Books : creativity / innovation.........Talent Development Resources --..home page...site map
The Spirit of Leonardo: Seven Steps to Self-realization from History's Greatest Genius (Audio CD), by Michael J. Gelb Reminding us that success in the search for expression and significance is no accident, Gelb says da Vinci developed his extraordinary talent through perceptual clarity, responsibility, subtle awareness, honesty about the self, integrating the masculine and feminine sides of the brain, integration of mind/body/spirit, and accepting love to realize the highest possible form of being. |
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Everyday Creativity and New Views of Human Nature: Psychological, Social, and Spiritual Perspectives by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Foreword), Ruth Richards (Editor) Presents us with a stunning array of models of everyday creativity. Furthermore, it takes us beyond the realm of personal change to the possibility of social transformation. It inspires us to reach, with creative courage, for openness to experience, flexibility, collaboration, and movement to new realms of human potential by simply supporting the creative energy in each of us. -- Judith V. Jordan, PhD, Director, Jean Baker Miller Training Institute, Wellesley College |
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Live Through This: On Creativity and Self-Destruction by Sabrina Chapadjiev (Editor) In a collection of original stories, essays, artwork, and photography, Nan Goldin, Eileen Myles, bell hooks, and other cutting-edge artists explore their use of art to survive madness, abuse, incest, depression, and the impulse toward self-destruction manifest in eating disorders, cutting, addiction, and contemplation of suicide. The book confronts the brutality many women and girls encounter in the world around them, and bravely takes as its subject the often misunderstood violence they at times inflict upon themselves. |
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Teresa
M. Amabile et al. Creativity
in Context: Update to the Social Psychology of Creativity
Largely because they affect motivation, social
factors can have a powerful impact on creativity. To understand
creativity, two basic questions must be answered. How is creative
performance different from ordinary performance? What conditions are
most favorable to creative performance -- what personal abilities and
characteristics, what social environments?
John Baer. Creativity and Divergent Thinking:
A Task Specific Approach
"This book is about.. what it takes to be "creative." As the quotation
marks suggest, I have trouble using the word without making some
caveat; as will be explained in the book, my research has suggested
that there is a problem with stating the question this way, in such
general terms. But the nature of creativity -- more specifically, the
nature of creative thinking, and how a general theory such as divergent
thinking can help us understand creative performance in a variety of
contexts -- is nonetheless what this book is about." [from Preface]
John
Baer, James C. Kaufman. Creativity Across Domains: Faces
of the Muse
"..brings together writers who have studied creative thinkers in
different areas, such as the various arts, sciences, and
communication/leadership. Each contributor explains what is known about
the cognitive processes, ways of conceptualizing and solving problems,
personality and motivational attributes, guiding metaphors, and work
habits or styles that best characterize creative people within the
domain he or she has investigated... This book appeals to creativity
researchers and students of creativity; cognitive, education, social,
and developmental psychologists; and educated laypeople interested in
exploring their own creativity."
Frank X.
Barron. Creators
on Creating :
Awakening and Cultivating the Imaginative Mind
This
collection of more than three dozen essays seeks to provide a
meaningful investigation into the creative process. Such diverse voices
as Henry Miller, Federico Fellini, Rainer Maria Rilke, Isadora Duncan,
Frank Zappa, and Mary Shelley offer their thoughts on what prompted
them to a creative life, and how they managed to capture their
inspirations and persist to produce works of art. ... Mary Shelley
on "The Genesis of Frankenstein," Tony Kushner on the "myth of the
individual" in making art, Maya Angelou describing her day, Ingmar
Bergman on the set of Fanny and Alexander, Richard Feynman in the
classroom, Karen Finley feigning madness etc. [amazon.com summary]
W.S. Bartman (Editor), et al. Between
Artists : Twelve Contemporary American Artists Interview Twelve
Contemporary American Artists
Collection
of conversations between artists who are intimately familiar with each
other's work... artists discuss their relationship with their work and
reflect on the culture in which they live, giving readers a deep
understanding of their daily roles and struggles. They share their
insights on such topics as AIDS, art history, craft, tradition,
religion, and feminism, and their voices reflect a reassuring
diversity. Some interesting pairings are Felix Gonzalez-Torres
interviewed by Tim Rollins, and Anne Scott Plummer interviewed by Viola
Frey. It is surprising to learn, for instance, that Gonzalez-Torres
never worked in a studio for fear it would paralyze his creativity.
