Reading While I Paint

Reading Rabbit loves his books. So does this Central California artist, just a regionalist from Quaintsville.

Bet you are just dying to know how I can read while I paint. Or maybe you are wondering how in the world I can paint in solitude and stay motivated, hour after hour, day after week after month after year.

Audio books!

1. No Excuses by Brian Tracy is motivational reading to help you identify, set and reach goals. Sometimes I feel as if I’m sort of like the rabbit above, and it takes some simply worded motivational kicks-in-the-pants to get me going. After listening to the first several chapters, I stopped and made a list of paintings to finish for the upcoming fall shows. On purpose, not willy-nilly as I am sometimes prone to do.

2. Five Smooth Stones by Ann Fairbairn was published in 1966 and is the story of a black man from New Orleans who escaped that Jim Crow place, became highly educated and returned. You can’t tell at all that it was written in 1966 (except the term “black” is not used). I wish it was on tape, because I’d rather sit and read this book than do my work.

3.  Rich Habits by Tom Corley is also not an audio book for me, but I’ve listened to a couple of wonderful interviews with the author. Here is a link to one of the interviews: Tom Corley at Matt McWilliams Tom did a study on really wealthy people to see if he could find consistent patterns. Instead of writing it as a dry study with facts and charts, he wrote the book as a a bunch of short stories. It is surprisingly good in addition to being really interesting (and easy peasey to read).

Here are the links. If you order through Amazon, I get a few cents.



Remember Reading Rabbit?

In the summer months of July and August, lessons are adjourned, suspended and recessed. Sometimes my students say “Have a nice vacation!” I don’t always take a vacation, although there are plenty of extended weekends in Mineral King, AKA The Land of No Electricity or Internet.

Salt & Light, or Reading Rabbit, oil on board, 11×14″

Reading is vacation to me. Being prone with a book without a sense of time or obligation or guilt about undone tasks is VACATION!

Here is a look at three books I have recently finished. (If you click on the links at the bottom of the post, it will open in a new Amazon window. If you buy as a result of that clicking, I will earn a few cents. It’s called “an affiliate link”. I’ve been taught it is a smart thing to do on a blog.)

1. Happy, Happy, Happy by Phil Robertson. Are you about to hurl? If you are, I agree with you that Duck Dynasty is one of the dumbest things on air these days. I don’t watch teevee but have overheard and overwatched as Trail Guy channel surfs. A friend said this autobiography was surprisingly good and that Phil is surprisingly smart, enterprising and interesting. He was right! This is one of the best autobiographies I’ve read in ages. Who knew??

2. The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern is by Victor Davis Hanson, one of my favorite writers and thinkers. He is a farmer in the Central Valley of California (that big valley is where I grew up, just down the hill from Three Rivers), a former history professor and currently someone important at Stanford in something called the Hoover Institute (I just work here, ‘k? I don’t know nuthin’.) My copy is autographed, dogearred and scribbled in. I had to read it with a dictionary, and it took me a couple of months. I finally took notes in a separate place so I could grasp the concepts. I’ve heard Victor speak twice in person over the last few months, and he is BRILLIANT, ENGAGING, and tells the hard truths, particularly about California. Yikes. You might need to read something light or fun after Victor’s work. (That’s why I chose a book with the title of Happy, Happy, Happy!)

3. Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant explains how the world is divided into givers, takers and matchers and how that affects each one in life and business. I loved reading about the different studies and people and results. Who knew that givers end up on both the top and the bottom of the success spectrum? And aren’t you interested to know which category you are in?

 

 

Read Anything Good Lately?

Reading used to be my favorite thing to do. Now it is just one of many things I love to do. In the olden days, reading was something I did after a trip to the library. In the now days, I still use the library. In addition, I buy books to read on my computer, buy books to listen to on the computer, buy books from Amazon, borrow books from friends, and read books from my own shelves.

Salt & Light, or Reading Rabbit, oil on board, 11×14″

Here is a list of recently read, read a month ago, or currently reading:

1. Room

by Emma Donahue. Wow, this is written from the viewpoint of a 5 year old boy, raised in a single room by his mother who was kidnapped at age 19. She did an incredible job of raising her child. Sounds dreadful, creepy, scary, but they escape. The 2nd half of the book is about adjusting to life outside of the room. Wonderful novel – great story, great characters, very well written.

2. Jesus Calling

A friend told me about this little book by Sarah Young. It is one of those devotionals with an entry for 365 days. I thought it would be like all the rest. It is not. It is fantastic. Look her up and read how she wrote this! Right after I started reading this, it seems as if everyone I meet or talk to is also reading it. Tremendous insight into the character of God.

