Iâve been obsessed with studying the artistic process for over 25 years since I got my degree in Studio Art and Art History at Vanderbilt University. After getting my MFA in Creative Writing, I headed out to Hollywood to produce national television for over twenty years. Iâve worked with many of the greatest actors, filmmakers, and writers of our time and written my own bestselling novels about artists. I read as many books on the artistic process as possible. My mission has always been to ensure that every person knows that they, too, can be artists â creating art isnât just for the âgreatâ, itâs for everyone.
Called âtremendously entertainingâ by The New York Times, Stephanie Storeyâs brilliant bestselling debut brings early 16th-century Florence alive whileâŚ
This is not just a book for songwriters. This is a book for anyone who has ever created â or anyone who has ever dreamed of creating â any piece of art. I donât care if youâre a writer, actor, dancer, painter, architect, or weekend crafter, this book will inspire you to approach your art in new, creative ways. Whenever Iâm feeling stuck or down on my own creative output, I return to this book to find new gems in its prose to inspire me. Tweedyâs love for what he does is contagious, but itâs his embracing of the mystery and magic of songwriting that puts this book above all others.
'A guide to rediscovering the joys of creating that we all felt as children.' NEW YORK TIMES
One of the century's most feted singer-songwriters, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, digs deep into his own creative process to share his unique perspective about song-writing and offers a warm, accessible guide to writing your first song, championing the importance of making creativity part of your everyday life and experiencing the hope, inspiration and joy that accompanies it.
'Fascinating.' ROUGH TRADE 'Eloquent.' INDEPENDENT 'Nourishing.' PITCHFORK 'A proselytiser for the act of songcraft.' FINANCIAL TIMES 'A smart,âŚ
Iâm not a procrastinator in my creative life, but this book by the world-renowned choreographer Twyla Tharp kicked my own creative habits up to the next level. Tharpâs passion for creating art through music and dance drips off every page, and any time I open up the pages of this book, I am inspired to race back to my own creative projects as quickly as possible. This isnât just some flaky âartistâsâ book â no, it gives you practical tips on how to get over some of the biggest hurdles (like creative blocks) and how to make creating art a part of your life â every single day. Plus this bonus: beyond just my own art of writing, this book always makes me want to do something I donât usually do with my time: dance!
What makes someone creative? How does someone face the empty page, the empty stage and making something where nothing existed before? Not just a dilemma for the artist, it is something everyone faces everyday. What will I cook that isn't boring? How can I make that memo persuasive? What sales pitch will increase the order, get me the job, lock in that bonus? These too, are creative acts, and they all share a common need: proper preparation. For Twyla Tharp, creativity is no mystery; it's the product of hard work and preparation, of knowing one's aims and one's subject, ofâŚ
Bernardine's Shanghai Salon
by
Susan Blumberg-Kason,
Meet the Jewish salon host in 1930s Shanghai who brought together Chinese and expats around the arts as civil war erupted and World War II loomed on the horizon.
Bernardine Szold Fritz arrived in Shanghai in 1929 to marry her fourth husband. Only thirty-three years old, she found herself inâŚ
Other people kept recommending this book to me, but I kept putting it off. I donât know why, but I just couldnât bring myself to read it. Once I did, the only thing I had to regret was that I hadnât read it sooner. Now, Iâve returned to its pages time and time again to re-ignite my own love of creating and to remind me that itâs never too late to follow new creative dreams. This book makes me laugh and cry with the hope and pain of creating art, but the most important part of it to me is its relentless insistence that we all must ignore that annoying âYou will never be an artistâ putdown. Read this book and you will know, without a doubt, that you can be an artist if you want, no matter the obstacles.
A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, this memoir of one woman's later in life career change is "a smart, funny and compelling case for going after your heart's desires, no matter your age" (Essence).
Following her retirement from Princeton University, celebrated historian Dr. Nell Irvin Painter surprised everyone in her life by returning to school--in her sixties--to earn a BFA and MFA in painting. In Old in Art School, she travels from her beloved Newark to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design; finds meaning in the artists she loves, even as she comes to understand howâŚ
Billy Wilder was a genius filmmaker, but even if you arenât a fan of The Apartment, Sunset Boulevard,Some Like it Hot, or any of his other movies, there is still so much for any artist to learn from his fabulous creative brain. This is a unique book, in which director Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous, Jerry McGuire) sits down to talk to Wilder â not so much about his life, as his creative process. It digs deep into the soul of a filmmaker who changed the way we all approach storytelling. I return to it about once a year to dig back into Wilderâs brain to find new advice to make my own storytelling more effective and alive.
In Conversations with Wilder, Hollywood's legendary and famously elusive director Billy Wilder agrees for the first time to talk extensively about his life and work.
Here, in an extraordinary book with more than 650 black-and-white photographs -- including film posters, stills, grabs, and never-before-seen pictures from Wilder's own collection -- the ninety-three-year-old icon talks to Cameron Crowe, one of today's best-known writer-directors, about thirty years at the very heart of Hollywood, and about screenwriting and camera work, set design and stars, his peers and their movies, the studio system and films today. In his distinct voice we hear Wilder's insideâŚ
Who was the man who would become Caesar's lieutenant, Brutus' rival, Cleopatra's lover, and Octavian's enemy?
When his stepfather is executed for his involvement in the Catilinarian conspiracy, Mark Antony and his family are disgraced. His adolescence is marked by scandal and mischief, his love affairs are fleeting, and yet,âŚ
This is probably the most challenging read here, but so worth the effort if you want to dive deep into one of the most unique artistic minds of our time. If youâre not a trained actor, you might not understand all of the nuances here â Mamet is a definite theater guy and doesnât stop down to explain every detail here -- but any artist can learn Mametâs biting, witty, shocking creative tips. I recommend just letting this one wash over you the first time, but if you give yourself to this text and to Mamet, it is sure to give you a new perspective on the way we all create art and hopefully inspire you to delve into some creative expression that you were always too scared to try.
The Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, director and teacher has written a blunt, unsparingly honest guide to acting. In True and False David Mamet overturns conventional opinion and tells aspiring actors what they really need to know. He leaves no aspect of acting untouched: how to judge the role, approach the part, work with the playwright; the right way to undertake auditions and the proper approach to agents and the business in general. True and False slaughters a wide range of sacred cows and yet offers an invaluable guide to the acting profession.
Called âtremendously entertainingâ by The New York Times, Stephanie Storeyâs brilliant bestselling debut brings early 16th-century Florence alive while entering with extraordinary empathy into the souls of two great Renaissance artists: Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.
From 1501 to 1505, Leonardo and Michelangelo both lived and worked in Florence. Leonardo was a charming, handsome fifty year-old at the peak of his career. Michelangelo was a temperamental sculptor in his mid-twenties, desperate to make a name for himself. This is the fictionalized story â based on real history â of their heated rivalry that pushed them to create two of the most iconic masterpieces in all of history, in the same town, at the same time: the Mona Lisa and the David.
Dream It, Design It, Live It will empower you to create more happiness, abundance, and fulfillment while honoring your values for self-care, life-work balance, and living your truth.
Diana Drake Long is recognized as one of the world's master coaches, and her Dream It, Design It, Live It system givesâŚ
Fiercely opinionated and unapologetically peculiar, Marie Kuipers credits her New Jersey upbringing for her no-f*cks-given philosophy. As for why she spent most of her adult life underemployed, she points at her momâwho believes she knows better than God Himselfâfor that.
Weâre All Mad Here dares to peer behind the curtainâŚ