Due to my big move and settling into the new place (still), I noted I hadn’t made any time for one of my favourite pastimes: reading! In December I began noticing a whole slew of books I’d like to read and bought a few to start. Thought I’d share some reflections about them with you…
365 Gratefuls: Treasures, Big and Small (Book Cover) by Hailey & Andrew Bartholomew
365 Days of Grateful
There came a point in Hailey Bartholomew’s life when she felt so depressed about her existence in this world, she decided to seek counselling from a life coach who advised her to seek out sincere moments in her life for which she was grateful. As one who had rarely or perhaps never thought of doing this before, she decided to give it go. Finding gratitude in the small, mundane moments of everyday life, especially in the things and people she once took for granted, her 365 days of being grateful resulted in a 360 degree change of attitude. Bartholomew’s gratitude journal took the form of a photographic one filled with Polaroid camera shots… the results are breathtaking moments: clothes on a line; a heart-shaped cloud floating in the sky; her garden in bloom and drawings by her kids. One of my favourites is a dinner plate concocted by her husband featuring a mound of spaghetti on which he has written “I love you” in tomato sauce… so sweet and romantic! Another thing I liked about this book is that Bartholomew includes contributions by fans of her initial Grateful project which makes for a wonderfully diverse selection of “gratefuls”: all kinds of art work, journal excerpts and poetry. It’s a great gift to inspire oneself with or to lift the spirits of a friend.
A beautiful page coloured by a fan of The Secret Garden colouring book...
Johanna Basford’s Secret Garden
As a kid I loved colouring Doodle Art posters. Do you remember those big poster-size ones with tons of tiny details to colour in? They often depicted images from fantasies of planets, mythological creatures and the natural world. Some of them had imagery embossed onto rich black velvet paper. I was so engrossed by them! I would look at them and say: “It’s going to take me FOREVER to colour that!”– ah, but back then I was a kid with all the time in the world to do such things! Anyway, they also inspired me to make my own drawings and helped me to develop a keen sense of colour as well as enhance my colouring skills. Recently, I picked up Johanna Basford’s Secret Garden, a colouring book, and it whisked me back to those days. Inspired by the natural world, it’s filled with fantastical flowers, plants and animals. Basford invites readers to not only colour but draw and complete her images, traverse through mazes as well as find hidden treasures. I’m also using its design fragments for bits in my collages! This book is ideal for children and adults alike. For me, colouring has always been a meditative activity… there are times when I just want to quieten my mind and be completely absorbed in the moment – colouring has always been a prefect way of doing that. Be sure to also check out Johanna Basford’s Pinterest and Facebook pages on which she features the beautiful work of those who’ve coloured her glorious pages!
On Stephen King and Writing
Several years ago, I wrote almost a year’s worth of short stories and discovered the writer within me. As with my visual journals, my tales were biographically driven. So I guess that’s what attracted me to Stephen King’s book “On Writing”. Besides devoting a chapter or so to grammar and such, King speaks of his life and how it shaped his stories. There were so many “aha” moments here … ie. Aha so that’s why he’s so awesome at conjuring up images of childhood and neglect… he’s had a charged and challenging one… little “Stevie” butted heads with many school authorities. As an adult he suffered from addictions to drugs and alcohol; the death of his beloved mother from cancer as well as survived a deadly hit and run accident (just like a tale from one of his novels) … and yet he still manages to rouse up a great sense of humour about things; even if it’s a tad bit dark at times. One of my favourite sections in the book is how he recalls creating a character, Carrie White, a teenager with deadly telekinetic powers, by going back to his high school days and recalling details of girls at his school who were bullied by others – he’s such an empathetic and brilliant observer of life. Another segment I loved was how he describes writing as a form of telepathy – it made the hair on my arms stand on end! Whether you’re a Stephen King fan or just want to improve your creative writing, this book is a must have for any library. As a visual artist, it’s stories such as these about crafting an art that propel my creative passion and imagination even further!
Stay tuned for more book reviews. I just got my hands on Jenny Doh’s Creative Lettering and Tonia Jenny’s Zen Doodle: Tons of Tangles… more on them soon! As well as a sample of how I’ve used Johanna Basford’s doodles in a collage!
Other Related Links:
NPR Interview with Stephen King
The Way of the Zentangle
How Writing Can Inspire Your Collaging
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