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On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity, by Ellen J. Langer
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“All it takes to become an artist is to start doing art.”
–from On Becoming an Artist
On Becoming an Artist is loaded with good news. Backed by her landmark scientific work on mindfulness and artistic nature, bestselling author and Harvard psychologist Ellen J. Langer shows us that creativity is not a rare gift that only some special few are born with, but rather an integral part of everyone’s makeup. All of us can express our creative impulses– authentically and uniquely–and, in the process, enrich our lives.
Why then do so many of us merely dream of someday painting, someday writing, someday making music? Why do we think the same old thoughts, harbor the same old prejudices, stay stuck in the same old mud? Who taught us to think “inside the box”?
No one is more qualified to answer these questions than Dr. Langer, who has explored their every facet for years. She describes dozens of fascinating experiments–her own and those of her colleagues–that are designed to study mindfulness and its relation to human creativity, and she shares the profound implications of the results–for our well-being, health, and happiness.
Langer reveals myriad insights, among them: We think we should already know what only firsthand experience can teach us. . . . In learning the ways that all roses are alike, we risk becoming blind to their differences. . . . If we are mindfully creative, the circumstances of the moment will tell us what to do. . . . Those of us who are less evaluatively inclined experience less guilt, less regret, less blame, and tend to like ourselves more. . . . Uncertainty gives us the freedom to discover meaning. . . . Finally, what we think we’re sure of may not even exist.
With the skill of a gifted logician, Langer demonstrates exactly how we undervalue ourselves and undermine our creativity. By example, she persuades us to have faith in our creative works, not because someone else approves of them but because they’re a true expression of ourselves. Her high-spirited, challenging book sparkles with wit and intelligence and inspires in us an infectious enthusiasm for our creations, our world, and ourselves. It can be of lifelong value to everyone who reads it.
From the Hardcover edition.
- Sales Rank: #146831 in Books
- Brand: Langer, Ellen J.
- Published on: 2006-03-28
- Released on: 2006-03-28
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.00" h x .63" w x 5.14" l, .48 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 288 pages
From Publishers Weekly
What keeps us from becoming the artists we dream of being and living our lives to the fullest? Langer (Mindfulness), a professor of psychology at Harvard, shares her own journey as an untaught painter, casually scattering the names of friends and describing her own somewhat unsophisticated choices of subject matter. But her approach is also scientific: without becoming overly technical, she deftly weaves into her own story a wide variety of studies that examine the obstacles ordinary people put in the way of their own creativity. This isn't a collection of exercises or even an inspirational book as much as a gradual breaking down of what holds people back from living mindfully—fully present in the moment. Langer encourages her readers to recognize how fear of judgment, unnecessary self-comparisons and preconceived notions about talent impede artistic expression. Art, in her view, is a process rather than a product. And the very things that make the act of creating satisfying in itself—working in the moment, freeing oneself from judgment—also, she says, make for better art and a better life. Langer's work will strike some as a bit na�ve—does she believe "real" artists are never self-critical? Still, Langer has much to say that's useful on art as self-revealing and life-enhancing that will inspire many readers.
Copyright � Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Just do it! says Nike, a command echoed by Harvard psychologist Langer, who takes up where she left off with Mindfulness (1989) and The Power of Mindful Learning (1997), in which she demonstrated the value of mindfulness, or engaged awareness. Here she outlines ways that are available to everyone to defeat impediments to the creative life, asserting that the doing of art makes us artists. Fear is the obstacle, she says, so set aside external evaluation and self-judgment. These are hardly new concepts, but taken in the broadest sense of Langer's stated goal--the engagement in new, creative endeavors--this energetically written title can help many invigorate their lives with artistic exploration, which is its own achievement. The embrace of uncertainty is as requisite as experiencing the creative moment for making authentic art, she argues, stating that we should value mistakes, and reject absolutes and social comparisons. Langer's latest encourages readers to bravely seek self-reinvention by creative action, and in so doing, find it. Whitney Scott
Copyright � American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
Advance praise for On Becoming an Artist
“An artful blend of psychological research and personal reflection that illuminates human creativity.”
