Artist - Part 6 - Art and Fear by David Bayles & Ted Orland

This is a book I’ve read four or five times, the last time was a year ago while keeping my mother company during her chemo. The book is written by writers for all artists. It really helped me create more work and understand why I do art.

The word “Creativity” is on the black list for these two writers which is something as an artist I agreed with before reading this book. Try to define the word “creativity”, it’s too general, a simple word put out there for non-artistic types.

I received “Art and Fear” just after I started teaching some classes at the art gallery. One of the themes in the book is; an artist should either be teaching or learning to be producing work. This was a real nugget! I started looking back to when I was recently teaching and back when I was student in art college… I was producing work! Teaching was motivating to produce but when I was learning…. I was producing like a mad man. So now I don’t paint unless I am learning, right now it’s practical colour application and composition. Some people seem to think you can learn by osmosis but it’s a lot easier to pickup a book or find a teacher (why reinvent the wheel).

I don’t want to ruin the enjoyment and knowledge you’ll get from this amazing book so in the words of Brad Hamilton to Jeff Spicoli - Learn it. Know it. Live it.