Book to Read & Challenge to Try!

Steal Like An Artist: Austin Kleon at TEDxKC

This book was highly recommended by Leon Noel, teacher, developer, entrepreneur and founder. I had heard of it, but never read it, so I looked it up and discovered a cool talk by the author. I have seen versions of blackout poetry before, but I didn't know the origins of it, which he thoroughly researched and presented in an abbreviated version in such an engaging way. It's unfortunate that the Ted Talks are so succinct by nature, because it's a fascinating topic (which I am sure there is a lot more to discover about in other talks or podcasts that I have yet to listen to).

https://austinkleon.com/steal/ 

While I am familiar with cutting out words from magazines for collage, and even using as random affirmations that you "pull from a hat," I haven't delved into circling and drawing on old book pages. (Though I coincidentally did just that in a group art therapy experience online, when I didn't want to use my blank sketchbook and thought it would be fun and different to draw with crayons in a book I had on my desk. But, that was more intuitive and less intentionally done.) I think the first step is deciding that the book pages aren't *holy* or too sacred to be marked up, graffiti'd upon, and transformed ... it's not vandalism or defacing, as you might feel at first. Then you go for it and do it. On the one hand, it might feel awkward at first, and on the other, it's freeing because you are starting from a place that is already full of content, such as it is to paint your canvas full of color before applying any design details or structure of form.

Attempt to embed a YouTube video that apparently did not work, but I'm going to leave it here so I can come back someday to right this wrong. (Later): well, I'll be ... I looked at the preview for this, and the video very well *did* embed, and *does* work. So I guess I learned something in my class I'm taking!

This is Mr. Kleon, a photo from his website that I think is so well done because it shows his personality in a single expression. An inspiring thinker and creative person, who authored this book (and others) and did the interesting Tedx talk that I am motivated by to do some "black out poetry" using the old books I saved. I thank you sir, and those artists and creatives who came before you to influence this method of working with words on the page, already printed and published, to create something new.