That, alone, is something. Give a kid a crayon and some paper when they are stuck waiting somewhere. Somehow it changes things. Sep 24, Emma Sea marked it as non-fiction-to-read.
The subtitle is "How to channel your inner cephalopod". How do I not already own this? My cephalopod demands to be channeled! Dec 12, Michelle Cristiani rated it liked it Shelves: graphic-novel , memoirs. Part graphic novel, part memoir, part writing prompt guide, this book is a treasure of many kinds of art in one. As inspiration, it's tops. As aesthetic assault, it's also tops. I really enjoyed it. But I did have this nagging feeling I often get when I look at the graphic art from a clearly gifted mind: I don't know the word for it.
Guilt of some kind? The collage format makes me want to stare at each piece for individual inspiration, but the OCD in me wants to make sen Part graphic novel, part memoir, part writing prompt guide, this book is a treasure of many kinds of art in one.
The collage format makes me want to stare at each piece for individual inspiration, but the OCD in me wants to make sense of everything I see. One of the themes of the book - an important one - is that it's not always about making sense, and that that impulse alone can block you from seeing or creating true art.
I loved Barry's descriptions of the two questions that shrivel up artistic impulse: is this good? She's right. Point well taken. And yet the art itself was such a sensory assault that I found myself breathing more deeply when I got to a page with words formed into a story.
This could be my shortcoming: I am not a very good graphic artist, and not just from a withered impulse that she describes in most adults. I'm just better with words. Sometimes looking at art like this is like reading in a foreign language, and I had trouble getting over it even as I enjoyed the pages.
View 1 comment. Nov 17, Parka rated it it was amazing Shelves: art-books. More pictures at parkablogs. It is that good! With a brush in the right hand, and a pencil on the left, the multi-eyed monster on the back cover spoked, "Welcome to writing the unthinkable". That's the essence of this book created by Lynda Barry, putting vivid imagination onto paper. What It Is is a scrapbook that's filled to the brim with sketches, coloured illustrations, collages, comic More pictures at parkablogs.
What It Is is a scrapbook that's filled to the brim with sketches, coloured illustrations, collages, comics, autobiographical writing, random thoughts and even a bit on creative writing. Every page is elaborately decorated, an exploration into the unknown realms of imagination. And every page is just fun to look at. This book is creativity and self expression, great for flipping through when you're feeling random or looking for inspiration.
I'll give this book two thumbs drawn with smiley faces up. It's also one of the top books picked by Amazon editors for Feb 03, Jane rated it it was amazing Shelves: visual-narratives , favorites. Barry does it again! I love the free way she uses collage along with her more customary brush and ink work.
Meet the Magic Cephalopod who guides us to our imagery,Sea-Ma, the nonjudgmental writing instructor, and the Near-Sighted Monkey who likes to clip magazines while watching TV and drinking beer. View 2 comments. Don't file this book under currently-reading. Label it currently-utilizing. Part philosophy, part workbook, all Right On! Aug 23, Malbadeen rated it it was amazing Shelves: comics-graphic-novels , nonfiction.
I think about this book, about Lynda Barry, a lot. I can't tell you why I like it, that'd be embarrassing, you might find out I care about stuff and then you might call me a pussy and then I might cry - or punch you - depending on the day. And let's face it, more than being honest about who I am I want you to like me May 28, Andee Marley rated it did not like it.
I have no idea why there is no spark, if it were an ex-boyfriend I would whine "but we look so good together on paper It's not you, it's me. Shelves: favorites , non-fiction , art , own-it , geeky , how-to-do-stuff , writing , read , re-read , 21st-century. Great book! A simple yet incredibly effective techniques for finding stories that are already there inside you.
I love Lynda Barry! Great for both young Adults and the older kind of Adults too. Aug 12, Kim rated it it was amazing Shelves: english , female , favorites. This book is Lynda Barry herself. Sep 03, Bowie Rowan rated it it was amazing Shelves: writing , favorites , memoir , graphic-novels , illustrated , read-in , read-in However, I suppose this book asks us to look at how we define the boundaries of a journal in the first place.
