My thoughts on Barbie The Movie

[SPOILER ALERT: this post contains spoilers for the 2023 Barbie movie.]

I never wanted to watch movies about Barbies as a kid because I felt no need to see them. As I wrote about in detail in The Doll Project, the official character traits and storylines Mattel had assigned to Barbie, her sisters, and her friends were wholly irrelevant to the roles and relationships I had imagined the dolls in my collection to have. Some were heroines and some were villains. Some were single career women and some were married. Some had biological children and some adopted. And sometimes I changed my mind about who my Barbie characters were or improvised when playing with my cousins and friends.

It wasn't until I was well into adulthood that I began watching Barbie media, adding it to the mix of silly kids shows that I watch to relax. Some people unwind with reality TV; I've always preferred cartoons. So when the news about Barbie: The Movie came out, I was actually looking forward to seeing it. I had enjoyed Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse and Barbie: It Takes Two. My skepticism about The Lego Movie and Trolls had been unwarranted, as it turned out, and I found both toy-based movies to actually be insightful, heartwarming, and rewatchable entertainment for my inner child.

As a doll collector, I was thrilled to see all the new movie tie-ins. These are two of my favorites:

I was excited to dress up and go to the movies since I haven't been to a theater since 2020.

 

I went with 2 of my cousins and 1 of my friends. Aside from the excitement of seeing a film in person again, the spectacle of a Barbie world on a big screen was captivating. The costume and production design were impeccable. The soundtrack was great. However...

Something didn't curl all the way over for me...

I couldn't quite put my finger on it...

But something was missing.

It lacked a certain je ne sais quoi.

I appreciated the feminist theme throughout the film. If horrible men like Ben Shapiro hate it, I thought, it must be good. But as a Barbie collector who also studied many forms of storytelling—from fiction writing to playwriting to screenwriting—I was very disappointed with they the way the movie's elements came together.

There have been too many good movies about toys for this one to be so muddled. The Toy Story, Lego Movie, and Wreck-It Ralph series have all cleverly played with the idea of toys and video game characters having minds of their own that the humans playing with them cannot perceive. There have been too many good models of a fish-out-of-water character from a more innocent world coming face-to-face with our sometimes ugly reality—like my beloved Elf where Buddy the Elf leaves the tidy little community that Santa and his elves have built for themselves in the North Pole to live in gritty early 2000s New York City—for this one to execute the trope so poorly. I also think there was a missed opportunity for Ken to be a lovable hapless himbo who stumbles into success somehow, like a cross between Zoolander and Forrest Gump.

Instead, Mattel has given us a motley assortment of plot elements that kind of remind me of the loose parts you might find at the bottom of a toy box. It just occurred to me that the examples I gave in the previous paragraph are from films with male main characters. Maybe the Barbie writers were so focused on making points about the main character's gender that they lost the plot. Yes, the film is feminist, but what wave of feminism are they referencing, anyway? Nowadays, as more expansive notions of gender come into play, what is the point of fixating on a Barbie/Ken binary? Furthermore, why does Barbie's world have a gendered hierarchy? Why are the Kens and Barbies playing a zero-sum game? Why can't they share power? Why is Mattel ignoring their own products and acting like Ken dolls haven't had their own careers since the '60s?

It's also unclear who Barbie the movie is ultimately for. Its gender politics are a bit outdated for modern audiences, despite America Ferrera's outstanding monologue about the difficulty of being a woman in the world. The Kens drink copious beers after they take over, but the Mattel executives are very cartoonish in their chase scenes. President Barbie hilariously drops an f-bomb that is bleeped and censored by a Mattel logo and the Ruth Handler character speaks openly about her arrest for tax evasion, but the grown-up humor stands out because the story feels so immature. And all of this culminates in an ending that I found unsatisfying, despite its refutation of what I wrote in The Doll Project about Barbie looking so happy because she doesn't have to worry about things like breast cancer, PMS, and menstrual cramps. She has chosen to be human, but why? She has chosen to live in the real world, but why? Because the writers are obviously human and live in the real world? What's her motivation?