Mary Todd Beam. Celebrate Your Creative Self: Over
25 Exercises to Unleash the Artist Within
Mary
Todd Beam is one of the best-known workshop instructors in the realm of
artistic creativity. She has been giving workshops all over the country
for a number of years and is an award-winning artist. // Readers
of this book are invited to playfully explore various aspects of visual
art, such as light, color, texture and design through a series of
imaginative art projects.
Robert
Alan Black. Broken
Crayons: Break Your Crayons and Draw Outside the Lines
"Are
you creative? Do others call you creative? Do
you wish you were more creative? If your answer to any of the above is
yes, then [this book] will teach you how to become more creative
through the analogy of broken crayons. It serves as a reminder through
the entire book that to become more creative, you need to do things
differently; do things out-of-the-ordinary; and break existing barriers
or remove current limitations, real, implied or imaginary." [from
author site: http://www.cre8ng.com/books.html]
Carol
Burke, Molly Best Tinsley. The Creative Process
Reviewer: Maureen K. (Watertown, NY) -
I teach creatve writing to students at various levels,and I have found
this to be one of the best texts I have used, especially for college
students who want an introduction to creative writing. Each of the
beginning chapters highlights a different aspect of language,
character, setting, or another element; the final chapters are more
holistic, each presenting a genre. The text allows room for creativity
while providing helpful, specific direction for any student who might
need it. The exercises work well for both young and old-er, male and
female students.
| Walking
in This World: The Practical Art of Creativity - by Julia Cameron
It is one of the ironies of the creative
life that while drama is a part of what we make, it has almost no place
in how we make it. Even those famous artists who suffered famously
dramatic lives were remarkably undramatic in their actual work habits.
Hemingway wrote five hundred words a day, wife in and wife out.
Composer Richard Rodgers wrote a composition every morning, nine to
nine-thirty. ... This argues that we get a lot further creatively by
staying put and doing something small and do-able daily in the life we
already have. ... [excerpt
from the book]~ ~ ~ |
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Morning, Noon, and Night : Living the Creative Life - by Judy Collins Creativity is a voice that calls us from dreams, that peeks out the corners of our eyes when we think no one is looking, the longing that breaks our hearts even when we think we should be happiest and to which we cannot give a name. When I was young, I heard the voice, the ticking, had the dream... |
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John
S. Dacey, Kathleen H. Lennon. Understanding
Creativity : The Interplay of Biological,
Psychological, and Social Factors..
"The authors
advance the biopsychosocial perspective as a model of the creative
process.... This new perspective promises to further our understanding
of the intricacies of the creative mind. In the process of studying
this book, readers may increase the probability of enhancing their own
creativity."
-- Richard E.
Ripple, professor, educational and developmental psychology, Cornell
University
Aunt Bessie's How to Survive a Day Job While
Pursuing the Creative Life -- by Joel Eisenberg
Inclusions
for the first edition include novelists Stephen King, Clive Barker,
Brad Meltzer, Laurell K. Hamilton, Richard Paul Evans, Douglas Preston,
Andrei Codrescu, Jonathan Kirsch, Thomas Perry, Carolyn See, Lisa See,
Father Andrew Greeley, Alan Dean Foster, Stuart Woods and Kelly Lange...
President
of CBS Entertainment Nancy Tellem, actors Sir Ian McKellen, Tom Cruise,
Sally Kirkland, Dee Wallace Stone, Elya Baskin, Robert Hayes and David
Hess, TV icons Jamie Farr, Wink Martindale, Mike Conners and Larry
Hagman, producers Stephen J. Cannell, Bob Kosberg, Bob Kiviat, Gene
Perret and Russ Streiner, adult film icon Kay Parker... director
Robert Wise, ESPN commentator Bill Pidto, former World's Heavyweight
Boxing Champion Larry Holmes and many more. A section entitled "From
The Vault" features first-person commentary from legends of the past,
including Jim Henson, Elvis Presley and P.T. Barnum.
