Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon—Love it!

For my Graphic Design III class we are reading a book called Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon.

This week we read Chapter 1: Steal Like an Artist, and so far I love this book! It's about learning how to be creative and how we are influenced by everything around us. Kleon says, "What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original." (p. 7)

My first impressions of the book are that it is very easy to read but I'll want to read it (or parts of it) over and over again; it's easy to understand, but with rereading and thinking more deeply each time about what I'm reading, I'll understand it on a deeper level; it's a book that can be used as a guidebook or tutorial as I put to use the things I'm reading and learning from it. It's short but it's a highly valuable little gem.

I think it's interesting that Kleon uses the word STEAL because it has such negative connotations. However, stealing like an artist means that you collect ideas all the time from everywhere that you can—by jotting them down or sketching them or whatever—and use them in your own creations; it doesn't mean taking someone else's work and calling it your own. Jotting down ideas all the time, adding to your bank of ideas as much as possible allows you to draw upon a large pool of ideas when you are working on creating something. Much of this bank lives in your own mind; the things you love or things that have touched you deeply are the things that stick with you—these are the things you should use in your creations/designs.

I do need to be a better, more organized collector. I have a notebook that I carry with me all the time. Do I remember to get it out and write in it much? Not really. I am really going to make an effort to do that. Plus, I can use voice memos on my phone! I can snap pictures on my phone! There's no excuse for not having a large "swipe file," as the author calls it.

I just reorganized my browser bookmarks that have been building up for years. Ugh. I got rid of a bunch. And, I now have a cloud-based bookmarking app—Google Bookmarks. So easy. Here is my link and what I've bookmarked so far: My Bookmarks (I hope it works...I don't know if you have to be logged in as me to see them. Please let me know.)

The author suggests climbing your own family tree by choosing a creative thinker you really love and study everything there is to know about that thinker, which we'll call a mentor. I am going to choose Jessica Hische and begin to study her and her work intensely. Here is a sample of her work.

My favorite quote from Chapter 1 is a quote by a (brilliant) film director named Jim Jarmusch.

"Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only thing to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic."

I couldn't agree more.