Review by mars2k - You Are an Artist

mars2k 's review for:

You Are an Artist by Sarah Urist Green

4.5

adventurous informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

Learning about artists’ processes has always been one of my favourite parts of being an art student. You Are An Artist reveals the inspirations and techniques of dozens of contemporary creatives – many of whom I hadn’t heard of before – in a series of fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpses.

The suggested tasks are accessible and can be achieved with everyday materials. There’s a lot of variety, and there’s an index of categories in case you fancy a certain kind of project (design, performance, activities suitable for kids, etc). I found some prompts more interesting than others, but that’s to be expected. Green’s encouraging and reassuring tone makes for a relaxed, low-pressure environment and an overall pleasant read.

One criticism I do have is that the formatting is a little odd. There is an excessive amount of blank white space, as though this was intended to be a smaller book but was reconfigured into a larger coffee table book at some point during production. I don’t know if that’s true, but once that idea entered my mind I couldn’t unsee it.

Still, You Are An Artist is a book I would gladly recommend to amateurs and professionals alike – anyone looking to experiment with creative processes and express themselves in some way. It’s a nice, easy read with plenty of inspiration. I’ll almost certainly revisit it myself at some point :)

Content Warnings