Robert
Epstein, PhD. The
Big Book of Creativity Games: Quick, Fun Activities for
Jumpstarting Innovation
[reader:]
"Thank you, Robert Epstein, for
demythologizing creativity. As a writing teacher I found this book very
helpful in several ways. The games are fun and each one makes a strong
point. My students respond to the core competencies with excitement and
gratitude and most can't wait to develop these concrete skills. I've
found nothing better for tackling the problem of "writer's block." I
have used this book with students in classroom and workshop situations
and recommend it to managers who want to jump start their employees'
creativity.
They
Made America:
Two Centuries of Innovators from the Steam Engine to
the Search Engine - by
Harold Evans"
"The most exciting discovery in
looking at the
whole span of 200 years of innovation is how much the innovators were
democratizers, bringing reality to the rhetoric of liberty and
equality." -- Sir Harold Evans..>
related page: books:
biographies
Hans Eysenck, et al. Genius : The Natural History of Creativity
"..presents
a novel theory of genius and creativity that is based on the
personality characteristics of creative persons and geniuses. Starting
with the fact that genius and creativity are frequently related to
psychopathology, this book brings together many different lines of
research into the subject. Professor Eysenck provides experimental
evidence to support these theories in their application to creativity.
He considers the role of intelligence, social status, gender, and many
other factors that have been linked with genius and creativity. His
theory traces creativity from DNA through personality to special
cognitive processes to genius."
Howard E. Ferguson. The Edge: The Guide to Fulfilling Dreams, Maximizing Success and Enjoying a Lifetime of Achievement
Mark
Freeman. Finding
the Muse : A Sociopsychological Inquiry into the Conditions
of Artistic Creativity
"..
explores the lives of a group of aspiring fine
artists from the mid-1960s, when they completed art school, to the
mid-1980s, focusing especially on problems of artistic creativity as
they relate to such issues as the mystique of the artist, the challenge
of establishing community among artists, the place of the art market in
the construction of artistic identity, and the limits and possibilities
of modern and postmodern art itself. By identifying the salient
problems of contemporary artistic activity, the author seeks both to
reconstruct more optimal conditions of creativity and to provide
direction for how these conditions might be brought about. [Amazon.com
summary]
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The Creative Process: Reflections
on Invention in the Arts and Sciences - by Brewster Ghiselin
includes material from 38 well-known writers, artists, and scientists who attempt to describe the process by which original ideas come to them. Contributors include Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Amy Lowell, Rudyard Kipling, Max Ernst, Katherine Anne Porter, Henry Miller, Carl Gustav Jung, Mary Wigman, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Henri Poincare and many others. |
> Henry Miller (1891-1980) - from "Reflections on writing" in the book "I began in absolute chaos and darkness, in a bog or swamp of ideas and emotions and experiences. Even now I do not consider myself a writer, in the ordinary sense of the word. I am a man telling the story of his life, a process which appears more and more inexhaustible as I go on... "It is a turning inside out, a voyaging through X dimensions, with the result that somewhere along the way one discovers that what one has to tell is not nearly so important as the telling itself." |
Daniel Grant. The Business of Being an Artist
Reviewer: Shock Writer (Knoxville, Tennessee) - The information was much help since it gives such a complete view of selling art. Sales outlets include galleries, mail order, Internet, and others including the likely hood of success in each and examples of persons who have been successful in each. The conversational style is easy to read. Positives and negatives of various sales methods are given. The book neither depresses nor thrills but seems to evenly cover the material. Many many issues of selling art are covered.
