Fearless Creating by Eric Maisel
Dr. Eric Maisel's Fearless Creating is "A step-by-step quide to starting and completing your work of art. For writers, visual artists, musicians, actors, and creators in any field."
If you are starting a new project, stuck in the middle of one, or looking for ways to break out of familiar patterns of working, this book is for you.
Dr. Maisel has broken up his book into chapters from 1) "Hushing and Holding: Nurturing the Wish to Create" and 2) "Making Meaning: Choosing Your Next Project" through to 6) "Echo and Approval: Showing Your Work."
The book has terrific, innovative exercises as well as wonderful, inspiring quotes from various artists scattered throughout.
Dr. Maisel writes that his goal "is not that you bring another product or idea into the world, as valuable as that product or idea might be. [His] goal is that you realize your dreams. You have it in you to create, and this book provides guidance."
Freeing the Creative Spirit by Adriana Diaz
"This exceptional book is part handbook-- a detailed and original how-to manual-- and part prayer book, meditation primer, spiritual guidebook. Diaz guides us step by step not only to the appropriate moods for working creatively, but leads us to the unfolding of potential and healing of old wounds, especially the wounds of self-belittling and negative self-image, the patterns that are obstacles to letting go and letting be, to play and discovery. . . .
She takes us through a series of ancestral, personal, social, and universal orbits, teaching us to release our resources, express gratitude through ritual and celebration, and prepare ouirselves for the revelations of creativity through meditative reverence. This reverence is never abstract, but always enacted by creating a sacred space where awe and delight can safely live. Diaz emphasizes that drawing and painting need our wholeness, body and soul--not perfect, but authentic. Real. Who we are. Yes. paint that. Look at that leaf. Draw that. . . .
Freeing the Creative Spirit helps us shed old lies and terrors and masks. It offers a vision that is connected to a cosmic creative flow. Even the most playful exercises carry the spirit of challenge, enlightenment, and joyful participation. In the Breath of God exercise, we move bright colored inks around on a white page by blowing through a straw little pools of color. This improvisation frees us from all illusion of control and grounds us in the certainty of imagination, as we follow the emerging dance. . . .
This book can be immensely helpful to teachers in the arts, and to individuals trying to find their way to their creative energy. There is generous help as well as questions about art supplies and technical procedures. The book is also relevant to people in small groups who want to share rituals and exercises and need help sharing their experiences." --Excerpts from the introduction by M.C. Richards
