I discovered Austen Kleon’s book Show Your Work at the Getty Museum’s gift shop. It was fun and inspired, so I got another of his books, Steal Like an Artist. It sat around on the bookshelf for awhile, as so many books do in our house. I finally got around to it and found it fun and inspired. It’s a short, fast read packed with quotes from others and some basic, foundation elements of being a creative person and an artist.

The idea of being an artist is difficult. Even after all these years and all these books, I found myself a few days ago practically apologizing to another writer about my own personal growth as a writer. It was so difficult to say to her, my writing has improved; I’m a better writer today than I was thirteen years ago when my first book was published. How crazy is that? Obviously, there’s still more work for me and my therapist to accomplish.

And, so I turned once more to search for a bit of inspiration on the artist front. Yes, so much of what’s here has been said and told before, and yet, Kleon has a fun style and that makes hearing what we need to hear as artist interesting and worth while. Thanks, Austin, for sharing your ideas! (Learn more about Austin Kleon at: http://www.austinkleon.com)