Daily Rituals (How Artists Work)- Book of the Month

It’s that time again! Yippee, how I love to share about a new book that I have discovered to help stimulate the creative mind. “Daily Rituals (How Artist Work)” Edited and with text by Mason Currey is this month’s book of the month. This 278 page book offers a mecca of stories provided on how various artists, scientists, inventors, musicians, and more on their daily rituals. I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs about the book Steal like an Artist, by author Austin Kleon, and it was within that book that he described the creative tree. The creative tree can be created by following 3 of your favorite artists, and following their paths. To do so, you had to research how your favorite artists got to where they were or are today. Within this book you will read stories on how visual artists like Georgia O’ Keeffe, and Andy Warhol, classical musicians Beethoven and Mozart, and authors like Frank Kafka, and Maya Angelou all started their day. Each ritual, be it intense or minute, provided creative stimulation.  

For example playwright Arthur Miller’s routine was to get up every morning, get into his studio and write. Once he was done writing, he would tear it up; it wasn’t until something really stuck to him that he went on to further develop it. 

Rituals might seem mundane and boring, especially if you are one who likes mix it up a little. However keeping up a routine in the creative world can help the mind to prepare itself to work. It can even assist to aiding a creative block! As I have discovered with myself, I know specifically for writing, I’d like to routinely write within the evening, there a few exceptions if I have found myself in a quiet environment that I will write in the early afternoon because it is quiet. However when I am painting, I tend to want a louder surroundings. So I paint with music to help stimulate my thought process. Here is my impromptu idea for the week: Create for yourself a daily ritual that would include a creative hour.

“In other words, the unique value of the 'authentic' work of art has its basis in ritual, the location of its original use value. This ritualistic basis, however remote, is still recognizable as secularized ritual even in the most profane forms of the cult of beauty.”
― Walter Benjamin