to make the wheels turn.

On a different note, I have a stack of reading material that actually stands taller than me (I measured). I have decided that this, 2009, will be the Year of Books. After I finish a book, I will write a small review. Mainly, I want to keep track of this for myself, but I figure I can also give you guys some interesting book reviews. So, first up: Viva La Revolution by Mark Steel.

In this weird and quirky book, Steel claims that revolutions are not started by one group of people or one set of circumstances. Instead, these moments swirl up from just the right mix of anger, outrage, justification and ambition. While this image is powerful, I wonder if the American Revolution follows the same guidelines. Seeing as how we didn't end by lopping off people's heads to carry on our pikes, I would think most likely not.

The book so far, while candid and humorous, it also gives incredible insights into the motivations of men in times of revolution. In my steampunk-fantasy, I've planned an elaborate story about unrest in a world with many parallels to our own, so after taking notes I've got some pretty great ideas.

So, next, I plan to read up on the American Revolution, a subject I haven't touched since grade school because the founding fathers were always portrayed as boring fops - not the tremendous men who founded a nation and overthrew monarchy for democracy and equality. Reading about our founding father seems appropriate, seeing as how inauguration is only a few days away.

Holding the Line.
Bri