Book Description Review Nancy Hillis follows her award winning book, The Artist’s Journey: Bold Strokes To Spark Creativity, with an activity packed book designed to help everyone tap into their creative self. Nancy believes we each are a goldmine of unused creativity. We have the potential to be a painter, poet, dancer, composer, musician or gourmet chef.Nancy shows you how to awaken your creative soul and find endless possibilities next to you in what she calls the Adjacent Possible. She connects you to the eternal quest to be your authentic self. Expressive, creative, alive, passionate, joyful, productive.The transformation is endless, timeless and ongoing- unique for each individual.”No one can do your homework for you”. You can only learn to swim by getting into the water- not watching other people swim.Nancy’s book provides dozens of learning examples and guidelines to help you on your personal path to self discovery, creativity and to your true creative self.Only you can make the Journey.Bob Reid, Artist & Photographer Read more From the Back Cover Creativity is central to feeling alive.This journal sparks your imagination with prompts, poetic musings and stories inviting you to reflect on and activate the inner sources of your creativity.Drawing from science and psychology, this book will help you explore concepts such as the hero’s journey, the surprise benefits of “ugly” art, cultivating creative habits and much more. Nancy Hillis, M.D. is an artist, Stanford trained psychiatrist and best-selling author of The Artist’s Journey: Bold Strokes To Spark Creativity. Learn more about her work at nancyhillis.com. Read more About the Author Nancy Hillis, M.D. is an abstract artist, Stanford trained psychiatrist and author of the best-selling book The Artist’s Journey: Bold Strokes To Spark Creativity. She studied under renowned Stanford psychiatrist and author, Irvin Yalom, M.D. and has been featured in Inc. magazine and The New York Observer. Nancy lives in Santa Cruz, California and enjoys conversations on art, science and the generation of novelty in the universe with her partner, physicist and mathematician Bruce Sawhill, Ph.D. as well as listening to her daughter Kimberly sing Puccini’s O Mio Babbino Caroand other operatic arias. You can find her work and writings on her website at nancyhillis.com. Read more Customers Review: I received my preordered copy of “The Artist Journey Creative Reflection Journal” a few days ago. This book is a great compliment to Nancy’s, Artist Journey, year long-online class, which I completed in 2019. I took notes for lessons in my class and kept my practice and original trials in my art journal. I highly recommend new members to Artist Journey class to add this book to their supply list. The pages can be filled as they move through the lesson plans each month. The lay out of the book’s pages offer great assistance in documenting where you are and where you want to be as Artist. This can be a valuable tool in assisting students in artistic goals. Thank you, Nancy, for keeping us busy. Diana Hutchison
Here are a few of the reasons I love your new book: – The opportunity to take a deeper look at my own reasons for creating. – You bring home how my “Why” really matters. – This adds to my confidence about making art. – Your exercises put my art-making in the context of my whole life, clarifying that “Why” I make art is not just a dangling piece of my life. – Answering the questions, like making art, involves a process that leads to new discoveries. – Playfulness in the design of the book encourages me to keep a playful spirit answering the questions so they don’t become overly daunting. – The constraint in the spaces to answer allows me to trust my immediate, spontaneous answers without editing their less conscious truth. – Your compassion helps me admit to my struggles. – The poetry gives me pause with their profound resonance encouraging me to take myself, in my sweet life, seriously. – Your book requires me to pause, breathe deep and listen deeply to myself. – I’m inspired by big ideas you offer and also the practical tips to make my dreams reality. You offer a lovely balance. – And this is a fine compliment to your first inspiring and highly acclaimed book: The Artist Journey: Bold Strokes To Spark Creativity.Thank You for All That You Offer – I Find It All So Stimulating and Worthwhile.
Have you put down your paintbrush or other creative tools?…Or abandoned what you started?…This book is very different from all the other art books I’ve read. It moved me to think more deeply about why I create and to explore more inwardly the subjects that truly interest me by getting inside my head and heart. I also ordered the companion book: Bold Strokes to Spark Creativity (The Artist’s Journey). Both these books would be helpful for most all ages from teens to seniors and for the novice to the experienced. We all get stumped at some point or another. They are spurring me onward in my journey not only with painting but I believe will be valuable with any artistic endeavor. The author does provide a web address for video in “Bold Strokes.” This companion book offers suggestions from starting a piece of art to touching on what has shaped/influenced our thoughts, from trying to please others to overthinking. It certainly got me to thinking about things I had not thought of before. Things I needed to be introduced to in order to move me past self-created blocks. The “Creativity Reflection Journal” contains easy Q & A’s that propel you forward. Either book is not verbose, very easy to read.
Love! love! love! the book AND journal!! Fabulous!! Lots of books out there for artists BUT this book knocks it out of the park! I finished it in a few hours and then have re-read sections over and over again. I’ve never read an art process book like this. She simplified so much! She nailed it! A MUST for Artists!
After many years of longing and struggling to paint as I wanted to, Nancy Hillis’ new book, “The Artist’s Journey: Creativity Reflection Journal” is a masterpiece of inspiration, and teaching. It opens up on every page a new opportunity to dig deep and really consider many of the issues we face when composing , considering, and longing to improve ones creations. Nancy is so insightful… She probes gently but deeply, helping us to reach into our many faceted thoughts, desires , doubts and fears regarding our painting journey…. This is your chance to really ask yourself the questions that will bring forth many wonderful ” Ahha !” moments of new recognition and new understanding, as to what so many of ones problems are concerning painting ones best work. Even to the point of helping one to understand and conquer that dreadful procrastination; when will you go into that studio and start the painting that lies within you?I absolutely love this extraordinary journal…its Nancy’s gift to anyone wanting to go further, deeper, into their own marvelous exploration of expressing themselves in their own unique and wonderful paintings. Thank you Nancy…so very , very much. Your genius is so extraordinary!
I’m absolutely DEVOURING this journal like no other. It is at once fun, but thoughtful and aims at helping you get to you. It helps you clarify your creative process so you can get out of your own way and be the artist you were meant to be. Great companion to Nancy’s book, “The Artist’s Journey.”
I completed the Artist Journey online course in 2019 and it truly helped me better understand how to grow as an artist. Her book and the companion journal is a wonderful way of refreshing and deepening the journey to myself as an artist. The biggest benefit for me is learning how to cultivate my original voice.
I’m a big fan of everything Nancy produces: her online classes, her blogs and insight and her books (I have both and love them equally.) She makes me feel like anything is possible, that I have the power within me to excel at whatever moves me the most. This journal is the icing on the cake. Real, candid talk about what it takes to be an artist, how to keep growing and exploring and many, many questions to ask yourself along the way. The journal is in a fun, easy to pick up anytime format, geared to stimulating thought and artistic activity, from the mundane to the significant. Get it, you won’t be sorry, but you might regret it if you pass it by! |
18 reviews