Nov 10, 2022 | Arts, Crafts and Hobbies, Book Recommendations & Reading Lists - Nonfiction
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
Penguin Publishing Group; Reprint edition, September 27, 2016
This book serves as an inspirational guide, and call to action, to overcoming fear and living your best life as a creative.
Creativity Unlocked: An Inside-Out Approach to a Life of Joy and Purpose by Chris Lumry
OneStepGrowth LLC, June 21, 2022
In this book, Chris Lumry provides actionable steps to finding fulfillment and joy via creativity.
The Artist’s Way: 25th Anniversary Edition by Julia Cameron
TarcherPerigee; Anniversary edition, October 25, 2016
Often looked at as the classic guide to creativity, The Artist’s Way gives sound advice for how to live as an artist.
Creative Doing: 75 Practical Exercises to Unblock Your Creative Potential in Your Work, Hobby, or Next Career by Herbert Lui
Holloway, Inc., May 9, 2022
Creative Doing provides useful exercises to help you discover, and maintain, your creative side.
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon
Workman Publishing Company; 1st edition, February 28, 2012
Austin Kleon gives an insider’s look into useful principles about creativity that you may not hear anywhere else.
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
Black Irish Entertainment LLC; 47716th edition, January 11, 2012
This book serves as a guide to identifying and overcoming your creative blocks.
Creativity: It’s Not What You Think: An Artist’s Journey from Mind to Heart to the Source of All Creativity by Don Campbell
Independently published, February 11, 2021
An important aspect of creativity is listening to your intuition and inner voice, and this book provides you with the guidance you need to really tune into those things.
Making It in the Art World: Strategies for Exhibitions and Funding by Brainard Carey
Allworth; 2nd edition, June 1, 2021
This book serves as a thorough guide to what you need to do to turn your creativity into a career.
Let There Be Art by Rachel Marie Kang
Revell, October 11, 2022
Regardless of your craft, Let There Be Art shows that creativity is for everyone – not just a select few.
The Creative Cure: How Finding and Freeing Your Inner Artist Can Heal Your Life by Jacob Nordby
Hierophant Publishing, February 16, 2021
A unique take on creativity, The Creative Cure describes how you can use your creative side to improve your life.
Inspired: Understanding Creativity: A Journey Through Art, Science, and the Soul by Matt Richtel
HarperLuxe; Large type / Large print edition, April 19, 2022
This book discusses the science of creativity to help readers harness their own creative nature.
Creativity Unleashed: A Woman’s Guide to Unlock Flow and Finally Finish Creative Projects Every Day by Amber Kuileimailani Bonnici
Compassionate Mind Collaborative, October 6, 2022
Creativity Unleashed is part guide and part journal with the goal of helping you overcome creative procrastination.
Feb 17, 2022 | Arts, Crafts and Hobbies, Book Award Winners, Creativity, History
Nonfiction Book Award Status: GOLD
Synopsis
In the midst of a superhero takeover with groundbreaking films bringing comic books to the big screen on an unprecedented scale, one cinematic saga would forever alter the landscape of superhero movies and Hollywood…Batman. Superman. Wonder Woman. As three of the most iconic heroes of all time, the task of translating these beloved DC Comics characters and their stories to film would be the ultimate challenge for any director. By embracing this challenge, Zack Snyder—who gained popularity following successes with 300 and Watchmen—would find himself at the epicenter of controversy. Shaped by studio conflicts, creative differences, increasingly divisive public opinion, social media, the COVID-19 pandemic, and personal tragedy, the making of Snyder’s films (Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League) would come together to form a remarkable tale.
In The Snyderverse Saga, entertainment journalist Daryn Kirscht chronicles the epic behind-the-scenes true story of Snyder’s DC Comics films, their revolutionary impact on superhero movies and Hollywood, and the power of the fandom in fighting for creative freedom. After achieving victory following the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement, a new wave is on the rise with #RestoreTheSnyderVerse to adapt the cinematic landscape to the modern world… a “Knightmare” world.
Will the “Snyderverse” continue? Only time will tell…
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Author Bio
Daryn Kirscht is an author, podcaster, library paraprofessional, verified Vero user, football history buff, and self-proclaimed Ravenclaw. You can find more of his work as a guest on the 33.1 Roundtable episodes of the Always Hold On To Smallville podcast and as the host of his brand-new upcoming podcast Round II: The Film Sequel (launching in 2022). Daryn lives in northwestern Minnesota with his wife, Katelyn, and their two cats. In his spare time, he can be found playing Clue, watching old-school football, and writing his next book.
