Oct Book Club - Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko (continued)

The book club, hosted by Deb Prewitt of Blue Twig Studio, continued with the book: Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko for the month of October (see last month's post).  Deb has many good comments in her blog post. Some people finished the book, but some still didn't get the book finished - I'm one of those. I only got through about 2/3 of the book. However, the book is long with many techniques, examples, and exercises, making it difficult to read very quickly.

Thinkertoys is about changing how you think. It is mainly related to business, but can be applied to art and creativity or other areas in your life. The book is divided into sections for logical thinking and intuitive thinking with many real-life examples (right and left brain thinking makes more sense to me).  Michalko uses illustrations, as well, that include optical illusions, puzzles, brain teasers, and reversals, which he terms "Janusian thinking", named for the Roman god Janus, who had two faces that looked in opposite directions. These were fun to figure out and see how he applied them to the technique he was explaining in a particular chapter.

This book's main purpose is to help enable thinking outside the box. As Deb reminded us, many of us think in the same way no matter what the problem or challenge is -  we tackle the problem or the challenge in the ways we have learned all of our lives. It is difficult to change this.

The exercises in the logical sections of the book made sense to me and I figured these would be the easiest for me to understand and try, since I have engineering degrees and engineers tend to think in a more logical manner. However, I found that some of the intuitive exercises were some of the ways I found solutions to problems over the years. In particular, one I use is where you either dream about the problem and let your subconscious solve it in your dreams, or the one in which you let your unconscious mind work on the problem as you are falling to sleep and wake yourself before falling into a deep sleep and write down the ideas you unconscious mind came up with.  My father always sleeps on problems and almost always figures out the answer by morning. He discussed these with the family often. Generally, I take longer than my father to find a solution.

I applied this technique recently to a quilt challenge the guild I belong to issued for this year's challenge. We are to make 2 quilts, both 18" wide by 48" high - one about our origins, and the other quilt about where we live now, AZ. The challenge is called "States of Mine."  I readily came up with an idea for AZ  - a flower I photographed in our front yard.  However, I was stuck on the origins quilt. What did Ohio mean to me? Fall? My grandfather's farm? His pond where we spent so many hours? What??  I had a photo of the farm in the fall that I want to quilt or paint. However, it just didn't fit the long, vertical format. My grandfather's pond where we camped, had cook-outs, swam, fished, ice-skated - so many memories - it works better in a horizontal, not a vertical format. Fall leaves? - I already painted a photo of these and didn't want to do them again. Nothing else was making me excited. I slept on it for over a month. It came to me over several nights as I dreamed about the sky, stars, the Milky Way, the moon, Neil Armstrong walking on the moon (he did this on my birthday and we watched through the telescope - Neil Armstrong is from Ohio close to where we grew up), my father getting us up many nights to look through the telescope at the moon and stars. I've had an interest in astronomy since childhood.  When we visit family in Ohio, I always go out at night to look at the Milky Way and the stars, or when we camp out in the desert, I look at the stars, as we usually take a telescope with us. As I was talking about it to a friend, it just hit me what I'd been dreaming about - the Milky Way. My challenge quilt will be the the  Milky Way, if I can get it finished by the challenge deadline!

A long story to explain how I used the dreaming technique explained in Michalko's book. I want to try some of the other techniques, too.

This is a very good reference book to help think outside the box. My husband is also enjoying reading the book, as he has a small business. He feels it will help give him ideas.

Next month's book is The Private Lives of the Impressionists by Sue Roe. Sounds like an interesting book for November. But I've been intrigued by some of the Impressionists for many years.

Join us for book club. It would be more fun to interact with everyone at the store, Blue Twig Studio, in Colorado, but  I enjoy participating online via blogs and facebook.



Keep creating!!

Sept Book Club - Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko

Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko

This month's book: Thinkertoys: a handbook of creative-thinking techniques, 2nd edition by Michael Michalko was chosen by Deb Prewitt of Blue Twig Studio for the monthly book club she hosts. She has posted comments on her blog, which you can read here.

Thinkertoys is a very interesting book, full of ideas to change one's perception of something. In the introduction, Michalko starts by showing an illustration and then stating "Look at it again." Then you can see the hidden word and the entire message. Therefore, by changing perspective, we expand our possibilities until we see something that we were unable to see before. This is what the book is about - seeing things in new and different ways to lead to new ideas and unique insights.

The book is divided into linear techniques, which allow information to be manipulated to generate new ideas, and intuitive techniques, which show how to find ideas by using intuition and imagination. I've always thought of these more as right-brain and left-brain ways of thinking.

The author says that creativity is a talent everyone is born with, even if we don't know it. And that there are definable, learn-able skills that anyone can use to develop their creativity. This book is full of thought experiments and exercises to help with this - what Michalko calls a Thinkertoy.  Each Thinkertoy is a specific technique for getting ideas to solve challenges, with each chapter giving a blueprint with precise instructions to use the technique and an explanation of why it works.

I like Hank Zeller's comment in the book:

     "When you realize that you just came up with an idea that betters anything that has been done,
      well, your hair stands on end, you feel an incredible sense of awe; it's almost as if you heard a
      whisper from God."

