A painter, cartoonist, and writer, among other disciplines, Lynda Barry served as an artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and is an assistant professor of interdisciplinary creativity at the school.
One of her thoughtful quotes:
“We don’t create a fantasy world to escape reality, we create it to be able to stay.”
Writer notes in his Washington Post article that she has been awarded a MacArthur Fellows Program “genius grant” — “only the second female graphic novelist to win the award, after Alison Bechdel.”
He continues:
“Barry is pushing the envelope on understanding how the brain creates and responds to words and pictures — a scholarly envelope that, in her mind, should be positively covered with illuminating doodles.
“As part of her mission, Barry thinks preschoolers hold many secrets to creativity, before education and social expectations have trained their natural artistry out of them.”
Barry says, “That’s something I’d like to do — to get literally on the floor with these 4-year-olds and spend a year at least just figuring out: What happens before writing and drawing split, and why did we split those things — and what happens when we do split them?”
Syllabus “have helped non-artists and acclaimed cartoonists alike in becoming creatively unstuck and inspired.”
Barry’s techniques, such as ones she shared in her book“Most people stop drawing when they reach the age of 8 or so, because they couldn’t draw a nose or hands,” said Barry.
“The beautiful thing is that their drawing style is intact from that time. Those people, if you can get them past being freaked out, have the most interesting lines — and have a faster trajectory to making really original comics than people who have been drawing for a long, long time.”
One! Hundred! Demons!, that contain brutally honest autobiographical elements.
Barry “creates comics and graphic novels, such as“And her busy lines — once criticized as looking unschooled, she has said — now win major awards, including an Eisner Hall of Fame induction, for their idiosyncratic greatness.”
See article for much more, including her artwork:
How MacArthur ‘genius’ Lynda Barry is exploring brain creativity with true artists: Preschoolers by Michael Cavna, The Washington Post, November 22, 2019.
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Why do we make art?
In one of her books, artist Lynda Barry addresses sensitivity, why we create, and the power of fairytales.
“There are certain children who are told they are too sensitive, and there are certain adults who believe sensitivity is a problem that can be fixed in the way that crooked teeth can be fixed and made straight.
“And when these two come together you get a fairytale, a kind of story with hopelessness in it.
“I believe there is something in these old stories that does what singing does to words.
“They have transformational capabilities, in the way melody can transform mood. They can’t transform your actual situation, but they can transform your experience of it.
“We don’t create a fantasy world to escape reality, we create it to be able to stay.
“I believe we have always done this, used images to stand and understand what otherwise would be intolerable.”
Lynda Barry in her book What It Is.
[For more on the topic of sensitivity, see article Being Highly Sensitive and Creative, and many others on my site Highly Sensitive and Creative.]
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Lynda Barry has commented on how people “have given up on the arts totally.
“But if they’re with a baby or with a toddler, most of them will sing, dance, make sculptures that you knock down, draw, tell stories, all these things that we call the arts.
“They’ll do that with a kid. And which is sort of interesting.
“And then I like to ask people why do you think that is, and one of the things they often say is because babies aren’t judgmental.
“Well yeah they are. You can wear the wrong shirt, and they’ll lose their minds.”
She points to a critical shift in our teen years, when so many of us shut down experiencing creativity as play, or a “legitimate” way to use our time and talents, and slow down exploring how to be more creative.
“So something seems to happen at about adolescence or right at the beginning, where the thing that we call the arts, so let’s talk about a drawing, it’s a place for an experience for a kid.
“You know, when they’re drawing, they have a thing that they do when they approach a piece of paper that’s very different than when an adult approaches a piece of paper to make a picture.
“And I think the thing I’ve been able to narrow it down to is that there’s this point when that piece of paper, which was a place where an experience turns into a thing, that’s either a good or a bad picture.
“And so many people tell me the stories of – they can remember exactly when that happened.”
From Cartoonist Lynda Barry Helps College Students Tap Innate Creativity – which includes her audio interview.
The image above is for a 2013 course of hers at the University of Wisconsin titled “The Unthinkable Mind.”
The description on the class page included:
“No artistic talent is required to be part of this class, but students must have an active interest in learning about the physical structure of the brain, how memory, metaphor, pictures and stories work together, the relationship between our hands and thinking, and what the biological function of the thing we call ‘the arts’ may be.”
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As described on her Amazon.com author page, “Lynda Barry has worked as a painter, cartoonist, writer, illustrator, playwright, editor, commentator and teacher and found they are very much alike.
“She is the inimitable creator behind the seminal comic strip that was syndicated across North America in alternative weeklies for two decades, Ernie Pook’s Comeek…
“An Illustrated Novel, Naked Ladies! Naked Ladies! Naked Ladies!, The Good Times are Killing Me was adapted as an off-Broadway play and won the Washington State Governor’s Award.
“Her bestselling and acclaimed creative writing-how to-graphic novel for Drawn & Quarterly, What It Is, won the Eisner Award for Best Reality Based Graphic Novel and R.R. Donnelly Award for highest literary achievement by a Wisconsin author.”
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Using your creative mind – a couple of courses:
In an interview about her book and related home-study program, artist and entrepreneur Jennifer Lee talks about the need for, and value of, the creative mind in the business environment.
“The left-brain analytical skills that used to get people ahead in the knowledge economy are no longer enough.
“In the creative economy, right-brain skills like big picture thinking, play, emotional intelligence, and design help us innovate and give us a competitive advantage.
“The Right-Brain Business Plan helps creative entrepreneurs leverage their natural creative genius to succeed in the new economy.
“It invites business owners to think visually, to imagine and play, to connect emotionally with their company and customers, and to have fun making a living doing what they love.”
Read more in article: Art Every Day and Being A Creative Entrepreneur.
Learn about her program
The Right-Brain Business Plan
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Another program you might like:
Arts Therapy For Self Healing (Part One)
by Libby Seery – Founder of Renaissance Life Therapies.
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Related articles of mine include:
Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?
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Douglas Eby (M.A./Psychology) is author of the The Creative Mind series of sites which provide “Information and inspiration to help creative people thrive.”
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