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Aug 24, 2021 | Arts, Crafts and Hobbies, Book Award Winners, History
Nonfiction Book Award Status: GOLD
Synopsis
Battle Carried: Imperial Japanese Tiger Art Good Luck Flags of World War Two is the second in a series that examines the subject of World War Two era Imperial Japanese good luck signed flags. While the premier volume introduced the reader to not only hinomaru yosegaki (good luck flags), and senninbari (one-thousand stitch amulets), this publication covers the specific history, meaning, and cultural context of tiger imagery as it was used to decorate good luck flags.
Through an extensive use of color images, woodblock prints, and rare vintage photographs, the book provides illustrations along with their English translations of some of the rarest and most highly sought specimens of tiger art flags. From the aspect of human interest, numerous examples have been identi[ied to their soldier, sailor, or airmen owners. As an iconic image, practically no other animal served to inspire, motivate, or galvanize the World War Two era Japanese populace behind the Asian ideal of what it meant to be a warrior than the tiger.
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Author Bio
Michael Bortner has been a collector of imperial Japanese good luck flags and one-thousand stitch belts for more than fifty years. His initial desire to write a book developed from his curiosity to find historical and cultural information on the subject. That interest led to the successful release of his first volume, Imperial Japanese Good Luck Flags and One-Thousand Stitch Belts (2008). As his passion for and exposure to the subject of good luck flags grew, Mike began to research and write his second book, Battle Carried: Imperial Japanese Tiger Art Good Luck Flags of World War Two (2021). This work focuses solely on the iconographic tiger art, sometimes found painted on hinomaru yosegaki. Drawing upon an extensive collection of tiger-painted good luck flags and amulets, gathered from fellow collectors worldwide, the author has assembled the first work of its kind in English on the subject.
Bortner earned his B.A. Degree in History from the University of California, Irvine and his M.A. Degree in Anthropology from the California State University, Hayward. He earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. He lives in the San Francisco Bay area.
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Apr 4, 2021 | Arts, Crafts and Hobbies, Book Award Winners, Creativity, History
Nonfiction Book Award Status: BRONZE
Synopsis
Before Twiggy, Cindy Crawford, and Gigi Hadid, mannequins were the supermodels of the fashion world.
In Mannequins, award-winning author and photographer Brandy Isadora takes her readers on a visual journey exploring the fascinating history of mannequins and the influential artists who created them.
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Author Bio
Brandy Isadora has always been an artist at heart. An award-winning author and photographer whose work has been exhibited internationally, Brandy believes that everyone (including mannequins) has a story to tell. Mannequins is her latest book.
Her debut book, Tattle Tales: Tattoo Stories and Portraits, gives her readers a new insight into the people who have chosen to permanently ink their bodies. Through compelling portraits and heartfelt stories, Tattle Tales offers a modern perspective on tattoos.
Brandy is currently working on her next book, a collection of short stories that examine the emotional impact of life.
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Jan 24, 2021 | Arts, Crafts and Hobbies, Book Award Winners, Creativity, History
Nonfiction Book Award Status: GOLD
Synopsis
3D Disneyland: Like You’ve Never Seen It Before showcases a rare, never-before-seen collection of 3D photographs of Walt Disney’s theme park in all its glory.
Disneyland is captured in “time and space” from opening week in July 1955 through the 25th Anniversary in 1980. See attractions that no longer exist like the Skyway to Tomorrowland and Fantasyland, the original Submarine Voyage, Conestoga Wagons, and more along with vantage points that have changed drastically over the decades.
3D Disneyland: Like You’ve Never Seen It Before is full of memories for some and a glimpse into the past for those too young to have visited Disneyland at its beginnings. It will enthrall theme park fans of all ages with its stunning three-dimensional views of a bygone era at the original Disneyland park. 3D Glasses Included!
