Art & Fear: Observations On The Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

June 29, 2009

I got this book because it was the original source of the potmaking story that I like a lot. I wanted to see what other nuggets it has. Although it is about art, you can expand the logic to other creative processes, and software and experience design definitely has a creative component to it.

The story was a bit hard to follow, and there wasn’t a real story with a beginning and an end; rather, it was just a collection of nuggets and insights. Artmaking can be learned; there is some magic, but it’s unique to every person and it’s OK that you’re not Mozart as there will never be another one; a lot of good art has historically first been dismissed because it didn’t fit in a category; approval and acceptance are different things; a lot of art education is useless; and so on. A lot of it applicable in any creative work.