Reading List

The Artist’s Way
by Julia Cameron

The Artist’s Way is a book and 12-week self-guided course created by writer Julia Cameron in the 1990s. The book has stood the test of time and is an essential tool for unblocking creativity for all types of artists and creatives.

Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All
by David and Tom Kelley

Sometimes a mindset can hold us back from dedicating the time required to build a new creative skill. Brothers David and Tom Kelley of IDEO provide accessible and inspiring examples of successfully breaking through that barrier.

Messy: How to Be Creative and Resilient in a Tidy-Minded World
by Tim Harford

Within the first few pages of this book, I was pulled in by Harford’s telling of Keith Jarett and The Köln Concert. The best-selling solo album in jazz history, and the all-time best-selling piano album, nearly didn’t exist due to the accidental delivery of a badly tuned piano in poor condition. This book celebrates the beauty and excellence that can emerge from our messy world.

On Creativity
by David Bohm

Bohm was a physicist and theorist. Over two decades, his writing explored the process of scientific discovery, the relationship between science and art, and perception as a creative act. This book is more academic than the others on this list, but it’s no less optimistic. It frames creativity as a subject with resonance far beyond self.

Trust the Process: An Artist’s Guide to Letting Go
by Shaun McNiff

I’ve carried a dog-eared copy of this book with me for eleven years as I’ve moved between continents and countries. McNiff is an artist, lecturer, and art therapist. His writing is gentle and encouraging, offering examples and suggested exercises from his own work and process. Although it’s titled ‘an artist’s guide…’, it’s relevant for designers and anyone who makes things.

Wabi-sabi: For Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers
by Leonard Koren

Wabi-sabi is the Japanese concept of transience and imperfection. Exploring the complexity of perfection and its impossible attainability can give a creator more confidence in their own process. Often we are making and re-making, writing and editing, and drawing and drawing again. Koren compares the eastern concept with contemporary western ideas of beauty and the ideal. This is a small book with the potential for big impact.

Why We Make Things and Why it Matters: The Education of a Craftsman
by Peter Korn

In his introduction, Korn asks, ‘why do we choose the spiritually, emotionally, and physically demanding work of bringing new objects into the world with creativity and skill?’ Later he suggests an answer when he writes, ‘we engage in the creative process to become more of whom we’d like to be and, just as important, to discover more of whom we might become. We may make things because we enjoy the process, but our underlying intent, inevitably, is self-transformation.’ See the final pages of the book for an excellent reading list.

Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind
by Scott Barry Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire

One of my favourites on this list, my copy is dog-eared and filled with sticky notes. This is a follow-up to a very popular article by Carolyn Gregoire, 18 Things Highly Creative People Do Differently. In the book, the authors focus on the top 10 behaviours of highly creative people. These include daydreaming, passion, imaginative play, openness to experience, sensitivity, and others. The habits suggest creativity is as much way of life, as it is a process of invention and making.