The Little Spark: 30 Ways to Ignite Your Creativity

Don’t judge this book by its understated cover; open it and plunge into a riot of color and shape, slathered with a big helping of encouragement. Bloomston, a fabric designer trained as a painter, offers 30 tips for finding and nourishing the inner artist. Creativity books can be a bit pious, but this one emphasizes the fun of creation. The book is chock-full of concrete, hands-on tips that can help the newbie develop habits of creativity by making things and then making some more things, the principle of repetition (spark #23). It’s less strong on the psychology of creativity, and specifically the demon of inner criticism, who doesn’t go away after a single stern talking-to. But art is about making, not just thinking about making, and Bloomston’s book is prettily made. There’s nothing particularly new here, but makers can enjoy this as a small manifesto that affirms them, with just a little theory and a peek inside a number of creatively different studios. [em](Nov.) [/em]