I’ve been M.I.A (missing in art) as a result of my new found love of embroidery, but I can promise you I haven’t stopped reading.
I bought this book, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey, at Blue Bicycle Books in Charleston, South Carolina. Always support a local bookstore! I was hilariously pleased with my decision.
This book is a quick and fun read. It’s basically a small and strange glimpse into the life of various artists from around the world: from authors, to choreographers, to painters. When we think of these people we sometimes think of other worldly geniuses who can do stuff we never could, but I’m happy to say that they are even crazier than the rest of us.
Picasso
“She blamed his bad mood on his diet– hypochondriacal Picasso had recently resolved to drink nothing but mineral water or milk and eat only vegetables, fish, rice pudding, and grapes.”
Jonathan Edwards
“For each insight he wished to remember, he would pin a small piece of paper on a particular part of his clothes, which he would associate with the thought. When he returned home he would unpin these and write down each idea. At the ends of trips of several days, his clothes might be covered by quite a few of these slips of paper.”
Carson McCullers
“McCullers wrote every day, sometimes escaping their drafty apartment to work in the local library, taking sips from the Thermos full of sherry that she would sneak inside. Back at the apartment she might attempt to do some cooking or cleaning, tasks that she was unused to, having grown up with servants.”
Benjamin Franklin
“…Sit in my chamber without any clothes whatever, half an hour or an hour, according to the season, either reading or writing.”
Book It Babe 