Do good work and share it with people.

A few pages into this book, I thought that it was really not for me. If I’m being perfectly honest, I only continued because it was a fast read and I’m several weeks behind on my Cannonball. It’s a book about creativity, and making things, and getting off your ass and actually doing it, and finding inspiration, and living a healthy life instead of just being a creative who drinks and stays up all night. I ran into some weird identity stuff here. I couldn’t possibly identify any less as “a creative.” I’m an ISTJ. I’m an Enneagram 5, ya feel me? I am pragmatic to a fault. I do not exactly struggle to make room for my life in addition to my artsiness, in fact I’m rolling my eyes a little just typing that.

And yet. I’m a professional photographer. I’m not some kind of savant, but I do good, unique work. I’ve been featured in two different art galleries. I have somewhat of a knack for drawing and cartooning and have always kind of wanted to something with that. I have a lot of experience making floral arrangements and really enjoy it. I do a few intermediate-level Pinterest-type crafts a year, usually successfully. Home decor is my major passion. So I guess you could just say that there’s a disconnect there. I do creative work, but I strongly disidentify with the “creative” personality.

Steal Like an Artist made so much sense in terms of finding your creative voice and using it. It would be applicable to just about any creative endeavor, but it’s not too broad to be meaningful, although I did find it very useful to focus on a particular thing and try mentally applying the advice to that, to keep it from feeling too abstract. It’s seriously a great book, and actually convinced me to go ahead and try something with the whole cartooning thing. My favorite idea in the book was to create your family tree – find out who your heroes and influences are, then find out who theirs are, and so on until you can’t go any farther. What a cool idea.

I would highly recommend this for anyone who makes anything at all to read once and then keep around for anytime you’re stuck in a rut. I got it from the library but wanted to write down so many quotes and ideas that it would make more sense just to buy it.