Art & Fear
Book Reviews aim to provide succinct, thoughtful summaries of books I have read. They contain quotes from the book, thoughts from others, and also some thoughts of my own. Typically they will be structured in the following order: author, introduction, message and purpose, remarkable chapter, and conclusion. This review will cover Art & Fear, a book that explores the way art gets made, the reasons it often doesn't get made, and the nature of the difficulties that causes so many artists to give up along the way.
Author
David Bayles and Ted Orland
Introduction
First published in 1994, Art & Fear quickly became an underground classic in the artistic world. Word-of-mouth response alone - now enhanced by internet posting - has placed it among the best-selling books on artmaking and creativity globally. Art & Fear is a book written by artists, for artists. And before you write off the book because you think you're "not an artist", if you are the creator of anything (teaching lessons, practice plans, social media content, etc.) this book will greatly help you find your voice, deal with your struggles, and make a difference.
Message and Purpose
This book is for people that create — which, believe it or not, probably refers to you — and talks about the potential pitfalls that get in the way of creating, regardless of your preferred medium. Several core topics are examined such as: what hinders your development as an artist, why you’re not creating, why so many people give up creating, the gap between the potential of a canvas and what you produce, and the belief that talent is essential.
Art & Fear is not written specifically for any particular type of artist, but somehow the authors make you feel as if they are speaking directly to you, addressing issues that you have probably encountered. It’s written in beautiful rhetoric that toes the line between academic and whimsical. Art & Fear is one of those books you want to tell everyone you know to read.
Remarkable Chapter
As usual, selecting one chapter to highlight is easier said than done. This book is actually chapter-less, and instead is simply broken up into Part I and Part II. Perhaps my favorite section of the book is found in Part II, titled Conceptual Worlds.
This section focuses on many terrific sub-points such as: ideas and technique, craft, new work, creativity, habits, art and science, self-reference, and metaphor. One of the stunning fragments of art literature lies in this section, and profoundly differentiates between science and art:
"The scientist, if asked whether a given experiment could be repeated with identical results, would have to say yes — or it wouldn't be science. The presumption is that at the end of a scientific experiment neither the researcher nor the world have changed, and so repeating the experiment would necessarily re-produce the same result. Indeed, anyone performing the experiment correctly would get the same results — a circumstance that on occasion leads to multiple claims for the same discovery.
But the artist, if asked whether an art piece could be remade with identical results, would have to answer no — or it wouldn't be art. In making a piece of art, both the artist and the artist's world are changed, and re-asking the question — facing the next blank canvas — will always yield a different answer."
Conclusion
Upon completion, this book quickly rose to the upper tier of books that have impacted me greatly. It's a fairly quick read and has attracted a tremendously wide audience for a reason. Few books of mine have been highlighted throughout as thoroughly as this one. It's hard to explain, but seemingly on every page there are sentences in this book where my only reaction was "Wow. Yes." This is one of those books that will be just as applicable fifty years from now as it is today.