The book, however, is geared towards business, so I have to do some stretching to apply it to creativity for producing artwork. But it does have ideas to help my husband's business, too.

I did not get the book finished. It's not light reading! It makes me do a lot of thinking about the ideas and how to change my perception for a problem (or challenge).  Deb said in her blog that no one in the group that meets at her shop finished the book, either. So the groups is going to continue reading the book for October and everyone is going to try to complete one of the Thinkertoy techniques. I'll need to read more before I decide which one I want to try to do.

See you at the end of October with an update on what else I learned from the book and what Thinkertoy I decided to try to do.

Keep creating!

August ATC Cards - Circus Theme

The theme for August for the ATC cards for Blue Twig Studio's ATC Swap is "the circus." I really don't remember going to a circus as a child, but I do remember taking my own kids to the circus several times when they were young. I think I enjoyed it as much as they did. So I have fond memories of the circus

In spite of this, I found the circus a tough subject for this small piece of art. It took me most of the month to decide what I wanted to do. I did several searches on circus images and quotes involving the circus to help inspire me.

I finally found a saying that I liked:

      "If you surround yourself with clowns, don't be surprised when life resembles a circus."
             - Steve Maraboli

This made me think of a picture of a bunch of clowns. This is the ATC card that resulted from this saying. I found an image of clowns and used that for inspiration for my collection of clown faces for this ATC card. I used watercolor pencils and Sharpie markers to paint the clown faces.

"Life Resembles a Circus" - 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" Derwent watercolor pencils, Sharpie
 Fine-Point Markers on 140lb watercolor paper. Saying by Steve Maraboli.

The other ATC card was inspired by an image called "Circus, Circus" by Marco Bombach. It reminded me of a 3-ring circus! It was full of color. All the shapes were created by simple geometric lines, curves, and shapes. It was very interesting how he created all the various elements. My version is simplified and doesn't connect all the lines, curves, and shapes like he did to create the various elements. I created the elements and then tried to connect the lines to make them look like they were meant to be created by flowing lines and curves. I also didn't use as much shading as Bombach does.

"Circus" - 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" Derwent watercolor pencils, Sharpie Fine-Point Markers
on 140 lb watercolor paper. Inspired by Marco Bombach's "Circus, Circus". 

I finished these late on Aug 29th and got in the mail on the 30th! Aargh!! I forgot about Monday being a holiday - Labor Day! I hope Deb waits to receive cards till Sept 2, instead of the 1st like normal! Oops! Need to get inspired sooner, next month!!!

Keep creating!!

Book Club - "Steal Like an Artist" by Austin Kleon

Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon. was the book for this month’s book club with Deb Prewitt of Blue Twig Studio.  The book is quick to read, full of humor, and advice on being an artist.  Austin Kleon wrote and illustrated the book as advice he would give to his younger self. 

 

Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon

Back of book  listing chapter headings

He starts out stating that nothing is original – "There is nothing new under the sun.”  Ecclesiastes 1:9 - that an honest artist “steals” his ideas - that we learn by copying. Copying isn't plagiarism, it's about reverse engineering to see how it works. 

       Salvador Dali said, "Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing." 

       Wilson Mizner said "If you copy from one person, it's plagiarism, but if you copy from many,

           it's research". 

       Gary Panter said, "If you have one person you're influenced by, everyone will say you're the 

          next whoever. But if you rip off a hundred people, everyone will say you're so original." 

       Pablo Picasso said, “Art is theft.”

Another thing I do that Kleon suggests is always carry paper to jot down thoughts, observations, doodles, conversations, etc. He says to keep a “swipe” file (digital or analog) of stuff you’ve swiped from others – notes, pictures, sayings  – anything for inspiration. 

       Mark Twain says, “It is better to take what does not belong to you than to let it lie around      

          neglected.”

Kleon also says don’t just steal style, steal the thinking behind the style. Don’t look like you’re hero, see like your hero. Study, transform and remix. Make art that you want to see. Write stories that you want to read. Write not what you know, but what you like! Add something to the world that only you can add.

       German writer Goethe said,  “We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.”

I love his advice to practice productive procrastination! Work on several projects at one time – when stuck on one, move to another – eventually you’ll figure out the first one and be able to finish it. I do enjoy working on more than one project at a time for just that reason. 

The secret is to share with people.  Wonder about something and then invite others to wonder with you.  The more open you are, the closer people feel to you.  Be curious, kind, have stamina, and a willingness to look stupid. And finally, instead of wasting anger complaining or lashing out, channel it into creativity.

Show Your Work by Austin Kleon

The last thing that really struck me was Kleon’s statement that creativity is subtraction. Choose what to leave out, so can concentrate on what’s really important. He gave an example about Dr. Seuss, who wrote The Cat in the Hat with 236 different words. When his editor bet him that he couldn't write a book with only 50 different words, Dr. Seuss won with Green Eggs and Ham.  It’s often what the artist chooses to leave out that makes the art interesting. Creativity isn’t just the things we choose to put in, it’s the things we choose to leave out. 

This is a good book to read more than once for the advice and suggestions! Makes me want to read Austin Kleon's latest book, Show Your Work: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered. 

Have fun.

Next month's book is "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield.