Week 9: surrounded by over 45,000 sketchbooks
Week 9: surrounded by over 45,000 sketchbooks
"A free museum where you can touch the art"
Hi folks! Through this newsletter I have been sharing my progress with The Artist’s Way, a self-help book for creative recovery by Julia Cameron. You can read recaps of past weeks here.
There are several good bits to absorb in this week’s chapter, “Recovering a Sense of Compassion”—that what we see as laziness when not being able to create is actually fear, or that the ego’s desire is to claim self-sufficiency than ask for help (me!!!)
What is most interesting to dissect though is Julia Cameron’s belief that discipline is not necessary for creating art.
As artists, grounding our self-image in military discipline is dangerous. In the short run, discipline may work, but it will work only for a while…Over any extended period of time, being an artist requires enthusiasm more than discipline. Enthusiasm…is a spiritual commitment, a loving surrender to our creative process, a loving recognition of all the creativity around us.
Well, has Julia ever tried writing a novel? Please let me know if you can write 80,000 quality words purely from enthusiasm. We live in an era of 100 day projects and Nanowrimo and 1000 words of summer. The Artist’s Way itself has a discipline of writing morning pages every day.
Discipline begets enthusiasm, and especially for people earlier on in their creative process, discipline is almost necessary to confront the fear and self-doubt. Certainly discipline is not the point—making something we are proud of and enjoy is the point—but it shows us that we can take ourselves and the practice seriously.
Visiting the Brooklyn Art Library
My artist date this week was the best one yet! I visited the Brooklyn Art Library with my sister on a frigid afternoon. The largest sketchbook collection in the world lines the walls of a cozy space in Williamsburg. Please go visit if you can—it’s free!
In order to check out and view sketchbooks, one uses the iPad or mobile device to search the collection (or see an interesting spine on the wall and flag down the librarian). The librarian then pulls the reserved book off the shelves along with a randomly picked sketchbook to peruse.
My sister and I ended up going through roughly fifteen sketchbooks overall. I loved how flipping through these sketchbooks by artists all over the world clarified that art is approachable and universal, but also personal to the creator. Being able to see multiple full bodies of work was like browsing many different artist exhibits at a museum—a rarity! Each sketchbook shared a complete story, whether it was about a summer trip to Korea, a funky acid trip, or the history of hieroglyphics.
Discoveries of the week:
Starting this new section of things I’m finding/reading/using this week (curated links are what I gravitate towards most in other newsletters, mainly for its digestibleness).
Savee, a neat & clean grid to organize your inspiration images. Basically a more design-y Pinterest.
A warm-hearted tale in time for the holidays with beautiful illustrations: The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse.
Reading about “the vinegar tasters,” an allegory in which Confucius finds vinegar sour, Buddha bitter, and Lao Tzu sweet, representing their different philosophies on life.
Trippin, a travel community with city guides. Using for my upcoming trip home to LA.
“The best thing you can do is not buy more stuff.” NPR's Fresh Air investigates what happens to our stuff after donation.