Tag Archives: inspiration

Book Review Monday: Celebrate Your Creative Self: Mary Todd Beam

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Celebrate Your Creative Self (CYCS from here on) is a book that is for "artists" it's supposed to help you unleash your inner artist. There are 25 exercises in this oversize book that if you are in an artistic rut that if you read and DO them that can help get you out of that rut. (Sort of like when you get your car stuck on ice and you use your car mats to get unstuck…) The key here is that the ideas within are EXERCISES. That means you have to get your materials out and use them. That's the hard part.

The exercises are easy and can get you working sort  of in that automatic writing style. Once you get going you "get going."

This book is easily found just about anywhere and is easy to read but it's a studio book and not a bed side book.

I give it 3/5 binder's needles and 1 paint covered thumb up, only because I like my art instruction separate from my inspiration. This is a great book if you like the 2 mixed. You can get it here.

Here's a video from Millande with a short clip about the book. Turn your volume up, otherwise you won't be able to hear her audio.

Book Review Monday: The Century of Artist’s Books: Johanna Drucker

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I've written about this book before it's a gem of a book about Artist's Books. It's one of my all time favorite books on artist's books and art books in general. On my copy the cover is a nondescript green with red lettering. Nothing about it's outside seems particularly interesting but it's what inside that counts. It is an art history book. I make no attempt to hide that. Some of the text is dry but it's a very detailed and informative account of artist's books.
The pages are filled with loads of images, sadly all are black and white, but that doesn't detract from the ideas that the books possess.

AS this was one of the first books I read on artist's books I was amazed and drawn into the concept that one could go about creating a book that was their own art, not just a book that contained their art. The concept floored me. It was one of those moments in an artist's life that is a defining moment, something critical to move them from their artistic rut.

This isn't a book that is going to TELL you how to make something or give you a diagram nor a description of precisely how the artist created their book but it will give you a description of the book and an idea of how it was made.

I give this book 5/5 binder needles and 2 paint covered thumbs up.

This is a book for inspiration in addition be being another great reference on artist's book.
See more of it here.

Inspire Me Thursday

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I just found this site via SuziBluTube’s blog it’s called Inspire Me Thursday. It has prompts and ideas to inspire you in your art and journaling. They say this:

Welcome to Inspire Me Thursday…   A weekly dose of inspiration for
mixed media artists and creative types to nurture their muses and CREATE!

I think that perfectly fits the bill. It’s a simply laid out site site that focuses on the inspiration. The center column has quotes for inspiration, the right most a dialog about the prompt for that week, and below that is an area for people to leave comments- with links to your blog with images of how the site inspired you. At the very bottom are random bits of inspiration- a font site and flickr.

I really like the concept of this site- give a little inspiration then readers add to it and create the content- something like a wiki but with added inspiration.

Head on over and check it out!

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