Art Class

The D&D BOOK CLUB

Inspiration that
won't shout at you.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: this is the most decadent time of year. Holiday obligations have ceased, the new year yet to begin. It’s that delicious in-between bit. It’s you and the leftovers. You and the sofa. A time to sink into the margins of the year and let loose and eat crisps and also nap a lot. If we can’t do it in our pyjamas we don’t want to do it.

But it’s also the time where we start to make dangerous, ambitious promises to ourselves about the year ahead: we will enroll in extracurricular artful activities! We will read complicated books about lofty ideas and form complicated, lofty opinions! We will diligently complete The Artist’s Way and not just say that we did! We will write screenplays! Music! Essays! We will evolve into the most cultured version of ourselves.

Then we get overwhelmed. Or worse: guilty. We turn to books with names that feel like, “How To Stop Being So Lazy and Launch Your Ceramic Business in 10 Panicked Steps!!!”

And we’re not telling you to not have big dreams for the year ahead, but we are telling you to avoid bossy, prescriptive advice at all costs. Not just because this is a time for pleasure, for passivity, and for letting the mind wander a bit, but because the best ideas arrive when we’re doing just that, anyway. And if we’re not reading things for the sheer joy of it this week, then we’re missing the whole point.

BOOKS TO INSPIRE CREATIVITY THAT ARE ALSO JUST REALLY FUN TO READ:

California Artists Cookbook

A cookbook that doubles as an art lesson, and is a total joy to leaf through. Produced by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1982, it’s a celebration of still-life painting and an ode to the sensory pleasures of food. If nothing else: the best ideas strike when our hands are busy and our mind is calm. While you wait for yours, you could always make Julius Wasserstein’s honey cake. If no brilliant ideas arrive, at least you’ll have a honey cake.

Something Close to Music, John Ashbery

There’s a palpable joy in the way John Ashbery, who believes that “all art aspires toward the condition of music,” sees colour: Tabasco reds, banana-yellows, Kool-Aid grape, the “wondrously luminous, succulent grays” of Monihan. I find myself recommending this book to anyone in a creative lull, anyone painting their house, or anyone who will listen. Because there’s no nicer way to spend a cosy afternoon than bopping around Ashbery’s brain. This is not a dense book of art criticism! I would not do that to you. Expect intimate bios, enthusiastic sentences, and a format much suited to this time of year—a jumble of poems, playlists, and essays—all of which can be flipped through noncommittally and between naps. The essays, I should add, are so gripping yet so brief—a page or two, max—that you could finish one before your tea cools. A little party for the left side of your brain!

Nora Ephron at the Movies,
Ilana Kaplan

Perhaps more film school than art class? But hey! Perhaps you’re also watching a lot of movies right now. And if, perhaps you’re craving the familiar groove of a much-beloved rom-com, then a perfect pairing is this recently released Norabonanza. Behind the scenes chat that goes beyond the famous cable knits, and a fun way to rewatch the classics with a fresh pair of eyes.

But don’t just take my word for it.

Six Memos for the Next Millennium, Italo Calvino

Another slip of a book by a late great that will change the way you think about things. Anyone who wants to create anything — but especially write—should read this. But everyone else should too, Calvino’s sentences—especially when translated by Geoffrey Brock—are so light and luxurious to read; the closest you can get to floating without getting wet.

End Of Season Sale

Save (up to) 60% on your favourite prints and silhouettes and start the year with the promise of even more lounging. These pieces are here for a good time (and a short time)!

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