Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

by Austin Kleon

Overview

You don’t need to be a genius, you just need to be yourself. That’s the message from Austin Kleon, a young writer and artist who knows that creativity is everywhere, creativity is for everyone. A manifesto for the digital age, Steal Like an Artist is a guide whose positive message, graphic look and illustrations, exercises, and examples will put readers directly in touch with their artistic side.

When Mr. Kleon was asked to address college students in upstate New York, he shaped his speech around the ten things he wished someone had told him when he was starting out. The talk went viral, and its author dug deeper into his own ideas to create Steal Like an Artist, the book. The result is inspiring, hip, original, practical, and entertaining. And filled with new truths about creativity: Nothing is original, so embrace influence, col- lect ideas, and remix and re-imagine to discover your own path. Follow your interests wherever they take you. Stay smart, stay out of debt, and risk being boring—the creative you will need to make room to be wild and daring in your imagination.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761171256
Publisher:	Workman Publishing Company, Inc.
Publication date:	02/28/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	80,769
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Austin Kleon is a writer who draws. He is the author of  the New York Times bestsellers Steal Like An Artist, which spent six months on the list, and Show Your Work!, as well as Newspaper Blackout. His work has been featured on 20×200.com, NPR’s Morning Edition, PBS Newshour, and in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. The Atlantic called him “positively one of the most interesting people on the Internet.” He speaks frequently about creativity in the digital age for organizations such as Pixar, Google, SXSW, TEDx, and The Economist. He grew up in the cornfields of Ohio, but now lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and sons. See his work at austinkleon.com.

Editorial Reviews

If you could give your 19-year-old self advice, what would you say? In this book, poet, musician, blogger, artist, writer, and businessman Kleon draws on his life experiences to give autobiographical advice from which any person seeking a little creativity in their ventures will undoubtedly benefit. The advice is genuine, with interesting tips like how using materials to create a sense of play before moving to a digital medium inspires creativity, how to let other creative hobbies flourish because they ultimately add to instead of detract from your main pursuit, and how to network online by creating a blog that is useful and gives away some of your secrets or processes. Some of the photographs of modified street signs, or those based on Kleon's signature newspaper articles that have been blacked out to leave only a few choice words readable seem like they were made for a different project and arbitrarily included here. Nevertheless, for the most part the art is well chosen and exceptionally laid out. Kleon's stylized white on black chalkboard diagrams are particularly clever and a true highlight. Peppered with quotes from people as diverse as Conan O'Brien, Jay Z and Kobe Bryant to Goethe, Shakespeare and Duchamp, there is inarguably something for everyone. Older audiences will appreciate the wide variety of pop-cultural icons; however, the personalities featured are not necessarily current celebrities that teens will recognize. The book also spends a long time urging people to identify what ideas are good and to ultimately borrow these ideas, but the distinction between stealing and plagiarizing is never clearly delineated and may prove problematic for younger readers. Inviting perusal with its fun format and tone, this book's substance will stick with high school and college age students, as well as older readers, for years to come. Reviewer: Jennifer Greene

Children's Literature - Jennifer Greene