I met fiber artist Judith Reilly at a local quilt show this weekend, and was delighted to receive a copy of her Twelve Life Lessons for Creativity. Judith is a fun and inspiring person, and seeing her list gave me the idea to begin my own collection of quotes and other snippets of inspiration. For now, I’ll begin with listing a few of my favorite books here . . . but rest assured that I’ve also begun a notebook for specific quotes that I’ll post once they’re worthy of being called a “collection.”
Julia Cameron:
- The Sound of Paper
- The Artist’s Way
- Finding Water
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi:
- Flow
Twyla Tharp:
- The Creative Habit
Eric Maisel:
- Coaching the Artist Within
- Creativity for Life
Stephen Nachmanovitch:
- Free Play
Shaun McNiff
- Trust the Process
David Bayles & Ted Orland
- ART & Fear
I always watch for Julia Cameron’s latest works but am on the lookout for new books, authors, websites and email lists. Do you have a favorite creativity book, author, or other source of creative inspiration? Please share!
MJRussell Studios 
Hi MJ!
You’re library is inspirational, indeed! I have some of the titles…”Art and Fear”, “The Artist’s Way”, “Coaching the Artist Within”. You might also enjoy Orland’s “View from the Studio Door” (he was a co-author of “Art and Fear”)…
Looking forward to getting to know you better through the VP. 🙂
Thanks, Marg! I picked that book up the other day and it inspired me to work on the view from my studio windows (see post below), but I’ve got to sit down and really read it now if it has that much of an effect just sitting in my tote bag for a day!
Hi MJ,
These all look great…I’ve also read a couple of those, but am now curious to check out the other books. Will have to dig up a list of ‘books to read’ that I have somewhere, and then add to suggestions… winter’s coming! always feels like more time to read then for some reason….
:)Karen
Karen, you’re right … winter does invite long evenings by the fireplace with a good book! Can’t wait to hear what you’re reading.