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Author Bio
David A. Bossert is an award-winning artist, filmmaker, and author. He is a 32-year veteran of The Walt Disney Company where he contributed his talents to “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988), “The Little Mermaid” (1989), “Beauty and the Beast” (1991), “Aladdin” (1992), Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993), “The Lion King” (1994), “Fantasia/2000” (1999) among many others. Bossert is an independent producer, creative director, and writer and is considered an authority on Disney art and animation history. He is a member of the CalArts Board of Trustees and is a visiting scholar at Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) in Pittsburgh. In 2018, he was awarded a U.S. Patent for his invention Parallax Based Monoscopic Rendering, and in 2020, he received an additional U.S. Patent for Varying Display Content Based on Viewpoint. Bossert is the author of numerous books, liner/program notes, and dozens of articles on animation. Learn more at www.davidbossert.com
Nov 4, 2019 | Arts, Crafts and Hobbies, Book Award Winners, Creativity
Nonfiction Book Award Status: Gold
Synopsis
The people interviewed and photographed in Tattle Tales come from many fields, including medicine, law, education, and business. Their stories show how tattoos have become a significant part of mainstream culture.
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Author Bio:
After Brandy Isadora received her master’s degree in Creative Writing from California College of the Arts, she started working as a photographer and writer for an art museum and gallery. Always fascinated with tattoos, Isadora combined her passion for writing and photography to learning and celebrating this burgeoning art form. She is also a guitarist and cellist and currently plays with the Women’s Orchestra of Arizona.
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Aug 24, 2016 | Arts, Crafts and Hobbies, Author Interviews, Creativity, History
Tamara Saviano
Name: Tamara Saviano
Book Title: Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark
Your book’s Amazon purchase link:
https://www.amazon.com/Without-Getting-Killed-Caught-sponsored/dp/1623494540/
What is your book about?My book is a biography of legendary songwriter Guy Clark, who has served as a model, mentor, supporter and friend to two generations of the world’s most talented and influential singer-songwriters. It also explores the fascinating relationship between Guy, his wife Susanna, and their best friend Townes Van Zandt.
What inspired you to write your book?
In my long relationship with Guy, I came to know what a priceless national treasure he is and it was important to me that the rest of the world know it, too.
Can you describe your writing process?
I spent four years researching the book before I ever put pen to paper. Once I started writing, my days went something like this: Wake up and go for a 5-mile walk and think about what I wanted to accomplish in the day’s writing. Shower, eat breakfast, sit at my desk or at a café with a notebook and many pens for five hours and write. I tried not to beat myself up about what I wrote, and I always write in long-hand first so my editing brain doesn’t get in the way. At first it was bullet points and broad strokes, but my drafts became more and more detailed as time went on. I probably wrote 20-30 drafts of each chapter.
How did you come to do what you’re doing today?
I’ve been working in the music business for more than 25 years. It began when an internship during journalism school lead me to a radio station job. From there I worked at a record label, as a magazine editor, television producer, and finally opened my own PR and marketing business 15 years ago.
Can you describe a typical day in your life?
Writing, answering emails, talking on the phone with media, coordinating events, logistics.
What do you most enjoy about what you do?
I love the people I work with and the music community that surrounds me.
Are there any people and/or books that have inspired you along your journey?
Many. Music biographers Alanna Nash, Peter Guralnick, Joe Nick Patoski, and Dave Marsh were all instrumental in cheering me on and inspiring me to write and finish my book. I’ve also been inspired by Guy Clark’s songwriter and artist friends Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Jim McGuire, Emmylou Harris, Verlon Thompson, Shawn Camp, Terry Allen, Joe Ely, Lyle Lovett, Vince Gill, and many others.
Can you share something that people may be surprised to learn about you?
I get in bed at 8 or 9 p.m. every night and binge-watch television and Netflix series.
What’s next for you?
I hope to find the right partners to adapt my book into film and/or a stage play. Guy’s story is compelling, beautiful, heart-wrenching, and timeless.
Jun 25, 2015 | Arts, Crafts and Hobbies, Book Award Winners, Technology and computers
Nonfiction Book Award Status: Gold Award
Title: A Composer’s Guide to Game Music
Author Name: Winifred Phillips
Synopsis
Music in video games is often a sophisticated, complex composition that serves to engage the player, set the pace of play, and aid interactivity. Composers of video game music must master an array of specialized skills not taught in the conservatory, including the creation of linear loops, music chunks for horizontal resequencing, and compositional fragments for use within a generative framework. In A Composer’s Guide to Game Music, Winifred Phillips — herself an award-winning composer of video game music — provides a comprehensive, practical guide that leads an aspiring video game composer from acquiring the necessary creative skills to understanding the function of music in games to finding work in the field.
Musicians and composers may be drawn to game music composition because the game industry is a multibillion-dollar, employment-generating economic powerhouse, but, Phillips writes, the most important qualification for a musician who wants to become a game music composer is a love of video games. Phillips offers detailed coverage of essential topics, including musicianship and composition experience; immersion; musical themes; music and game genres; workflow; working with a development team; linear music; interactive music, both rendered and generative; audio technology, from mixers and preamps to software; and running a business.
