Spit for Creativity

By Jess D'Amico in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 22, 2007 8:00PM

Lately we've been a little slumped in our creative endeavors, something about summer makes us lazy. The blank pages of our moleskine taunted us and our typewriter collected dust. An unorthodox friend (the one who burns her rejected photography projects to use as ash in new paintings) suggested Keri Smith's Wreck This Journal as a jumpstart.

At first glance, Wreck This Journal reminded us of a Choose Your Own Adventure book, "do not read this book from beginning to end" (which we absolutely loved as a kid). As we started to dig in though, the book has no line at all, only independent projects on facing pages or sometimes just a single sheet that range from mailing the book to yourself to spilling coffee on it.

It definitely worked. Giving ourselves the permission to be totally goofy and silly, drawing oblong shapes or coloring an entire page black, freed us up to actually take new chances in our own artwork that weren't metered by perfectionism.

It is a long book, but we hadn't finished every project before we started to feel more creative independently. Also, the book tells you to take it everywhere, just maybe skip the page on spitting until you get home.