Robert Henri, Margery Ryerson. The Art Spirit: Notes, Articles, Fragments of Letters and Talks to Students, Bearing on the Concept and Technique of Picture Making, the Study of Art Generally, and on Appreciation
"The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable." Robert Henri
The Accidental Masterpiece : On the Art of Life and Vice Versa -- by Michael Kimmelman
"ART provides us with clues about how to live our own lives more fully," writes Michael Kimmelman, who has managed to preserve, through his years as an art critic, his sense of wonder and amazement. Not only for the work but also for the men and women, living and gone, who are impassioned by art. Some are well-known, like the painter Pierre Bonnard, who fell in love with the misanthropic Marthe de Méligny, making more than 400 paintings of her during their life together. The "interior radiance" expressed in these paintings might never have come to light if Bonnard had not met her: an accidental masterpiece. ... There's the 1,300-page "quasi-fictional diary of text and pictures" created by Charlotte Salomon before she was killed, age 26 and pregnant, in Auschwitz. Many more such masterpieces are contained (although they are so powerful they threaten to burst the binding) in this collection of endless inspiration. "Be alert to the senses. Elevate the ordinary. Art is about a heightened state of awareness. Try to treat everyday life, or at least parts of it, as you would a work of art."
> from review by Susan Salter Reynolds, LA Times Sep 11 2005
Robin Landa. Thinking Creatively:
New Ways to Unlock Your Visual Imagination
Robin
Landa has been named one of the "great teachers of our time" by the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and has written
several other design books, including Creative Jolt and Creative Jolt
Inspirations. She has won the New Jersey Authors Award and has been a
Professor of Fine Arts and coordinator of the BFA Visual Communications
degree program at New Jersey's Kean College for more than 13 years.
Nita
Leland. The Creative Artist: A
Fine Artist's Guide to Expanding Your Creativity
and
Achieving Your
Artistic Potential .
[reader:] Nita Leland's book not only
gives ideas
to develop your understanding and appreciation of art, but quotes
artists' thoughts about their art and even their difficulties in
achieving what they were looking for. She
gives"tips" to release the creator in you,
encourages hard and constant work as a way to loosen up and discover
your skills beyond shape and color. She explains how after an
accidental stain or assemblage of papers, fabrics and objects, you can
get to artistic creation by emphasizing and developing the "accident"
by means of color knowledge, tehnique and sensitive approach.
| John Daido
Loori. The Zen of Creativity : Cultivating
Your Artistic Life
"Naturalness, spontaneity, and playfulness are all aspects of the ordinary mind that catches a glimpse of the world of things just as they are," writes Loori, the founder and abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery, in the Catskill Mountains. Loori, who was once a research scientist, had his first taste of what he describes during a weekend workshop decades ago with the great photographer Minor White. Thanks to the guidance of White, Loori's love of photography became a lens that allowed him to glimpse what it might mean to really awaken. ... Through exercises, anecdotes and illustrations of his own work and the work of others, he illuminates how in Zen the seemingly different pursuits of awakening and creative expression are actually kindred, even twins. [Publishers Weekly] |
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Eric
Maisel. Coaching the Artist Within :
Advice for Writers, Actors, Visual Artists, and Musicians
Drawing
on his experience as a psychotherapist and writer, Eric Maisel, who
pioneered the profession of creativity coaching, presents twelve skills
necessary for navigating the artist’s life. Maisel contends
that we have to learn to create "in the middle of things," as opposed
to waiting for that fantasy moment when the busyness of life subsides
and we feel divinely inspired. What we may call "being blocked" or "not
having enough time" Maisel identifies as fear, anxiety, or a lack of
clear purpose, revealing the roots of why we don’t fulfill
our creative goals. Without sugar-coating the genuine risks and rigors
of living a creative life, Maisel offers practical, simple and
effective techniques for meeting both internal and external challenges.
Each chapter enumerates a different skill, with exercises to master
that strategy, and includes an inspiring vignette from
Maisel’s work with clients. It’s easy to trust
Maisel’s recommendations on creativity, considering his own
highly prolific record as a writer of both fiction and non-fiction.
