BO2009 Challenge - Day 4

December 4 Book. What book – fiction or non – touched you? Where were you when you read it? Have you bought and given away multiple copies?

This year? Probably Twyla Tharp's - the Creative Process or Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. I referenced both copiously as I was reading them. Because I felt like they truly spoke to hidden parts of one's inner artist. Whether you're doing it from your living room couch or a 42nd street stage - everything in the books was taken from personal experience and then expanded into larger artistic purview. And neither woman expounded on failure or triumph exclusively. What both books made me remember was that "being an artist" is related to, but different than practising a craft.

Both Lamott and Tharp viewed their respective fields as crafts. You have to be patient. You have to be persistent. You have to have a pretty solid daily routine that you follow; and within that routine - you must constantly surprise yourself, update and change it. Both artists have goals that they then pursue organically. Lamott spent several years of her life trying to get her first book published. But she remembered to take the time to grow; she didn't keep trying everything that she had done before. She changed, she evolved and she got frustrated. Tharp, driven at a very young age started off as a dancer then got frustrated with limitations and turned to choreography to fulfill her artistic needs.

Both books are about seeking out behavioral patterns and self-awareness to have a better artistic experience. Both are incredibly amazing tomes