Do you have a creative hobby (or want to start one)? Creative endeavors offer us a place in which we can clear our minds and find peace, despite anything that might be happening in our lives and the world around us. These books explore the importance of creativity and how creative pursuits are actually a form of justice, and they offer encouragement and inspiration to help us get out and create, whether we are a dabbler or a career creative.
Embrace Being a Total Amateur
In today's grind culture, hobbies become side hustles. Work creeps into leisure time. Perfectionism reigns. We look up to experts, and we look down on amateurs. But what if being a total amateur is actually a good thing? From Karen Walrond, author of The Lightmaker's Manifesto and Radiant Rebellion, comes In Defense of Dabbling: a delightful jaunt into how to resist grind culture and do the things you love, even if you're not any good at them.
Make Beauty in a Broken World
Why should we make art while injustice and suffering wreak havoc? How can we justify making beautiful things? From award-winning author Mitali Perkins comes an essential companion for writers, artists, and other creatives who long for a more just world. We must keep making art infused with truth, beauty, and goodness, not to ignore a world in distress but for the sake of loving it. With vivid stories, practical ideas, and reflection and discussion questions, Just Making will inspire you to keep making beauty in a broken world.
Embrace Imperfection in Your Creative Life
Whether you're a dabbler, a career creative, or a self-proclaimed tortured artist, The Artist's Joy is for you. Professional oboist and creativity coach Dr. Merideth Hite Estevez guides artists in all levels and disciplines to build a creative life that resonates deeply with their core values. Complete with practical guides and companion playlist.
Celebrate the Creative Power of Women
Few women artists feature prominently in the history of art, and even fewer who are mothers. Are motherhood and creativity at odds, or are other factors at play? The Mother Artist twines intimate meditations on motherhood with portraits of the work, lives, and studios of mother artists, placing us in the company of women from the past and the present who persevere in both art and caregiving.
Explore How Storytelling Can Save Our World
Between the Listening and the Telling
Stories tether us to what matters most: our families, our friends, our hearts, our planet, the wondrous mystery of life itself. Yet the stories we've been telling ourselves as a civilization are killing us. With a foreword by Anne Lamott, Between the Listening and the Telling offers an alloy of story, commentary, and meditation. In an era of runaway loneliness, alienation, global crisis, and despair, sharing stories helps us make a home within ourselves and one another.
Build a Life That's Creative, Sensual, and Playful
For far too long we have relegated the erotic to the bedroom, when in reality it is a fundamental energy that helps us connect more deeply with ourselves, each other, the earth, and the creative potential within us. In Turned On, artist and musician Brie Stoner redefines the erotic, stating that it is more than just human intimacy; it can be the antidote to feeling anxious, disconnected, and uninspired. By reframing Eros as the energy of life and creativity itself, Stoner invites us to reawaken presence, playfulness, and possibility as the gateways to transformation.
Find Inspiration for Creative Living in Our Feathered Friends
Creativity comes into play in just about any field. And when writer Ann Byle became a chicken owner, she discovered that her feathered friends offered surprising lessons and inspiration for her own work, lessons on living creatively. Drawing inspiration from a flock of hens, Chicken Scratch explores curiosity and courage, embracing your creative self and letting go of what holds you back, and living well in the creative life. Each chapter includes questions for journaling, next-steps-in-creativity exercises, and a sidebar from "The Left-Brain Chicken," putting solid process-related steps to each chapter.
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