Variation Venus

The Steal Like An Artist audiobooks is a great way to get your creative juices flowing again. The books include “Steal Like an Artist,” “Show Your Work” and “Keep Going” – all adapted into audio format with visual elements that make it easier for you while reading at home or on the go. A few years ago, I saw this hype around them but wanted to avoid being clouded by popular opinion, so I avoided taking advantage of their availability until now…I’m glad I did because they helped me when my career was stalling; they motivated creativity, which led to self-expression.

The audiobooks are read by Austin Kleon himself and last around two hours combined. In “Steal Like an Artist,” Kleon talks about how to be creative no matter your chosen career or life path, open up my mind to other possibilities and other things that I could do.

I feel like I’ve lost what it meant to be creative amongst the current expectations of fast and disposable content on the internet. I just pretty much can’t keep up at the expected pace. It is overwhelming. Secondly, I’m an artist, but that is not my day job. I am an engineer, and I am constantly at odds with both. I forgot why I even decided to pursue engineering as a career, and I needed something to read that was on the self-help and inspirational side. It helped me see a different perspective and reflect on my problem.

However, the books gave me some things to think about; One of my favorite lines is creativity is just a tool.

 “Creativity can be used to organize your living room, paint a masterpiece or design a weapon of mass destruction.” Keep Going, Austin Kleon.

And lastly, “titles can mess you up,” and I think that is where my problems lie. I often define what I’m going to do based on my title—often making the mistake of thinking that my reach is only as far as how I have limited myself. I didn’t realize how much I was restricting myself by just solely thinking in terms of just my title. I’ve been telling myself I’m mostly a comic artist or just a simple engineer with no overlap all this time. nI didn’t look at what it was doing to me creatively. I had it in my brain that I needed to switch modes from engineer to artist create. I didn’t see creativity fueling my learning to accomplish a project and use all my knowledge, experience, and learn. There have been multiple times when my artist brain could see the root cause of an engineering problem just by knowing when not to overanalyze. While my engineering creative side has forced me to consider learning and adapting new processes and techniques for an art project.

That’s it’s essential not to limit my activities to titles. That’s what stood out to me the most. I recommend giving the audiobook a listen. Stay creating.