It seems as though Mattel is seeking to humorously deconstruct one of its most popular intellectual properties while still trying to sell us as much stuff as possible through a seemingly endless assortment of brand partnerships. But post-deconstruction, it doesn't reconstruct anything interesting, and it never considers that toys are what kids make of them. Children breathe life into them and it is their wild imaginations and not the text on the back of a bright pink plastic package that determine how things work in the multiverse of imagined Barbie worlds. Barbie and Ken can be anything, and the possibilities for storytelling with these miniature mannequins are endless, but you would never know that from this movie. If only they put as much effort into writing this film as they did into marketing it.

 

 

 

 

The Sinister Art World of 'I Am the Night'

SPOILER ALERT: It's impossible for me to write about this show without giving some plot points away, so the best thing for you to do if you haven't seen I Am the Night is to watch it first, unless you're one of those rare people who likes to know how a story ends before beginning it.

The art world in I Am the Night is a sinister and scary place. I began watching the TNT miniseries not knowing that the journey of the main character, a teenage girl named Fauna Hodel, would take her into a world of menacing-looking surrealist art and happenings populated with creepy characters, among both the performers and the audience.

The truth of Fauna's story is stranger than fiction. A teenage adoptee's quest for her identity leads her to uncover horrible secrets about the family that gave her away. Her grandfather, George Hodel, is a shadowy figure who is also a fixture in the art world.

His private collection of macabre paintings is on loan to a Los Angeles art museum. In the context of the film, the dismembered female figures are more like crime scene photos than art.

I am reminded of the part of Nanette where Hannah Gadsby talked about art history and women, and of a conversation I had with my late aunt while looking at abstract art with her at the Art Institute. What happens when women are reduced to mere parts by male artists? And what kind of men make art like that? And what do they really think of women? Have these artists made this work as a way to sublimate their true desire to act violently against women? Does this art primarily appeal to collectors who are themselves violent men? Have they confused sadism with a true creative vision?

At one point, it's hard to tell if her step-grandmother's contempt for her is out of racism or art world snobbery.

But despite her condescension, she teaches Fauna a few things about the contemporary art of their time that she is able to use to devastating effect in a dramatic confrontation with George Hodel. This California noir is like a V.C. Andrews novel in many aspects, and also has the Gothic element of a gloomy mansion.

 After listening to the podcast series, Root of Evil, that Fauna Hodel's daughters released in conjunction with the series, I learned that some of the situations and characters were added to give the story what my screenwriter cousin Darrell calls "Hollywood sizzle." But an interesting fact that was not included is that Fauna Hodel grew up to work in an art gallery.

For further reading, here's an article about the set design from Architectual Digest and an article about the artwork created for the show from Vulture.

Kidnapped by the Film Festival

*WARNING: this post contains some spoilers. Don't click the links to the movies I wrote about in the seventh paragraph if you don't want them spoiled.

 
This September, as I have been in the habit of doing for a few years now, I went to the Chicago Artists Month website with the intention of making my plans for all the art shows I would see in October. Soon my calendar was filled with openings, open studios, gallery shows, tours, art walks, and other special events. And then the schedule for the Chicago International Film Festival was announced.

Suddenly, all I wanted to do was cram as many films as possible into my schedule. I made plans for films to see on weekends, films to see after work, and even films to see when I took two consecutive days off from work. I promised myself I'd go easy on myself this time after the disastrous consequences of not getting enough sleep, not getting enough to eat, and being exposed to so many germs in the confines of movie theaters last October: coming down with pneumonia. Torn between the desire to travel to far-flung artist habitats around the city and the urge to make the AMC River East multiplex my new home away from home, I allowed myself to be kidnapped by the Film Festival.

It all began the weekend of the 10th. I had my open studio, as usual. But I knew that just a few blocks away there was a red carpet premiere of Beyond The Lights, a new film starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and she was actually going to be there in person! How I wished that I could be in two places at once, or else hire an assistant.

The next day, Saturday the 11th, I had volunteered to sit at the table for an art collective I'm a part of during a grand opening of a new art supply store. I was disappointed to find that our table was not on the main floor with the other vendors, but up in a loft where no one came to buy any art.

empty chairs at empty tables...

 Because no one else showed up to watch our table, I ended up staying hours longer than I initially expected, and by the time I left, hungry and tired, it was too late to go to some of the shows I had planned to attend because they were over. But at least there was still time to go to one last art show with a fellow artist friend, or so we thought. We arrived to find the building nearly empty, wandering the former warehouse together. We checked our smartphones to verify the date and time. An apparent misprint. Another disappointment dealt to me by flaky artists.

