Anne Faye

  I recently read The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. This is a spiritual but not religious book with the author, who is a music producer, believing in a generic high power. That being said, it did offer much to reflect on regarding living a creative life and producing art of any type. "Creativity is something you are, not only something you do. It's a way of moving through the world, every minute, every day." He emphasizes that art is not meant to be competitive or even a profitable venture (most people will need to do something else to have income). Rather, it is meant to be representative of who we are. It is also a collaboration. "You are in a constant dialogue with what is and what was." He also talks about dealing with the response to our art. "In the end, you are the only one who has to love it. The work is for you." He defines success as moving forward. We should complete our projects, share them, and begin another. We have very li...

In the July/August edition of Writer's Digest , Donna Baier Stein writes about using art as inspiration for writing. Inspiration can come from anywhere, but visual images can be an especially powerful source of writing ideas because they appeal to our senses and are in themselves a creative act. Stein offers some suggestions about where to find images including museums, online art collections, local galleries, books of art from the library, and collections of poster prints. I would add photographs to that list. We are bombarded with photo images today and every one has a story. When using these images as Ask questions about the image. Who is in it? What is the backstory? Can you think of an alternate backstory? Many works of literature have been inspired by art (and no doubt the opposite is also true). And yes, I have done this myself. My novel The Rose Ring was inspired by the wallpaper border in my kitchen. I spent years thinking I wanted to write a story about someone who l...

Show Your Work! : 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered by Austin Kleon is a gem of a book. I truly didn't know what to expect of it, but I had seen it advertised in Bookpage and decided to give it a try. After all, I have come to the sad realization that I stink at marketing. Anything that can help me is greatly appreciated. But, this book isn't really about marketing - it's about sharing, and I like that. I do that and feel good about it. I hate self-promotion. Honestly, I wish we could go back in time to when bragging was considered in poor taste. Instead we live in a world where it seems everyone is vying for people to pay attention to them. Trying to take part in that, however necessary it might be as a writer, causes me pain. Kleon wrote this book for people like me. He writes, "I'm going to try to teach you how to think about your work as a never-ending process, how to share your process in a way that attracts people who might be intereste...

Looking for a different sort of wedding dress? How about one made of book pages? That's what designer Jennifer Pritchard Couchman did with this dress. Read more about it at The Dress Made of Books.

A friend of mine posted this image on Facebook today. It's about buying a piece of art, but the same holds true for buying a book as well. Thank you to those who allow me to keep creating.

Today I was reading the December 2012 issue of Artist's Magazine and came across this quote by artist Candice Bohannon. It applies to writing as much to visual art: Allow yourself the time you need to create the art you dream of. Push past the fear that what you're making may never be as great as you hoped it would be, and give it your all; give it your everything. Great art requires great bravery.

I was reading the December 2012 issue of Town and Country today and came across an article about My Ideal Bookshelf , a new book by illustrator Jane Mount. She interviewed 100 people to find out what was on their bookshelves and created images based on those selections. Thessaly La Force wrote the accompanying essays. "The point was to find people whose books gave you a sign of how they become who they are." What's on my bookshelf? For a booklover, I actually own relatively few books. I give away books I've read so that they can enrich other people's lives and I mostly get books from the library. Still, I have a couple shelves of books that I've held onto over the years. The shelf I picked for this exercise includes my art history textbooks from college as well as "The History of Painting," and "Janson's History of Art" that I picked up at the library book sale for $1 this summer. I also have the quilting pattern book I got when I ...

My hometown of Springfield, MA, has a wonderful treasure in its museums. We are fortunate to have two art museums, a science museum, history museum, and Dr. Suess sculpture garden, all located in one central area in downtown. I was there just recently and enjoyed two special exhibits - a LEGO castle exhibit and one featuring breathtaking Tiffany glass lamps and windows. For those who want to volunteer giving tours in these museums, they have a wonderful docent training program. For free, you can get a great education in the items held in the Springfield collections. The museums are currently recruiting new docents. For more information, please visit the Museum website at Docent Programs .

I visited a friend in Holyoke, MA today and as I was leaving, I noticed that this Church/house was for sale! At first, I thought that it was still set up as a Church and would need some serious renovation, but when I looked it up at home, I discovered it has already been renovated. I love this place! I'm hoping to actually go see it. Oh, it is totally out of my price range and impractical for my family and the location isn't the best, but . . . to live here! It has beauty and history and I don't think you could be here and not be inspired. My other thought was to buy it and have it be an artists / writers retreat. I've always thought it would be nice to have a drop-in type of place where creative people could just come and work and be around other creative people. I looked up the history of the Church. It turns out it was The Highlands Methodist Episcopal Church. You can read more here: http://www.holyokemass.com/transcript/church/ch9.html . Unless someone ...

This is a tidbit I picked up in the March/April 2011 issue of Writer's Digest Postertext is a company that makes posters using the text of novels. What an awesome concept! I'm personally quite fond of the Little Women one. To find out more, visit Postertext .