4. At the Crossing of Justice and Mercy

This is an audio book (probably a paper one too) by Dan Erickson, a multi-talented guy who I sort of know via the marvelous world wide web. He is a professor, musician, writer, single dad, and survivor of growing up in a cult. His first book was about the cult and how it affected him – A Train Called Forgiveness. This is sort of a sequel, but this one is fiction. It sort of twisted my head a bit. I’d think, “You did WHAT?” and then remember it is a novel. Very good story! Here – you can visit Dan’s site and learn more and even buy it yourself.

There is more, but you’d probably rather be reading books than this blog!

HEY, California Artist, don’t you read art books?

No. I read artists’ websites and art marketing websites. Even those leave me confused with conflicting approaches to media and marketing, which creates tremendous self-doubt. Too much information, too many opinions. It causes me to act like a gray squirrel in the middle of the road: go, stop, turn, go, turn, stop, go, turn. . . See why I have to read to escape??

Reading Rabbit Returns

What? Who has time to read?

The better question is “Who has time to watch teevee?”

Salt & Light, or Reading Rabbit, oil on board, 11×14″

There are multiple ways to read these days. I have discovered e-books in spite of not having a digital reader. Amazon has a thing that lets you read on your computer. It isn’t very convenient, but it is less expensive than buying a paper book. Since I might have whatever is the opposite of a hoarding disorder, I like the idea of reading a book without owning it.

The other option I love these days is audio books. Amazon has a division called “Audible”, and I buy one book a month to listen to while working on The Cabins of Wilsonia”. (By the way, at the time of this writing I have 34 drawings remaining to complete out of the 270 in the book!)

1. Preston Goodfellow  by my friend Jim Karjala is an ebook of short stories. The main character is not named Jim, but these are Jim’s stories. They are funny and moving narratives of a rough childhood but not from a victim’s viewpoint. Instead, they show tremendous spunk, character and a great survival instinct. This is an e-book worth the hassle of reading it on my computer. I read it in two sessions – nice work, Jim!!

2. Wild by Cheryl Strayed was wonderful as an audio book. This is the story of a young woman who set out to walk the entire Pacific Crest Trail, completely unprepared. She was coming from a place of deep sadness and rough living, and she tells her story well.

3. Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work That Matters by Jon Acuff was also wonderful as an audio book. He read it himself, and this guy is funny, smart, wise, and very interesting. The book  tells about the stages of a person’s career, that they cannot be skipped but that they can be accelerated. That sounds dull, but this book is NOT DULL in the slightest – I love the way Jon thinks and writes and speaks!

4. Crazy Busy by Kevin DeYoung is another ebook that a friend gave to me. I began it, it is good, but, ahem, I am too busy to finish it. That’s just wrong and ungrateful on my part. I’ll get to it, along with the huge stack of books, ahem, several stacks of books, in several locations around my house. 

HEY! TURN OFF THE TEEVEE AND READ A BOOK!

Reading Rabbit Returns

For some reason, reading becomes a topic of discussion in newspapers, magazines and blogs in the summer. Are we all so ingrained with the idea that summer is filled with leisure activities that we all just read in summer?

Yep.

Salt & Light, or Reading Rabbit, oil on board, 11×14″

 

1. A Train Called Forgiveness, an audio book by Dan Erickson. I listened to a free chapter on Audible.com and it convinced me to buy. Dan was in a cult as a child and teen. He got away, but it has taken him years to heal from the abuse. He is now an English professor, author and songwriter with a very interesting story to tell. He writes of his life experiences in novel form, interspersed with his original songs. The story is a bit disturbing, and made me sort of squirmy with uncomfortable and unidentifiable emotions. The songs take the edge off. The ending doesn’t feel over, and it’s not, because he has written 2 more books on the same subject. This book is worth buying, and because of the music, I recommend the audio version.

2. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is told by an autistic boy. It really helps the reader understand the mindset of autism. I listened to this story too, and it was also uncomfortable. Captivating. The author is Mark Haddon. It felt so accurate that I wonder if he is autistic.

3. Overdressed: the Shockingly High Price of Cheap Fashion  by Elizabeth Cline is about just what its title says. One of the most interesting facts I’ve learned so far is how much less clothing costs than it used to. (Perhaps this is why I have enough clothing for a small island nation.) It tells of how quickly fashion changes (I never actually noticed because I stopped caring after about age 18) and how easy it is to keep up with the trends because cheap clothing is so available. There are so many names of people and companies that I don’t recognize, so much talk about trades, tariffs, exports and imports. I might just skim this to get the gist of it.

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!

4. God Inside The Fire by Greg Stelley. I also paid money for this book, as an ebook, which I read on my laptop (I don’t have a Kindle and I think I don’t want one – too much stuff to own). In 1993 my favorite uncle’s house burned down in a San Diego County wildfire. 10 years later, to the very day, he was evacuated for another wildfire. This one was called the Cedar Canyon Fire, named after the place where it started. This fire burned up my cousin’s house. It was horrible horrible horrible.

It burned up lots of people’s homes, and this book is about a very remarkable incident, a true miracle, that took place in the midst of that. BUY THIS BOOK!!