Spark audiobook

Doesn't exactly tell you how to be creative but makes you want to give it a go.

I am so excited about this book. It is fascinating to read how successful artsy people excelled.One of the artists interviewed said, "If you wait for clouds to part and be struck with a bolt of lightning, you're likely to be waiting the rest of your life. But if you simply get going something will occur to you."I was struck by the fact that overcoming adversity in some way was often the key to creativity.Chuck Close, a very famous portrait painter, had to overcome prosopagnosia- the inability to recognize faces. Imagine! because he could not recognize individual's faces he became a portrait painter. He drew a grid on photographs and took the face square by square and created these wonderful portraits, and in the process was able to recognize faces from his artwork. And when you think proopagnosia is enough of a detriment for this portraitist, he has a spinal aneurysm which leave him paralyzed from the neck down in a matter of hours.The tragically beautiful way that Donald Hall, already a great poet, became greater was through the death of his much younger wife, Jane Kenyon. The grief and mourning that Hall captures in his poetry, Without, is something no human being could fake.When the artist was confined in some way, either by placing his/her own parameters or confined from something beyond his/her control, the art was better.Ben Burtt, the noise behind Star Wars and Wall-E, limits himself in that the noises he 'invents' come from everyday life and are not simply digitally or electronically produced. The hum of the saber came from the hum of an interlock motor on a projector coupled with the sound from a broken microphone passing by a television set, picking up a buzz from the television.On and on, I read of these amazing artists who became amazing because they were willing to go through the trials with which their lives had confronted them, and they produced triumphant, glorious art.Or Ang Lee, a first son of Chinese parents, he was expected to go to college and excel in that way. And yet, he could not push his love of theatre and movies out of his mind. Across the world, James Schamus was growing up watching and loving movies. These two men manage to connect and go on to make incredibly artistic films.These stories come by way of Public Radio International's weekly broadcast, Studio 360, hosted by Kurt Anderson. Never heard of it before, I am glad to be introduced via this book.You will be inspired.

Julie Burstein was the producer of Studio 360 on public radio which was, "the Peabody Award-winning show and podcast about creativity, pop culture, the arts and ideas." This has a bit about Julie as a narrative thread throughout but is mostly about the show and many of its guests. The show has since ended, though episodes are online. If you were a listener of the show, I'm guessing you might not find much new content in the book but as someone who didn't listen regularly, the book was very enjoyable. I just might have to go back and give past episodes a listen.

I loved this! Fascinating look at the creative process for a diverse group of leaders/innovators in their various fields.

Fun to read about people’s creative process, but doesn’t talk much about the science of creativity. That’s why I couldn’t give it 5 stars.

Interesting to read about the creative process of so many artists. Even better though, discovering so many new people. Between adding to my netflix queue, my goodreads reminder list and googling various artists and their work, I doubled the value of this quick read.For instance, I read about Bill Viola and his amazing installation at a church in Italy...you should watch the video because it's incredible!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-V7in...

Loved reading this. It made me think about the excitement and joy the kids I work with share with me each day

I thought this was a great collection of essaysand interviews,with lots of creative minds.A refreshing and inspiring read.