Sunday I went to the film festival and never looked back. Sure, there were other art shows I could have gone to, but they were all too far away, and after what happened Saturday, I didn't want to be bothered. Sure, being stranded at an art supply store or wandering around aimlessly with a friend are not by any means the worst possible things that could happen to me on Saturday, but I could have spent that time watching obscure foreign and indie films that might never make it to Netflix.



What struck me about the films I saw was that so many of them had a plot or subplot involving kidnapping. Most of them involved people playing social services and taking it upon themselves to remove children from homes they deemed unfit, though a few had other motives and/or older captives. There was a little boy taken by his kindergarten teacher because she believed his wealthy restauranteur father would never appreciate his talents (he was a child prodigy in poetry), another little boy taken by a man who told his wife, heartbroken after their son had died in a tragic accident, that the child's parents were neglectful, and even a short film about a third-grade girl who takes a toddler home with her because she thinks she'd do a better job raising her than the girl's mother!

"Even though I'm only eight, I'm gonna take you home and call you Mary."

What???!!!

There was an elderly man who plotted to kidnap another elderly man he believed to be a fugitive so he could bring him to justice (while leaving a legacy and making a name for himself before he died.) The Boxtrolls were feared by townspeople who believed they took a baby from his family, and in Gone Girl, the police think that Amy Dunne may have been kidnapped. (Yes, between the indie films I found time to watch some regular movies, too.)

Fortunately, not all the movies I saw were about characters who tried to justify taking other people's kids (or grandparents).  Some of my favorites were in the Locally Sourced Short Films program. I recommend Un Mujer Sin Precio, Speed Dating, and Parietal Guidance.

 

As for feature films, I really liked Maestro, a charming French film about a friendship between a young actor getting his first big break and a famous director nearing the end of his career, as well as the tearjerker Marie's Story, which is like a French version of The Miracle Worker. I had the privilege of seeing a long-lost film by silent film star Colleen Moore, whose name I know because I've always loved the dollhouse she bequeathed to the Museum of Science and Industry. The film, Why Be Good?, was a romantic comedy from the late 20's and Moore starred as an adorable flapper girl.

 

During the festival I also attended my first fun alumni event (I don't count that one time I went to Story Week) for my long-neglected alma mater, Columbia College. The only school I ever dropped out of, (blame writer's block), its very name had filled me with a sense of shame for years. But after getting serious about writing again, I decided to sign up for alumni e-mails and see what it had to offer. And what it had to offer this year was a free special event at the film festival that had delicious food, two short films, and a feature film called Animals made here in Chicago by Columbia alumni. And I even got a badge and a name tag with the year I would have graduated on it. I felt so official for once. Seeing my name next to my major, fiction writing, really did something for me.

My first film fest badge. I feel so official now!

Of course, tickets for some festival films can be hard to get. And that's why I didn't get to see Dear White People at the festival. At first I felt bad because I have been looking forward to seeing it ever since I happened upon a trailer for it over a year ago, but then I realized that it would be opening here just a few days later than its festival screening date. Plus, I will get to see it with some friends tonight. I was tempted to take one of the promo posters and hang it in my studio because of the recent spate of microagressions I've had to deal with during my public events. Here are some examples:

"I never knew there were Black people named Tiffany!"
"I'm surprised you would even have Barbies since you're Black."

 Where do these people come from? And why do they come to my studio? And did you know that 80% of people with art school degrees are white? Which is why the theme of Dear White People, being "a Black face in a White space" is so relevant to me personally.

But that's another topic for another blog post. Anyway, back to the subject. I'm really glad I had a chance to see so many great films this year. Even though there wasn't enough time to go to everything I had put on my calendar, I am glad I was able to see so much. As always, there was the problem of needing to be in two places at once, like this past Saturday when I was attending free panels about filmmaking at the festival while the Fine Arts Building was inundated with visitors during Open House Chicago, or not going to see a film this past Wednesday evening because I opened my studio for a tour that never came. But maybe next year I can finally hire an assistant. There is so much to do in October in this city, and I don't want to miss out.