Emily Trinkaus, New ConneXion - Journal of Conscious Evolution [site]
Eric Maisel. Becoming a Creativity Coach: The
Art and Practice of a New Profession [e-book]
What is Creativity? What is Creativity Coaching? Who Becomes a
Creativity Coach? Necessary and Required Training Becoming an
Entrepreneur - and much more // Eric Maisel, PhD, is a creativity coach
and trainer of creativity coaches, and has been working with creative
and performing artists for more than twenty years and writing for
thirty-five years, with more than thirty books.
Gail
McMeekin. The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women:
A Portable Mento
[reader:
Kathryn Hudson from Maryland:] If
you're at a creative impasse,
this book will open your mind and free your soul. The wonderful and
accessible stories about ordinary women who have found happiness by
creating from the heart is inspirational. These
women are no different from you and I; they
are mothers, daughters, aunts, sisters, cousins and grandmothers who
let the seeds of their imaginations turn into gardens of personal
delight! You can take so much away from this book. I suspect you'll do
as I did and start finding new and creative ways to express yourself.
This book helps you find joy!
Shaun
McNiff. Trust
the Process: An Artist's Guide to Letting Go
Experienced creators understand that a
person's mental outlook has as much to do with the quality of
expression as technical skill. The way we view situations is the basis
for their creative transformation. When asked to define what is a work
of art, Pablo Picasso was reported to have said, "What is not?" [amazon.com
summary]
Michael Michalko. Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius
Oriah Mountain Dreamer. What
We Ache For : Creativity and the Unfolding of Your Soul
"I
am drawn to write not because I think the creative process will bring
me happiness, but because when I write I am happy." So admits Oriah
Mountain Dreamer, writer, artist, workshop and retreat leader. Sharing
more than a handful of deeply personal experiences, she demonstrates
the intrinsic connection between creativity, spirituality and
sexuality, which she defines as "an awareness of and appreciation for
our physical life and a material reality alive with sensual detail."
While most of her examples discuss the process of writing, she
carefully includes all forms of creativity—from dance to music to
physical art. [Publishers Weekly]
Lynne Perrella. Artists Journals and Sketchbooks:
Exploring and Creating Personal Pages
reviewer: Karen Cote "kcqwilter" (Rochester, NY United States) - "..the
book goes way beyond displays of wonderful journal pages. It's stuffed
full of ideas and examples - not just one, but sometimes 20 or 30
different 'takes' on a technique, with a brief description of how to
approach each one. The title says it all - Exploring (the examples are
fabulous, varied and stimulating) and Creating (there's just enough
information to tell you what to do without drowning you in tedious
'how-to'). If you love exploring a new technique, but need only a nudge
instead of endless step-by-step instructions, this is a book that you
MUST have on your shelf. If you're stuck, and looking for some
inspiration, flip to any page and you'll be struck with more ideas than
you can implement at one time.
Steven
Pressfield. The
War of Art :
Winning the Inner Creative Battle
To
begin Book One, Pressfield labels the enemy of creativity Resistance,
his all-encompassing term for what Freud called the Death Wish -- that
destructive force inside human nature that rises whenever we consider a
tough, long-term course of action that might do for us or others
something that's actually good.
He
then presents a rogue's gallery of the many manifestations of
Resistance. You will recognize each and every one, for this force lives
within us all-self-sabotage, self-deception, self-corruption. We
writers know it as "block," a paralysis whose symptoms can bring on
appalling behavior.
Robert
McKee - from introduction - McKee is author of Story:*Substance,
Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
Evan
I. Schwartz. Juice: The Creative Fuel That Drives
World-Class Inventors
"Schwartz's
carefully researched histories reveal remarkably consistent patterns in
the process of invention. Following these patterns can help inventors
in any field find better, more creative solutions." Clay Christensen, author
of The Innovator's Dilemma
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"Exploiting
serendipity. Stumbling into success. Data-driven decision-making. This
powerful collection of portraits is packed with lessons and insights. A
perfect companion for today's - and tomorrow's - entrepreneur."
Dr. Eric Schmidt, Chief Executive Officer, Google Inc.
