Book Review: Don’t Call It Art

Austin Kleon has long been on my list of folks to follow for advice and inspiration. I, too, am a creative person myself who likes to tinker across mediums (music, writing, art). His new book — Don’t Call It Art — is a collection of ideas of how adults can remember how to play and make art and other things with the energy and imagination of children, who ignore rules when making what they want to make. I loved the collections of blackout poems and artwork in Kleon’s most recent book (his most famous is probably Steal Like An Artist).

The subtitle? 10 Ways To Create Like A Kid Again. Yep. That tracks.

He advises us to ignore rules and instructions, to give ourselves permission to make art that is bad or unrecognizable, to remember that the inputs (reading, museums) are ways to spark more interesting outputs, and that nothing is wasted — even ideas we give up today might spark something tomorrow. And more.

Time to make something …

Peace (on the page),
Kevin

The HTML Review

I am always curious about online publications that celebrate work that is written or designed primarily for the Web only (using hyperlinks and scrolling and the intersections of words and image and design), and how artists and writers take that challenge and move their art in fascinating and unexpected directions.

A feed in my RSS the other day came alive again in its once-a-year update for the HTML Review, a publication that gathers a handful of web-situated experiences. I haven’t yet explored it all but I am appreciating the invitation.

“The HTML Review is an annual journal of literature made to exist on the web.”

You can visit the archives and learn more about what the HTML Review is all about.

Peace (in explorations),
Kevin

Art: Songs Are Painted Music

Kind of on a whim of “let’s try something new” this weekend, my wife and I took part in an Eggshell Mosaic class and we each did a small project used crushed, painted eggshells. Just before the session, I had heard an interview on NPR with James Blake, whose comment about “songs are painted music” lodged in my head, and became the basis for my project.

Peace (and glue),
Kevin

Book Review: The Guerilla Art Guide

I stumbled on this book — Guerilla Art Guide: Everything You Need to Put Your Message Out In The World — in the library by chance and decided, it’s worth a look. Keri Smith lays out a bunch of reasons why taking the art to the streets — in a responsible way — is one way to imagine that the world is really a canvas. The book lays out the philosophical rationale for why a person might want to leave art for the public to stumble upon, and whether political or not, how art might have an influence on the society at large.

There are a bunch of different project ideas — from Wish Trees to the Unexpected Object to Coupon Poster to Postcards — that push back against the idea of corporate advertising in our public worlds. Smith straddles the lines of legality, and urges readers to use material that neither deface any public facades and is kind for the environment.

I liked that the end of the book had a bunch of templates that one could use or remix, for making environmentally-friendly stickers (there is a glue recipe inside the book) and public postcards and more. All in all, Guerilla Art Guide was a quick read but also rather inspirational. I’m now looking at my public places a little differently, noticing the Guerilla art that already exists and thinking of the world as a canvas.

This book had a real CLMOOC feel to it, and I appreciated that.

Peace (it’s there),
Kevin

Daily Create: Font Failure

I submitted this morning’s prompt for the DS106 Daily Create — playing with fonts at a site called Velvetyne— but I could not get the site I had used to create the prompt to work when I last used it a few weeks ago. The idea was to use your own phrase and find an interesting artistic font. I don’t know if the site changed, or if I had the wrong link, or what. (I feel bad for those folks who come to the prompt cold).

I turned to another font design site — LingoJam — and played around a bit with the phrase Art Is Love, and then took a screenshot of some of the results, added a layer of hearts and a little music, and I was done.

Peace (it’s designed),
Kevin