Steal Like An Artist

Steal Like An Artist is an 140-page easy read, full of awesome advice, quotes, pictures and doodles, by writer and artist Austin Kleon. I'm a sucker for a cool coffee table read with a catchy title. I got this book from an arts & crafts store at the National Harbor in Oxon Hill, MD. When I brought it to the register, the guy was all "steeeeal like an artist ayyyy?"lol...don't judge me stranger guy. He was really nice though, and we got into a conversation about the kind of art we do and like.

About the book. No, it's not encouraging you to plagiarize or straight up steal ideas...just borrow ideas from a couple different people, morph them into your own, and give them credit. That is, after all, how inspiration works. You learn by studying and practicing what you see and then branch out to do your own thing. Austin made a great point in the book about "newness"...NOTHING IS ORIGINAL. This is very true. Everything that exists is just a newer form of something before it. He even quotes the bible verse Ecclesiastes 1:9, "There is nothing new under the sun." You better go Austin lol.

This book is good for creative people of all kinds...writers, photographers, sculptors, painters, graphic designers, filmmakers, and the list goes on. It pretty much teaches you how to get inspired and organize your sources of inspiration. One issue I have is that I enjoy doing too many different things. So I end up feeling like I need to put part of me on a shelf because who wants to be a jack of all trades and a master of nothing right? Austin spoke on how he struggled with the same battle between making music and songwriting and he had this advice to give, "Don't throw any of yourself away. If you have two or three real passions, don't feel like you have to pick and choose between them. Don't discard. Keep all your passions in your life. This is something I learned from the playwright Steven Tomlinson. Tomlinson suggests that if you love different things, you just keep spending time with them. 'Let them talk to each other. Something will begin to happen.'" That made me feel better about my life lol.

He also offers some things you can do right now to get active and start creating as well as some recommended reading. The book is available on Amazon and there are some pretty good, in-depth reviews there that will give you an even better idea of what the book is all about. Be sure to check out the book and Austin Kleon's website!