Not All Safe Spaces Are Good for You

This week I read chapter seven of Steal Like an Artist by Autstin Kleon. The chapter is titled, Build Your Own World. In this chapter Kleon talks about how creative people can stay creative getting out of their safety zones. He encourages the reader to travel and to meet new creative people, while trying new food of course. Kleon believes putting yourself in new situations to help your brain work harder and therefore he believes that creativity will spawn from those new experiences. Fortunately for the financially impaired, traveling to distance lands is not always required due to the internet. The internet can be a gateway to meeting new people and sharing ideas without necessarily leaving your hometown.

I agree with Kleon. This chapter reminded me that I need to break out of my routines and try new things. His words helped me to reflect on my own life and perhaps ways I could experience new places, people and things. And I took encouragement that I don't have to go very far to do it. There are plenty of activities and interesting places to go to right here in my home town.

In my past life as a social worker I think I've met a spectrum of people and I've had a lot of unique situations presented to me, but I need to do more. I should call my former co-workers and see what they've been up to.

That leads me to a great book I just read from Kleon's list of recommended reading, which I believe he got some of his ideas from, in particular, the "stealing" of ideas. The book is called What It Is and the book is written and illustrated by Lynda Barry.

This book is not your typical self-help book. Barry creatively guides you through an activity book full of lesson plans with her very unique collage-style illustrations of quirky characters like a magical cephalopod (octopus), a sea monster and a near sighted monkey. Each page is a work of art. The lesson plans help you visualize images from your past to develop stories ideas for writers or would be writers. Although this blog is for a graphic design class, I can see how her exercises could be very useful to conjure up concepts for the visual arts too.

In the beginning of the book, Barry shares her story growing up in a verbally abusive family and how she used drawing as a way to escape mentally. The similarity between Kleon and Barry is the emphasis of copying other people's work is very evident, which Barry talks about a lot when she was first learning how to draw. She has obviously developed her own style. She also hints at the struggles of being a creative person.

I highly recommend every creative person to pick this book up. Barry has created a little gem. As soon as I return the book to the library I'm thinking about buying a copy for myself.