Art and Fear

I bought Art and Fear last night after work, and I couldn't put it down until I went to bed. Well, there WAS that one hour when Lost was on... but come on, it's Lost. This book is fantastic, I would recommend it to anyone who is making any kind of art. From the Amazon description: "The authors explore the way art gets made, the reasons it doesn't get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way." It focuses on making a LOT of work, and in the process learning from your mistakes along the way. I love this quote:

The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction of your artwork that soars.

On a related note, here's a list of good rules to remember.