It is a journal that has been compiled with an audience in mind and with well-crafted pages in which the image often corresponds with the words, such a "What It Is" by Lynda Barry is part journal, scrapbook, sketchpad, self-help book, memoir, and writing exercise book, so I find it rather limiting to think of it as solely a journal. The image-word correspondence is not quite as obvious on the other pages of "What It Is", but I found them fascinating nonetheless. I liked how they forced my brain to work harder than I do when just reading text as I was trying to find associations between the images and the words.
I enjoyed this type of reading because it refuses linearity. Rather, I found it inspiring because it felt somewhat more organic, personal, and intuitive. These pages are rougher and seemingly more spontaneous. Thus, by including these initial journal pages, Barry points to a layering here of initial artistic inspiration later molded by craft and thoughtful editing.
I again found this comforting and inspiring because it calls attention to the journal as a place for beginnings, a place to be ugly, spontaneous, associative, nonsensical, sentimental, and a little crazy. As a writing teacher once told me, you have to let yourself be stupid in the composing process and to trust where your writing, or I would argue any artistic medium, is taking you.
Otherwise, you may think yourself out of something fabulous. Why not just enjoy the movement of your pen, pencil, or paintbrush and see what happens? This is scary because it requires a letting go of sorts and a trusting of the self that thinking does not allow. It forces us to question the difference of forms made by images and words, and it allows us to see what can be accomplished by combining them.
For example, over the summer, I received a lot of mail at my job, and I never saw so much interesting postage! I began to tear off the upper right hand corner of every envelope I received, and I collected them in my journal. Vox: A cartooning superstar says drawing is our native language Guardian: Lynda Barry on comics, creativity and Matt Groening: 'We both disdain each other's lives' Send a message to up to three recipients.
First email is required, the following two are optional. My Perfect Life. Making Comics. Blabber Blabber Blabber: Volume 1 of Everything. Cruddy: An Illustrated Novel. Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. Our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, follows. Allegra Frank Making Comics is such an impressive book. Allegra Frank Yeah, they seem so rare. Lynda Barry Well, [ Making Comics ] is actually built like a cookbook.
Lynda Barry Yeah, lots and lots. Allegra Frank Do you find this style of book — a handwritten notebook-inspired manual — to be more accessible to cartoonists or comics readers or someone who wants to get into comics? Lynda Barry The whole book is actually based on the assignment sheets that I draw for my students.
Allegra Frank I noticed a lot of discussion about young children within the book. Lynda Barry You want to hide [your work] and tear it up and not let anybody see it. Allegra Frank Closing your eyes and drawing something always tends to lead to something really funny. Lynda Barry It makes people laugh really hard. A storytelling assignment for budding cartoonists. Lynda Barry I would have loved a book like this [back then]. Next Up In Culture. Delivered Fridays.
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The next slide — an eerily similar drawing, with upward sweeping strokes resembling a roof — was not crafted by a child, she says, but rather by scientists explaining a mathematical model on a whiteboard at WID. She shows the crowd numerous comparisons: art versus algorithm, squiggly lines versus scripts of code. The pictures look as if they were created by — inspired by — each other. Heads in the audience nod. Decades of visual arts work have allowed Barry to discover this impossible-to-ignore connection between hand and brain.
The hand-brain connection across disciplines, fields, and age groups has intrigued her for years. Barry led the Counterfactual Campus Drawing Board Project for WID, where she asked people of all ages to envision what schools and the university would look like in a century.
Still, despite future technology, she says, we still overwhelmingly use our hands. The hand becomes engaged before the mind. She lists study after study suggesting that the biological function of the arts is alive and well: one documented stress reduction after participants sang in a choir; another found that people who doodle while listening performed better with memory recall tests; and yet another revealed a correlation between daily drawing and fewer doctor visits for older people.
These are exactly the types of collaborations that Barry is starting to explore as a faculty member. And these connections lie at the heart of her Image Lab, a flexible workspace on the first floor of the Discovery Building. Lynda Barry. Barry encourages aliases in the classroom, giving students fictional names from playing cards and parts of the brain, such as Four of Hearts and Cerebral Cortex.
For her Making Comics class in , undergraduate and graduate students took on alternate personas from their favorite cartoon characters. Though Barry plays along as Professor Sluggo and Professor Long-Title, the practice has a purpose: allowing students from different backgrounds and walks of life to feel more at ease.
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