–Howard Gardner, author of Creating Minds
“Whether painting, writing, or just being, Dr. Langer, a renaissance woman, offers profound insights into how and why to increase our mindful creativity.”
–Betty Friedan
“Ellen Langer’s On Becoming an Artist is a profound book, clearly and simply written, that presents scientific evidence as good advice to everyone who wishes to lead a creative life. As a psychologist and artist, Langer sees the process of making art from the inside out. Her book goes beyond art to enable her readers to make important choices, freely to experiment, and to gain satisfaction from what she calls ‘living mindfully.’ I thoroughly enjoyed, and was inspired by her work.”
–Roger Mandle, president, Rhode Island School of Design
“Without making extravagant promises about releasing our inner Michelangelos, On Becoming An Artist is provocative, liberating, and in itself a significant act of mindful creativity.”
–Justin Kaplan, Pulitzer Prize—winning author of Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain
From the Hardcover edition.
Most helpful customer reviews
38 of 39 people found the following review helpful.
Try it!
By Armchair Interviews
When we give up the tendency to compare ourselves to others - when we just do and don't judge - then we can create art.
Author Langer states in On Becoming An Artist, that most of us find it safer to put off doing creative things out of fear of making fools of ourselves. She asks: "What exactly are the obstacles that keep us from doing what we are drawn to do?"
Not everyone should strive for perfection but be part of the "school of the untaught." We can do art, be an artist for our own enjoyment -- without comparing ourselves with anyone else. Van Gogh was not famous in his lifetime. People do not like all the same kinds of art/creativity.
Langer's premise is based on mindful thinking. Mindfulness is simply the process of noticing new things.
Her writing made me think about how many times we are "our own worst enemy." We will start our creativity (paint, music, draw, write, whatever) tomorrow ... when we have time ... when we're empty nesters, etc. We do everything but create.
"Someday" could be tomorrow if you read and take to heart Langer's message. In our creativity we need to distinguish the end product from the art/experience of creating it.
Too many of us believe that a "rich creative life" belongs to a few select people. Wrong, creativity is in everything we do.
Refrain from judging and just do. Start your personal renaissance. Becoming An Artist may just be the jumpstart you need.
30 of 32 people found the following review helpful.
Doctoral Student, Music Education
By Amazon Customer
There is so much fear associated with performing, creating, or expressing any artistic endeavor. Langer holds up a mirror to these fears by describing many scientifically based experiments that reveal where the real problems lie:
1. Being critical of others prevents us from being vulnerable enough to be moved by something unique and wonderful. Allowing yourself to be vulnerable makes artistic expression more meaningful.
2. Assumptions about "prodigies," "talent," and "real" art, are often based on one experience, or one comment we may have overheard. The people we compare ourselves to may not claim to be any more of an expert than we are.
I am completely inspired by this book! Perhaps if enough people let go of their critical, doubtful selves and begin expressing themselves artistically, they would begin to understand how invaluable the arts are. Rather than talking about the arts as a core subject in schools, books like this convince me that "the basics" and all of general education would gain tremendously by learning from the arts.
72 of 84 people found the following review helpful.
Bad Writing, Thin Content, Self-Indulgence
By Lover of Learning
I bought this book with high hopes that it would contain some good advice about creating. It has some, but Langer surrounds it with a limp, academic prose that is at times painful to read. Langer uses the communal "We" throughout the book, which I find irritating and distracting.
Langer also relies heavily on personal anecdotes to illustrate her points, and many of them leave the reader wondering whether she could have found better examples.
I expected more from this book, considering that the author works as a Harvard professor of psychology.
The main points of this book are:
1. Pay attention to what you are doing when you are doing it.
2. Don't evaluate your work or let the evaluations of others interfere.
3. Welcome mistakes as learning opportunities.
4. Become comfortable with uncertainty.
A much more interesting book to read instead of this one is The Creative Habit, by Twyla Tharp, a well-known choreographer who provides anecdotes from her career, ideas about the creative life, and practical exercises in an entertaining and attractive format.
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