How to Avoid Making Art - Softcover

Cameron, Julia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1585424382 ISBN 13: 9781585424382

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2005

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Julia Cameron has been an active artist for more than three decades. She is the author of more than thirty books, including such bestselling works on the creative process as The Artist’s Way, Walking in This World, and Finding Water. Also a novelist, playwright, songwriter, and poet, she has multiple credits in theater, film, and television, including an episode of Miami Vice, which featured Miles Davis, and Elvis and the Beauty Queen, which starred Don Johnson. She was a writer on such movies as Taxi Driver, New York, New York, and The Last Waltz. She wrote, produced, and directed the award-winning independent feature film God's Will, which premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival, and was selected by the London Film Festival, the Munich International Film Festival, and the Women in Film Festival, among others. In addition to making films, Cameron has taught film at such diverse places as Chicago Filmmakers, Northwestern University, and Columbia College. She is also an award-winning playwright, whose work has appeared on such well-known stages as the McCarter Theater at Princeton University and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Reviews

Elizabeth Cameron's delightful line drawings of dogs in human attire serve as illustrations for creativity guru Julia Cameron's aphorisms about the things we do for the love of art. Cameron homes in on how our fear of creating art is rooted in the contrast between our pleasure in the process and dread of failure. And talk about creativity: Julia reminds us how creative we can be at finding reasons not to create. "Get your main sense of self-worth helping others instead of facing the blank page." "Tell yourself you can't afford art supplies, and buy five expensive cappuccinos while you discuss this with friends." And that all-time favorite: "Talk about it so you don't have to do it." Humor make points that would be less palatable if approached in a serious tone, and humor is the perfect vehicle for the no-nonsense stance of the writer best known for her groundbreaking The Artist's Way (1992). These captioned cartoons may become the next Far Side calendar for the artistic crowd. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1585424382
• ISBN 13: 9781585424382
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144