This post will cover a recap of what you will find in Austin Kleon’s book, Steal Like an Artist, chapters 5 and 6. The accompanying video is below. I hope you enjoy my thoughts on the sections and have picked up a copy of the book for yourself.
Vlog:
Overview of Chapters Four and Five
Chapter Four: Use Your Hands
Chapter four is all about encouraging us to work the way humans have worked for years – with our heads and our hands. I.e., working analog. Working with our hands engages our senses in ways working on a computer or pad cannot. Several studies indicate that note-taking in longhand is superior to note-taking via digital methods.
In a 2014 article, appearing in The Guardian, the argument for using longhand, which involves so many parts of our mind and body, helps create “body memory.” Edouard Gentaz, of The University of Geneva, Genève, discusses the importance of longhand writing in education and in-memory restoration:
“Drawing each letter by hand improves our grasp of the alphabet because we really have a ‘body memory.’ Some people have difficulty reading again after a stroke. To help them remember the alphabet again, we ask them to trace the letters with their finger. Often it works, the gesture restoring the memory.”
Additionally, and of interest to artists, Claire Bustarret, a specialist on codex manuscripts at the Maurice Halbwachs Research Centre in Paris, offers some thoughts on the creative possibilities in handwriting on paper:
“Obviously, you can change the page layout and switch fonts, but you cannot invent a form not foreseen by the software. Paper allows much greater graphic freedom: you can write on either side, keep to set margins or not, superimpose lines or distort them. There is nothing to make you follow a set pattern. It has three dimensions, too, so it can be folded, cut out, stapled, or glued.”
The Smithsonian has an online collection of handwritten letters and notes in the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art. The letters, written by artists with discussions about what the handwriting reveals about the artists’ style. Below is a page from a letter from H. C. Westermann (Horace Clifford “Cliff” Westermann) to Clayton Bailey, St. Louis, Mo. where he thanks them for their hospitality and apologizes for drinking all their Schlitz!
H. C. Westermann, Brookfield Center Conn. letter to Clayton Bailey, St. Louis, Mo. 1963 November 17
I encourage all to visit: the Smithsonian’s online exhibit:
The Art of Handwriting
Kleon shares one of his favorite quotes by cartoonist, Lynda Barry:
Kleon then suggests that, ideally, you should try to keep the digital and analog world separate. Kleon has a “two-desk” workspace. One for digital work and one for analog work. In Steal Like an Artist and on his blog, he describes the types of work he creates in each space.
A Look at Austin Kleon’s Office (From https://austinkleon.com/2011/06/11/interviews/)
The chapter ends with a call to action. Kleon urges us to set up two workstations (If budget/space allows), one analog and one digital. Remember — No electronics are allowed at the analog station!
-Take $10 and get some creativity supplies from the school /office supply aisle (dollar stores are great for this) and pick up: pens, pencils, markers, paper, sticky notes, etc.
-Go back to your desk and pretend it is craft time, like back in kindergarten!
Scribble on paper, cut up paper, glue or tape the paper together, just have fun!
-If you can, stand while making your creations to engage your entire body.
-Pin the completed pieces to a bulletin board or tape up on a wall and look for patterns.
-Spread your creations about the floor and sort through them to see what ideas they might spark.
-Take the pieces or the ideas and enter them into the computer
-Make scans or digital images from your phone
-Describe the pictures either factually or describe how they look or the feelings they evoke
-If you “lose steam,” get back to the analog stations and commence with “Craft Time” again!
ADVERTISEMENT: ART AND OFFICE SUPPLY RESOURCES:
Chapter Five: Side Projects and Hobbies are Important
AKA: “Productive Procrastination”
In the opening of this chapter, Kleon advocates for having several “side projects” going at once. He suggests that while we are working on these side projects, many of our best ideas will bubble to the surface. Kleon also recommends “taking time to be bored” and doing mundane tasks like ironing, washing dishes, driving, walking, and mowing the lawn.
Here is a great video explaining just what procrastination is:
In a New York Times article, “Positive Procrastination, Not an Oxymoron,” the benefits of procrastination discussed, and a few suggestions on how to apply it to our lives are addressed:
“At the top of your to-do list, put a couple of daunting, if not impossible, tasks that are vaguely important-sounding (but really aren’t) and seem to have deadlines (but really don’t). Then, farther down the list, include some doable tasks that really matter. Doing these tasks becomes a way of not doing the things higher up on the list,” Dr. Perry writes. “With this sort of appropriate task structure, the procrastinator becomes a useful citizen. Indeed, the procrastinator can even acquire, as I have, a reputation for getting a lot done.”
An article appearing in Medium, by Jari Roomer, advises. “Don’t Fall Into the Trap of ‘Productive Procrastination.’ Roomer warns us that:
“By using busyness as a shield to protect ourselves from doing the things that we actually should do, we fail to make our dreams our reality.”
Roomer advises us to make a list of the top five goals we want to accomplish and then, on another sheet, list the daily activities we usually find ourselves doing. Using these goals and the inventory of regular activities to identify what tasks help arrive at your goals and then plan to focus on those activities to concentrate energies on the most meaningful tasks for success.
I can see the pros and cons of productive procrastination. I do think it takes a certain level of organization and commitment to be able to use procrastination as a benefit towards productivity. In the end, I think dealing with procrastination is highly personal. Only you can tell if you are the type of person who can use procrastination to your advantage. Personally, I am the type of person who needs to focus and define what is truly important and give those things my attention.
Here is another procrastination video, This time, a Ted Talk: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator, Tim Urban
Kleon finishes up chapter five by encouraging creatives to have hobbies in addition to your main creative focus. Having multiple passions can make each passion stronger. He discusses being in a band as a teen, writing songs, and playing music. Eventually, he changed his focus to writing only and played little to no music at all. Later on, Kleon realized that cutting music from his life left an aching that needed to be addressed. He is now in a band and playing for the fun of it. This return to playing music, according to Kleon, interacts and informs his writing. Kleon says he “can tell new synapses in my brain are firing, and new connections are being made.”
Kelon ends the chapter encouraging us to let go of the desire to make all our creative works fit a unified pattern or grand scheme. Instead, we should go with what feels right, and, in the end, it will all make sense. That is, in my opinion, very sound advice.
Chapters four and five give us a little bit of breathing room and reassure us that it is okay to NOT be creative for a while. Working on other things is good and helpful. In my view, there are absolutely benefits to stepping away for a project and allowing our brains a chance to reset and then return to the project with new vigor.
NEXT:
Part Two: Chapter 6 – 7 & 8 -10