Imperfect Software: Making a Book in spite of Blurb BookSmart's many glitches

So you're making a book. Congratulations! Chances are, if the SEO stars are in alignment, you have found this blog post because you are as frustrated with the BookSmart software as I was. Good luck finding help online. Good luck getting Blurb to make it better. I went to Twitter with my complaint, and their advice was to use Adobe InDesign! Which would make sense if I were a professional book designer, but since I only plan to put out books every 3 years or so, it seems kinda wasteful if you ask me. But there is hope. You can make a beautiful book despite the glitches.

The first step of making your own book with the software is to relax. So take a deep breath. Next, make sure that you have something to eat. This is a long process. You may want to order a pizza or something before you get started. Making a book with this software may involve locking yourself in a room with your laptop, so make sure you have some provisions. Next, remind yourself of why you wanted to make a book in the first place. Books are magical. Never forget that. Here is some classic edutainment from the 80's to remind you. Go ahead, watch this little video. I'll wait.

I hope that Jem and the Starlight Girls inspired you to open a book. Because that's the next step in this process. Open your book in BookSmart to get started.

CHOOSE YOUR FONTS WISELY

 I'm not a graphic designer, but I collect interesting fonts. I spent a long time going through the vast collection at MyFonts.com, choosing the perfect typeface for the body of the book. And then when it came time to create my book in BookSmart, I couldn't use any of the fonts I bought. Oddly enough, it allowed me to use Darling Nikki, a font I downloaded for free in the late 90's. (Now you have to pay for it.)

But none of the fonts I paid for were acceptable. What a waste of money!

In frustration, I looked up my problem on the Blurb site and discovered that my best option was to choose a free Google font that was licensed for eBook use as well. You can find those here:
https://support.blurb.com/entries/22885903?locale=1
I chose Quicksand for the body of both of my new books.

MAKE YOUR COVER IN ANOTHER PROGRAM

Because your choice of fonts is so limited, you are better off making your cover in a program like Photoshop. Just be sure to make it high resolution (300 dpi) and size it to the exact dimensions that BookSmart recommends. Avoid putting any text near the edges. It will probably get cut off. Also, choose a font that has impact. Don't use something like Arial or Times New Roman. They don't have enough presence to work well for a book title. They're better for subtitles or for the body of the book. Bad covers make your book look generic and amateurish. If you're doing an art book, the good news is that you already have a treasure trove of great images to use for a cover. For my covers, I chose images that had enough space to put a title over them without the letters getting lost in a lot of details.

ADDING WORDS

Before you enter any text into your book, make sure that you have already written and proofed it in a word-processing program. You do not want to edit your text in BookSmart. Just don't. The laws of cursor physics do not seem to apply in this program. Fonts get changed, text gets moved, and then the program will say that there is a text overflow issue, and it will crash, and you may lose the edits you just made (even though it claims to have auto-saved it).

Two text overflow warnings = a disaster waiting to happen...

Avoiding text overflow issues must become your first priority. Think of it like a video game. Once you have 3 text overflow warnings, BookSmart is probably going to crash. So try to make sure that doesn't happen. The difficulty of this task will depend on the kind of book you're creating.

Here are my 2 examples. First, Imperfect Things. It is a book that consists of one long passage of text with some images added. And that's why it is a text overflow nightmare. I cannot begin to tell you how many times it crashed on me because of this. In frustration, I selected all the text and deleted it from the book. Then I went back into Microsoft Word, formatted all of the text (because I use two different body text fonts in the book), selected all of it, copied it, and pasted it back in. This approach worked fairly well, though there was one problem: the italicized formatting I used for the titles of my paintings did not copy over from the Word document. Not sure why this is, not sure what workaround there is for such a thing, but do keep this in mind if your project relies on italics, bold, or underlining. You may have to go back and make changes. And making these changes could lead to text overflow warnings, and crashes. So what you need to do is close the book every time you make a major change. This way, you know your changes will actually be saved.

Now my second example, The Doll Project, is a series of short essays. I copied and pasted each one separately. Doing this spared me the trauma of text overflow warnings.  BookSmart, it appears, is better at working with this format. No stress, no drama, no crashes.

lesson review:

• Do your editing and formatting in a word processing program first. Do not write your book in BookSmart.
• Once you get 2 text overflow warnings, close your book and reopen it.
• Consider writing a series of chapters instead of one long book.

