What I'm Reading: Inside the Painter's Studio

I am fascinated by process. Since painting is such a solitary pursuit, it can be hard to visualize the journey by looking at the end product. Since I am relatively new to painting, it's easy for me to assume that the process is difficult for me but not for all those other people because they know what they're doing while I'm just fumbling around. (At this point, I need to remember that Degas said on his deathbed: "Damn, and just when I was starting to get it!")

Inside the Painter's Studio was the result of an art project of Joe Fig's where he interviewed artists in their workspace and built a miniature diorama of their studio. Not being very conversant of contemporary art, there were a lot of artists I had never heard of before but I really enjoyed the interviews with the authors - instead of dwelling in the abstract, he asks down-to-earth questions like "what kind of paint do you use?" and "do you listen to the radio or television while you work?" If you want to learn a lot about the workflow of some really great living artists, give this book a read.

What I'm reading: The Little Book of Talent

This book and its predecessor (The Talent Code) were recommended to me by one of my art teachers. The first book explores the idea of "how do you get good at something"? Coyle looks at the circumstances that makes people excel at a skill, and it's not necessarily where you'd think: the run-down Russian tennis club that has produces multiple tennis stars, the North Baltimore Aquatic Club that Michael Phelps (as well as several other Olympic medalists) trained at, and so on. It turns out you don't need state-of-the-art equipment or the highest tech to make a champion -- usually the opposite, in fact. What you do need is a relentless focusing on the basics as well as constant practice and review.

While The Talent Code was an overview of these ideas, The Little Book of Talent discusses more practical applications of these ideas. There are bite-sized chapters encapsulating the ideas like:

• Spend fifteen minutes a day engraving the skill on your brain
• Choose five minutes a day over an hour a week
• Don't fall for the prodigy myth

And, probably my favorite, tip #5:

Be willing to be stupid

He uses some great examples to back up his points (tip #21: Think in images). It's a really short book, about 125 pages, with space for notes (tip #4: Buy a notebook) in the back. I find it a really motivating book and one that I'll be referring to quite a bit in the future.

What I'm Reading: Grunt

I just finished reading Mary Roach's new book, Grunt. If you haven't read any of her books (like Stiff or Packing for Mars), I highly recommend them. She takes a subject (in this case, the science that goes on behind keeping our military healthy and safe) and answers questions you've never thought to ask, with some pretty hilarious results. She's called "America's funniest science writer" for a reason.

I won't go into too much detail here, but it isn't her style to spend a lot of time on the "obvious" issues, instead going for the stuff you'd never consider in a million years -- think less PTSD, more weaponized odors and designing sniper clothing.

What always strikes me about Mary Roach's writing is her insatiable curiosity and willingness to ask ridiculous questions. I wish I could say that my desire to learn outweighed my fear of looking stupid because when I worry too much about "not looking dumb" I end up missing out on a lot of opportunities.