Awhile back, my wife sent me a link to a TEDX talk entitled The Case For Making Your Art When The World Is On Fire. The presenter was Aimee McNee. She makes the argument that making art isn’t self indulgent but an imperative – a radical act of creation. She’s funny, engaging and inspiring. It’s recommended.
As is my habit, I went down the rabbit hole to find more about Aimee and her work. There I discovered her fiction novels and a nonfiction, We Need Your Art: How to Stop Messing Around and Make Something. Her fiction isn’t my genre but I actually purchased a copy of her nonfiction.
If one has read various posts here, I struggle with the idea that magic is an art as I have a similar problem with painting, dance, music, etc. being automatically called art. These are all mediums. The art has to come from the person making the creation. They are expressing themselves and speaking to others. That’s why I feel magic often falls short. Magicians don’t use magic to express themselves and say something to their audience. Art comes from the artist – not from the paints, piano or pack of playing cards. But I digress…
We Need Your Art is a great read that, like her TEDX talk, is funny, engaging and inspiring. The book is divided into four Acts with each focusing on issues that Aimee and others she’s worked with have struggled with. Within each act are chapters dealing with the theme and concluding with journaling prompts. Aimee is a follower of Julia Cameron’s classic, The Artist’s Way and its morning pages.
Act One is the Case for Creativity. She explores why art is important for our society, our health and wellbeing. Act Two, You Are The Artist, encourages us to self select our artist selves and not wait for others to acknowledge us. This section concludes with a Two Week Challenge – a method to kickstart our creativity. It’s one of my favorite pieces.
Act Three addresses the blocks creative people experience: procrastination, perfectionism, jealousy and comparison, and burnout. These too are some of my favorite chapters. The Fourth Act is all about building one’s practice. I found I dug into some chapters while skimming others as the topics spoke to me while others didn’t.
If you can’t tell, I thought this book was great. I’m not a fan of books on creativity as most are recycled and repetitive. Aimee’s book is refreshing. If the subject appeals to you then I recommend you seek out We Need Your Art.