ADDING PICTURES

Blurb BookSmart is great with pictures. It's actually better with pictures than it is with words. The variety of layout options for images is proof of that.

However, there is one picture layout that it's lacking: this one.

If you want to have a long passage of text above some smaller images, you have to create that layout yourself. I recommend this simple hack. Press enter several times to create a patch of white space from the end of your block of text to the bottom of the page. Then change the layout and add an image box behind your text box.

This solution is a little weird and imprecise and changing font sizes will affect the amount of white space you've opened up for your image. That's why it's best not to create this layout until after all the other fonts in your document are the size you want them to be. Otherwise, guess what will happen? That's right, the text overflow warning of doom.

If you go to the trouble of creating a special layout, you might want to save it so that you can use it on other pages or in other books you create with BookSmart. There are 2 big problems with this, however. The first is that your special snowflake layout will not apply to flowing text. The second is that BookSmart might snub your request to save your special layout for reasons unknown. Fortunately, it does display the x and y coordinates of every text and image box, so that can help you duplicate your design.

lesson review:

• BookSmart likes pictures better than words
• The software provides every layout you can dream of except for flowing text above smaller pictures (and flowing text with images in the middle of the page)
• After all the work you do creating a special layout, BookSmart may or may not let you save it to use again on other pages or in other books. It's fussy and temperamental.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It's sad to see a company that makes such beautiful books code such terrible software. But that's the thing about free proprietary software, you pay for what you get, and you get what you pay for. As for me, depending on how well my books sell, I may purchase InDesign for the next ones. But in case I don't buy it, at least I know there are ways to get around BookSmart's irritating glitches.

Book review: Cute, Quaint, Hungry and Romantic by Daniel Harris

It's funny, but I appreciate books like Cute, Quaint, Hungry and Romantic by Daniel Harris now that I am no longer a stressed-out college undergraduate.  It's a book about aesthetics, particularly "The Aesthetics of Consumerism" as Harris has subtitiled it.  What I like about books like this one is the way they look at the objects with analytical scrutiny.  What does "cute" or "quaint" or "delicious" really mean in the context of our modern world?  This book is an attempt to answer those questions.  I think that what it does for the realm of the visual is similar to what TV Tropes does for creative writing, finding common symbols in our culture, grouping examples of them together, and even giving examples of their opposites. 

As an artist and designer, I feel like it isn't enough to just make pretty things.  It's also important to consider subtle nuances of subtext and symbolism.  I think Cute, Quaint, Hungry and Romantic is a good introduction to the topic, particularly because of the clever definitions Harris gives:

Cute

Something becomes cute not because of`a quality it has but because of a quality it lacks, a certain neediness and inability to stand alone, as if it were an indigent starveling, lonely and rejected because of a hideousness we find more touching than unsightly.

Quaint

Quaintness is an aesthetic not only of clutter but also of imperfections, of scratches, chips, and cracks. It loathes the regularity of modern products so completely that it goes out of its way to create artificial irregularities in brand new things, thus faking the necessary dilapidation of quaintness, as when decorators "distress" exposed beams with motor oil and drill bits to counterfeit smudges of soot and the ravages of woodworm.

Cool

Far from reflecting confidence, coolness grows out of a sense of threat, of the strain from living in metropolitan war zones where our equanimity is constantly being challenged, giving rise to a hyper-masculine folk religion that fetishizes poise and impassivity.

Romantic

Lovers are portrayed as refugees from their own kind, ostracized and oppressed by society at large, which has been eliminated from romantic advertisements, creating eerily unpopulated spaces, the echoing ruins of a civilization that the aesthetic wipes out as effectively as the neutron bomb.

Zany

Zaniness allows us to misbehave and yet minimizes our risk of being ostracized as eccentric. It is based not on real individuality but rather on the harmless iconoclasm of the typical prankster...

Futuristic

The futuristic creates its imagery through willful disobedience, an almost bratty, aesthetic misbehavior, rather than through a genuine spirit of inventiveness, of artistic prescience about the appearance of tomorrow.

