Watch. Read. Write. Record.

Devoting time to watching more, reading more, writing more, and recording more films. This tumblr is to keep me accountable. #wrwr

[huntingtonlibrary]

Science fiction writer Octavia Butler died 10 years ago today at the age of 58 and left her papers to The Huntington. We’re celebrating her today by sharing a variety of items from her collection throughout the day.

Pictured here are some of Butler’s handwritten notes on writing and what it means to be a writer.

Learn more about Butler and her archive at http://huntington.org/octaviabutler/, and to find out about “Radio Imagination,” an amazing yearlong Octavia Butler project that Los Angeles arts organization Clockshop (@clockshopla​) is putting on, head to http://clockshop.org/project/radio-imagination/

images: Handwritten notes by Octavia E. Butler, ca. 1980. Octavia E. Butler papers. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

Pages of handwritten notes from one of Octavia E. Butler’s commonplace books, undated. Octavia E. Butler papers. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

Page of handwritten notes on inside cover of one of Octavia E. Butler’s commonplace books, 1987. Octavia E. Butler papers. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

[watchreadwriterecord]

Steal Like an Artist & Show Your Work - Austin Kleon

Title: Steal Like an Artist  | GoodReads | Amazon

         Show Your Work | GoodReads | Amazon

Author(s): Austin Kleon

Published: Steal - 2012 | Show - 2014

I loved Steal Like an Artist so much. Like, SO MUCH. It really confirmed ideas about art and creating that I’d already had and introduced me to knew concepts. I borrowed this book from the library and I am definitely going to pick up a copy of my own. Both books are easy to read with a great layout and structure. Kleon offers great things for emerging artists to think about when they are creating and subsequently sharing their works. 

Topics: Art, Creativity, Nonfiction, Self Help, Design

[watchreadwriterecord]

Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers -Leonard Koren

Title: Wabi-Sabi: For Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers | GoodReads | Amazon

Author(s): Leonard Koren

Published: 1994

The title, I feel, was misleading. This book is more of a history of wabi-sabi than a handbook on how to harness it for your work. It’s split into two sections: Historical and Other Considerations and The Wabi-Sabi Universe. There are a few nice breakdowns and lists describe the elements of wabi-sabi that I found very helpful. This short book does give a solid introduction the aesthetic of wabi-sabi but it is not geared toward artists, designers, poets, and philosophers as the title suggests.

Topics: Wabi-Sabi, Japan, Japanese philosophy, aesthetics, tea ceremony, art, non fiction 

[watchreadwriterecord]

Title: Why Man Creates (25mins) I IMDb | Letterboxd

Director: Saul Bass

Released: 1968

Why Man Creates is “a series of explorations, episodes and comments on creativity” in the form of 7 live action and animated vignettes. It seeks less to answer the question of Why Man Creates, than to express the process of creating with all it’s trials and errors. The seven sections are not directly related or visually reminiscent of each other but still work within the concept of exploring creativity. I fell in love with this within the first five minutes. But, I’m a sucker for the subject matter and the structure of the film. A fun note: This won the Oscar for Best Short Subject Documentary despite it’s director and writer being primarily known for creating title sequences for classic film including Goodfellas, North by Northwest, and Psycho.

Topics: Short Film, Documentary, Oscar Winner, Animation, Creativity, Experimental

[watchreadwriterecord]

Ways of Seeing - John Berger

Title: Ways of Seeing | GoodReads | Amazon

Author(s): John Berger, Sven Blomberg, Chris Fox, Michael Dibb, Richard Hollis

Published: 1972

A companion to the BBC series of the same name, John Berger’s Ways of Seeing asks the reader to acknowledge and then question the way they look at art. Though it’s filled to the brim with classic art and advertisements which illustrate all the examples, I wish pictures were in color and of higher quality. The book consists of four essays made of words and images and three of solely images.The essays can be read in any order. I found myself wanting context for the image only essays - even just a sentence. In all, this book is a staple in of Art History for a reason and draws great comparisons and gives historical context between the art we consider to be classic and the advertisements of today.

Topics: Non Fiction, Art, Art History, Advertising, Male Gaze, Essays