Creativity and Personality Type :
Tools for Understanding and Inspiring the Many Voices of Creativity -
by Marci Segal
Reviewer:
Dorothy Lemmon (Chicago, IL USA) - "This
book is more about how to be a creative leader, plain and simple. Segal
has taken the effort to show how creativity can be supported in
individuals and teams and takes great pains to demonstrate throughout
how to work with people to help them get new ideas and make new
decisions...."
Lee Silber. Time Management for the Creative Person : Right-Brain Strategies for Stopping Procrastination, Getting Control of theClock and Calendar, and Freeing Up Your Time and Your Life
Robert
J. Sternberg, et al. Creativity:
From Potential to Realization
Who
is creative... and why? And what does it mean to be creative? Is
a creative individual a master-of-all trades or a master of one? In
other words, is creativity a generalized attribute or is it a
domain-specific attribute?
Robert
J. Sternberg. Handbook of Creativity
The book
contains twenty-two chapters covering a wide range of issues and topics
in the field of creativity, all written by distinguished leaders in the
field. The volume is divided into six parts.
The
introduction sets out the major themes and reviews the history of
thinking about creativity. Subsequent parts deal with methods, origins,
self and environment, special topics and conclusions.[Amazon.com summary]
Anthony Storr. The Dynamics of Creation
What
drives the artist to create masterpieces and the scientist to forge
breakthrough theories? This is the fundamental question that British
psychiatrist Anthony Storr sets out to answer in The Dynamics of
Creation... In probing the origins and the consequences of creativity,
Storr paints brief, stunningly insightful portraits of an astonishing
range of gifted individuals, including Leonardo da Vinci, Darwin,
Mozart, Einstein, Kafka, Newton, Balzac, and Wagner.
Julie Taymor: Playing with Fire
- by Eileen Blumenthal, Julie Taymor.
In
a number of interviews, director and designer Julie Taymor has talked
about the rich and formative experience she had during her twenties,
living in Indonesia and learning about its art and theater. "In
Bali, there was no word for 'art' because that's what people do," she
has commented. "It's
just part of your devotion as a human being." It's
a commodity, but it's introducing people to what are not commodious
things; these are ancient theatrical forms. What for me is very
important in my work... is how basic and elemental it is." Taymor
uses a range of technology in her stage and film work, and noted in our
interview about her film "Titus" that she doesn't use special effects
if she doesn't need to. >
from interview by
Douglas Eby
Twyla
Tharp. The Creative Habit: Learn
It and Use It for Life
"..impressively
well-organized. Tharp draws not only on a lifetime of creative
collaboration with luminaries such as Jerome Robbins, Richard Avedon
and Mike Nichols, but also on extensive experience teaching
"creativity" workshops at colleges around the country. Eleven
topical chapters, running from preparation
for work through the uses of memory, generation of raw ideas, skill
development, how to embrace failure and, finally, the arc of an oeuvre,
contain and sandwich 31 practical exercises.
Kenny Werner. Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within
Thomas G. West. Thinking Like Einstein : Returning To Our Visual Roots With The Emerging Revolution In Computer Information Visualization -- "There is increasing evidence," writes Thomas G. West, columnist for Computer Graphics magazine, author of "In the Mind's Eye" and director of the Center for Dyslexia and Talent at George Mason University, "that many highly original and productive thinkers have clearly preferred visual over verbal modes of thought."
New Ideas About New Ideas:
Insights on Creativity from the World's Leading Innovators - by Shira
P. White
reviewer:
K. Sampanthar "kes_sampanthar" (Reston, VA) - I start reading it again
and this time I am immersed in this creative storm. The book is
stimulating so many ideas and thoughts; I can't put the book down. I
find myself waking up at 3am and devouring the book. ... I am not sure
what this book was aiming to do, but the most amazing aspect of this
book is that it gives an insight in a creative thinkers mind. [it] is
chock full of ideas and snippets from many diverse sources reflecting
her research. ... if you read this book and let your self go and follow
along with White as she brainstorms ideas, random connections between
thoughts and facts you will find yourself immersed.
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