Delicious

The misrepresentations of the aesthetic of deliciousness must be understood as a part of a systemic campaign, not only on the part of chain restaurants but of food manufacturers in general, to camouflage the insipidity of packaged foods and neutralize the skepticism of a society still adjusting to its loss of control over all aspects of food production.

Natural

The vision of nature presented in magazines is tailored to rival the artists of Madison Avenue, to supply eyes spoiled by the fluorescent tones of consumerism with their chromatic fix, the addictive drug of loud, saturated tints that can only be found it the most exotic reefs and rain forests.

Glamorous

Bad posture and and grooming are key components of contemporary glamor because they exhibit the contempt that this sylph-like slob feels for the dress she is wearing, a blase attitude that sends an unequivocal message to readers that that woman in the snakeskin Versace dress and Medusa curls is above posing, above trying to look good, above conforming to social expectations.

Clean

Faced with the unglamorous task of persuading people to buy products whose function is purely negative, namely, to get rid of dirt, companies have devised an imaginary, exhibitionistic type of cleanliness that we can see and smell, a glittering mirage that makes an emphatic impression on our bodies and seduces us with its lustrous sheen and mirror-like polish, thus reassuring us that we have indeed gotten something for our money.

I hope these little tidbits have intrigued you enough to read the book.  If you do, come back and comment on it.

The Freedom Manifesto by Tom Hodgkinson - A Saturday Solutions Book Review

Since Independence Day is coming up next week, I thought I'd share an important book about freedom. Don't you love it when you serendipitously come across a book in the library when you're looking for something else? That's how I came to read The Freedom Manifesto a few weeks ago. The book's full title is The Freedom Manifesto: How to Free Yourself from Anxiety, Fear, Mortgages, Money, Guilt, Debt, Government, Boredom, Supermarkets, Bills, Melancholy, Pain, Depression, Work, and Waste. I wish I had found it back in 2007 when it was first published.

I'm writing about this book on this blog because as artists, we need the freedom to create. Unfortunately, we often deny ourselves that freedom. We don't give ourselves permission. We have been taught to have a particular set of standards and ambitions that get in the way of creating the art that needs to be made. We worry too much about whether our art will sell or about other people's measures of success. But Julia Cameron said, in her own manifesto of sorts, that "To be an artist is to risk admitting that much of what is money, property, and prestige strikes you as just a little silly." This book makes that admission loud and clear, and encourages its readers to do the same.

What I love about Tom Hodgkinson's irreverent book is that he questions so many of these notions, and does it with such a wry British sense of humor. (Ironic, isn't it, for me to turn to a book by a British author for inspiration on Independence Day?) He writes about the rules that were meant to be broken and explores fun ways of breaking them.

There are so many great quotes from this book that I had a hard time narrowing down my list of favorites. Here are several observations and pieces of advice that resonated with me:

On beauty:

• Things used to be more beautiful. That is fact. The industrial process can be seen as a process of uglification, as everything becomes objectively uglier when it submits itself to the rule of mass manufacture, cheap labour and profit. Noble, contemplative Quality is murdered by venal, avaricious Quantity.
• Perfectionism itself is a  kind of death; the machine can turn out thousands of perfect objects, but they have no life.
• Only buy beautiful things. Only make beautiful things.
• It is one of the terrible ironies of the age that something as expensive as plastic, which relies on limited supplies of oil, has become cheaper than wood, which is endlessly renewable.

On shopping:

• To free yourself from the cycle of work-spend-debt-work, simply stop consuming.
• To be able to find an odd item that looks good from a second-hand shop proves you have real style and are not just a mere follower of fashion. Style is about being yourself, and fashion is about being like the others.
• Don't make luxury into a meaning.
• Treat abundance and want with the same detachment.
• When it comes to freeing ourselves from faith in machinery and technology, one answer is to go backwards. I have discovered that it is very easy to live like a millionaire, if you simply go back in time a little. Super 8 cameras from the 1960s, for example, cost about £1 and are much more fun than the dreaded camcorder.

On the future:

• The future is always about machines. But I don't think about the future; I think about the present. The future is a capitalist construct. The past teaches us that the future has let us down, and let us down many, many times.
• Worrying about the future is a useless act; it does nothing to improve the present.  Funnily enough, the people who encourage others to worry about the future are those who want your money now. They themselves are not worrying about the future; they are maximizing their profits today.