A Composer’s Guide to Game Music offers indispensable guidance for musicians and composers who want to deploy their creativity in a dynamic and growing industry, protect their musical identities while working in a highly technical field, and create great music within the constraints of a new medium.
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Author Bio:
Winifred Phillips is an award-winning game composer. Some of her video game credits include Assassin’s Creed Liberation, Total War Battles: KINGDOM, God of War, multiple games in the LittleBigPlanet franchise (including LittleBigPlanet 3), The Da Vinci Code, Speed Racer, Shrek the Third, Spore Hero, and many others. Phillips is also the author of the bestselling book, A Composer’s Guide to Game Music (The MIT Press 2014), which won the Global Music Award Gold Medal for an exceptional book in the field of music, and was described by The Boston Globe as “the first book designed to help experienced musicians brave the transition to the world of game composing.”
Phillips has received an Interactive Achievement Award / D.I.C.E. Award from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, three Hollywood Music in Media Awards, five Game Audio Network Guild Awards, three Global Music Awards, an IGN Best Score Award, a GameSpot Best Music Award, a GameZone Score of the Year Award, a GameFocus Award, and three Gracie Awards from the Alliance of Women in Media. She has released fifteen albums. Her soundtrack album for the Legend of the Guardians video game was the first video game soundtrack album released by WaterTower Music, the film music record label of Warner Bros. Music Connection Magazine described her as a “superstar of video game music.”
Feb 19, 2015 | Arts, Crafts and Hobbies, Book Award Winners, Creativity, Prescriptive Nonfiction
Nonfiction Book Award Status: Gold Award
Title: Making Wood Tools
Author Name: John Wilson
Synopsis
Hands-on involvement separates the craftsman from the collector. Whether you are an armchair craftsman or a shop dust veteran. you are invited to participate in the process of tool making described in the pages of this book.
These tools harken to the classic period of woodworking, 1700 to 1900, when a student made his tools as part of his education in moving from apprentice to journeyman. In the late 1800s a series of changes in how wood tools were made took place. The blades became integrated into more complicated adjustment mechanisms, and the tool body was made from a casting rather than a block of wood. Wood tools became the province of the metal shop. What you see in this volume recaptures both the look and the feel of classical wood tools, as well as reclaims the making of them by woodworkers themselves.
You will find tools that can be made for woodworking, by woodworkers, in the wood shop. They are insightful of how tools are made, inviting to be put to use, and worthy of collecting. Explore this world in Making Wood Tools. With the resources at hand in the wood shop, you can do it.
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Author Bio:
To learn more about John Wilson and his woodworking, visit his Facebook page and website.
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Dec 18, 2014 | Arts, Crafts and Hobbies, Book Award Winners, Prescriptive Nonfiction
Nonfiction Book Award Status: Gold Award
Title: Looking at Art: The Art of Looking
Author Name: Richard Nagler
Synopsis:
In museums across the world, Richard Nagler stationed himself in front of his chosen piece of art, waiting for someone to come along and complete it. The serendipitous, unstaged encounters between art and individuals documented in Looking at Art are the results of that patience.
At first, the egalitarian relationship between person and artwork seems perplexing: the art is not relegated to the background, nor is the individual considered a disruption. In Nagler’s photographs, artwork and individual are presented as equals, each one mirroring and amplifying aspects of the other. The viewer takes on some of the power of the art by echoing an image or theme; and at the same time, the artwork takes on added depth by its momentary association with its viewer. The transformative power of art has been widely acknowledged, but Nagler also shows us art’s need to be transformed and given meaning by humanity.
Allen Ginsberg once said, ”Every one of [Nagler’s] photographs brings to my mind a haiku.” Like that poetic form, these images display masterful skill and restraint, yet they also convey a sense of immediacy and undeniable vitality. A celebration of the connection between people and art, Looking at Art captures fleeting moments of wholeness.
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Author Bio:
Richard Nagler’s work has been featured in the New York Times, Artforum International, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications; shown in museums and galleries around the world; and included in prominent public and private collections. Nagler is respected as an observer with a unique photographic vision as well as a photography collector with a strong sense of history. Word on the Street is his third book of photography. He is represented by George Krevsky Gallery and currently lives in San Francisco.
