a dang good book

I bought this book, 52 projects, by Jeffery Yamaguchi, over the weekend and absolutely love it. It's poignant, honest, inspiring, and Jeffery is a great writer. It's not too sweet or self-helpy, just funny and real. This is the kind of book that is hard to write about because it's more like an event than a book. Or a way to look at life a bit differently. It's big (like big ideas, big) and it's one of those books where, even if you read just a few pages, you will remember what you read for a long time. It's all about projects. Creative projects like:

#19 write down the story of the best night of your life.
#27 take a picture of a kid you know, make a postcard out of it, and mail it to to the kid.
#41 create something during the time you are doing your laundry.
#22 write in the margins of your books.

Really great ideas, thoughts, and writings, just on how to live a creative life though these various projects. Also, I think it's really touched upon something very personal for me right now (especially with the holidays approaching- making gifts and selling gifts) which the notion that so much of what defines successful craft and art is the sale of it. Like if I sell a bunch of paintings, I am a good painter. Or if I sell a ton of quilts, or notecards, whatever. It's hard not to feel like the selling is the measure of the talent and of the success (or perceived success) of an artist. Also, in a practical sense, people who produce a lot of stuff (me) need to get it off our hands, so we can make room to create more stuff, but again, then there is usually an implied value to all this stuff even if it's traded or bartered. . .not just creating for the creating. Or creating just for the documenting of life-which is so important to being a participant in life, to me anyway.

Which is why I love this book and the website so much, it's about art in such a pure form to me. Not that other ways are unpure by any means, (or that it's a bad thing to make a buck from your crafts/art, which it most definitely is not, and I am continually grateful I can make a buck from mine) but when you create something you can't sell, or never intend to sell, it takes on a whole new artistic identity-and it's a different experience producing it. At least it is for me.

And I love the idea of collecting data, of any kind, and putting it into some kind of format, and then seeing the result. Organizationally, I find it very pleasing, and many of these projects involve this type of activity.

There is a wonderful interview with Jeffery Yamaguchi on this great site crafty pod. It's a podcast. I have read a lot about this book, and I think this interview is my favorite, and really sums up the ideas about it the best. Plus, I love listening to things. It's hard to stay focused long enough to read in depth on the computer with the babies crawling up my leg.

so, yes, another early gift for myself, but this is a really good one!

Comments

[mimi k]

I think selling ones work is about validation- It is one of the things in our culture that defines you as a serious and professional artist. There are keywords that I seem to slip into my conversation when talking to non-artists, trying to prove that I'm a "real" artist- "gallery", "studio", "show"... doesn't work anyway though, once it comes out that I make dolls!

[brandie]

sounds like a really wonderful book and is now on my christmas wish list! {also, seems like a really great gift for the crafty people on my list!} thanks for sharing!

[Gina L]

Sounds good,
I'm going to check it out.

[Kay]

Wow, way to sell a book! I can't wait to get my hands on this one.

xoxo Kay

[tammie]

i JUST added this book to my wishlist a few days ago - i was browsing through amazon.com and saw it and thought it looked really cool. good to know i wasn't wrong - thanks for the "book review" :)

[di]

It's fantastic to find something that inspires you and makes you think and act.
It's sad that "success" in creative arts relates to "sale"- I've only just started crafting to sell recently, partly because people like what I've made, and have asked me if they can buy, but also (more importantly for me) so that I have the opportunity to make things I don't have a personal need for.

[Jolie]

I love this web-site and I also have this book on my Christmas list. I'm glad it's as good as I expected it to be. Now I just hope someone gets it for me!

[amy k.]

di-
I know, I love selling items I have made with my hands. LOVE IT. I get such a thrill packing them up and knowing that people really want, and are willing to buy, my creations. i find that with such little time, I forget to do things that are also important, like write a letter to my daughters, to put in their baby book-or just actually SIT STILL for more than 2 seconds. that's the real hard one for me-doing nothing at all.

[kath]

I love this site too. Jeffrey is such a kind and good person - what a great book - i don't have it - but its on my list.

[hillary]

that book sounds so great. I know someone it would be perfect for and he'd better not be reading your comments so it stays a surprise.

you know I hear you on the whole selling thing. it turns me into a puddle. with most of the stuff I make, selling never really enters the equation while I'm making it but then if I do decide to sell it later I have a friggin panic attack/identity crisis. and when I do try to make things just to sell I sit there staring at my fabric shelves for forever, stumped, second guessing myself. I guess you just can't take it all too seriously. have to keep perspective. and doing stuff for myself definitely keeps me sane. my hands are very happily covered in glitter glue right now and I don't give a crap if it pleases anyone but myself ;)

thanks for the great post!

[amy k.]

ha!
i know-when ever I actually TRY to make something to sell-I am stumped. And then, like clockwork, that's when the machine breaks, I burn myself on the iron, and I go all mental.

[Snowbear]

Thanks for the great links! I've been on amazon getting that book and on craftypod listening to all the great bits while I make my Christmas Crackers! Fun.
And pipecleaners and zines? Right up my alley!

[Melanee]

I just put this book on my wish list. Thanks for the recommendation! I really enjoy your blog.

[amanda]

Ha! How many of these books did you just sell? I bought one! ;) You spok exactly to what I've been thinking and thinking about of late--the "value" that we place on art/craft once it's "sellable", and giving deeper meaning to *what* I want to create and why. Thanks for keeping the discussion alive and adding more fuel to my thoughts about it all!

[*jenny]

Amy, you made me feel much better about my own artistic insecurities with this post. See, I love to make crafty things, but I have never put any of them up for sale. I would be tied up in knots at the prospect of them not selling, but also sad to see them go if they DID sell, and worried that the buyer would hate them when they arrived! I have no trouble asking to be paid for my illustrations, but for some reason, if its something I've crafted, I get insecure about the whole selling thing. Interesting (and validating!) to hear that other artists whose work I admire sometimes have the same mixed feelings!

Oh, and that book sounds fantastic! A real creativity jump-starter! Thanks!

[Lizette]

Sounds like a great book. I've heard of it and must check it out. It reminds me of Keri Smith's inspirational journals http://www.kerismith.com/blog/

[bellablue]

I LOVE the postcard idea!!!!! I'm going to have to try that with some of the kids in my family who would otherwise never receive such a thing. Thanks for posting this Amy!

[shell]

I've heard of this before, just briefly. It sounds really awesome - I love 'life affirming' books with practical activities to try. Goint to check those links now.