On working:

• It is the separation of our lives into mutually competing zones that causes the problems, the anxieties, the illnesses, the debts. Our goal should be to bring them together, to integrate them, to harmonize them, so work and life become one and the same thing.
• One unhelpful solution thrown up by modern society is the dreadful aim "work-life balance." Oh, horrors! Quite apart from being an ugly, awkward and vulgar little phrase, there is something rotten about the whole concept because it implies that work is bad and life is good. Well, make work good, make work into a creative pleasure, and you won't have to worry about balancing the good with the bad; all will be good.
• We are encouraged to believe that we are useless, unable to look after ourselves and hence need an employer to subdue our unruly self and slot it into a strict timetable. When you realize that, in fact, you are free, this problem ebbs away.
• Career precisely reflects the dynamics of other modern myths: it is a greedy monster, never satisfied, always wanting more. And career encourages what I consider to be a terribly unnatural self-specialization: in our urge to compete, we tend to try to become very good at one small thing to the exclusion of all others.
• Careers don't allow us to be fully ourselves; careers take as an index of success money and status rather than pleasure in work and creativity. "Vocation," on the other hand, means "calling," and it is a task that earns you a living and which you enjoy doing.
• Create your own life. Cast off resentment. Reject the idea of 'have-tos'. You don't have to do anything. You have free will. Exercise it.

However, I don't agree with everything he has to say in the book.  There are times when he seems to overgeneralize and idealizes life in medival England too much, and in one cringe-worthy passage about civility, as these commenters also have noted, he completely misses the point of the American Civil War. (In fact, I hope than in a later edition he will correct this egregious factual error.)  He's not a historian and it is definitely not a history book. But if you read it these shortcomings in mind, there is a great deal to be gleaned from it.

This book might inspire you to go to your studio and make something you never thought you could make before. Or quit your job. Or go Occupy something. It certainly inspired me. Just wait until you see what I'm posting on Independence Day!

You can read more of Tom Hodgkinson's writing at The Idler.

Saturday Solutions book review, Earth Day Edition

Tomorrow is Earth Day, a day that I first celebrated as a Girl Scout by watching the film of How The Lorax Was Lifted (the old school filmstrip version, not the hi-def CGI version in theaters now) and cleaning up the side of a road with the rest of my troop.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks of Earth Day as a day where you go out and do something to help the environment.  But for those of us who are artists, we can start in our studios.

I became interested in having a sustainable studio practice as a complement to Post-Consumerism.  And one day I found this wonderful book, Green Guide for Artists: Nontoxic Recipes, Green Art Ideas, & Resources for the Eco-Conscious Artist. From recipes for milk paint to plant based pigments, there are great ideas for using natural and ingredients to produce great art.  Because some of the ingredients are items you can pick up at your local grocery store (as opposed to the often pricey art supply stores so many of us frequent), you may find a green approach more economical as well.  

Pictured in the photo with the book are two of the buckets I use to wash my brushes in.  As many of you know, my painting medium of choice is nontoxic acrylic paint.  I wanted to take my environmentally friendly approach one step further.  Instead of pouring paint-contaminated water down the drain, I wash my brushes in buckets and when the water in them evaporates, paint skins are left behind.  I have been saving the skins for use in some pieces I am currently working on.  When they are complete I will post them on here.

Saturday Solutions Book Review - The Artist in the Office by Summer Pierre

There are a few books that I think should be in every artist's library.  In addition to Julia Cameron's phenomenal The Artist's Way Series, I would also recommend The Artist In the Office become a fixture in the collection of every creative person working a day job to pay the bills.

The talented Summer Pierre, who is a writer, artist, and musician, wrote and illustrated this charming book.  In it, you'll find inspiring quotations, like this one:

There are also great suggestions for making the most of your time at work.  For example, why not take advantage of your lunch break and use the time as a mini-vacation?  Summer Pierre has a few fun activities you can do away from your desk:

 

So much of our creative output depends upon our own outlooks and attitudes, and I think this book inspires a level of optimism and positivity that every creative person needs to continue to do great work, both on the clock and in our artistic pursuits.

You can find The Artist In the Office at numerous online retailers.  It makes a great gift for the artists in your life.