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I am an artist.

2020-04-07 · review / recommendation · John · 3:48 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing (also: Personal life) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion, guest or collab

A week before its release, John celebrates Sarah Urist Green and her book You Are an Artist: recalling their year of emails and her telling him 'you're writing so you're a writer', he argues that art-making is not optional for humans and that ideas come from paying extraordinary attention to ordinary life.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — New temporary background at The Art Assignment's headquarters; You Are an Artist out in a week; meeting Sarah 17 years ago

  • ★ John films in front of a new temporary background: the new temporary headquarters of The Art Assignment, Sarah's YouTube channel with PBS Digital Studios. — 00:00:00 · The Art Assignment, Sarah Urist Green, YouTube
  • ★★★ John says Sarah's book You Are an Artist comes out a week from today; the finished copies just arrived and it is a beautiful book. — 00:00:13 · You Are an Artist, Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★ John, more sentimental than his 'wondrously unsentimental' wife, recalls that when he met Sarah 17 years ago she worked at a gallery and already wrote with rare accessible rigor. — 00:00:20 · Sarah Urist Green

00:00:29 — The year of emails before dating, the book Sarah made of them, and 'you're writing so you're a writer'

  • ★★ For a year before they dated, John and Sarah wrote hundreds of pages of emails about art, books, movies and their days; the book Sarah made of those emails is the most important in their library. — 00:00:33 · Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★ While revising the novel that became Looking for Alaska, John told Sarah he was trying to be a writer; she replied that he was writing, so he was a writer. — 00:01:05 · Looking for Alaska (novel), Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★★ John says art-making is neither optional for humans nor reserved for certain people: we made art in every crisis and deprivation, painted walls before building them, and made art before farming. — 00:01:20 · You Are an Artist

00:01:27 — Art-making is not optional for humans; the book humanizes art; ideas come from attention to life

  • ★★★ Quoting the title of Sarah's book, John says you are an artist if you make any kind of art at any time. — 00:01:41 · You Are an Artist, Sarah Urist Green

    “you are an artist if you make art, any kind of art, at any time”

  • ★★★ John loves that the book humanizes art, showing ideas come from regular life, such as a kid's kindergarten paper weaving (one he and Alice made together) or journaling. — 00:01:47 · You Are an Artist, Alice Green

  • ★★★ John says artistic ideas don't come from an extraordinary life but from paying an extraordinary kind of attention to life, which the book's assignments cultivate in him. — 00:02:05

    “They come from paying an extraordinary kind of attention to life.”

  • ★★★ John says art can be whatever we create for and with each other; the prompts need no fancy supplies, only attention, which helps us find and even create meaning. — 00:02:15 · You Are an Artist

00:02:55 — Library copies and free Art Assignment videos, a celebration tinged with sadness, the virtual book tour, sign-off

  • ★★ For viewers who can't afford a book, John says local libraries may have You Are an Artist free, including e-book and audiobook versions. (hedged) — 00:02:57 · You Are an Artist
  • ★★ John says viewers can still do the Art Assignment free on YouTube, where many of the book's assignments began, and links a playlist. — 00:03:05 · The Art Assignment, YouTube
  • ★★ John says it is hard to feel unambiguously happy or hopeful about anything now; every celebration, from birthday parties to book releases, is tinged with sadness. — 00:03:14
  • ★★ Sarah's virtual book tour starts next week (week of 13 April 2020); not the tour she long imagined, but still wonderful, fitting a book about working with what you have and building meaning together. — 00:03:24 · Sarah Urist Green, You Are an Artist

In the description and comments

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Sarah Urist Green · You Are an Artist

Also: Alice Green · cave painting · Looking for Alaska (novel) · PBS Digital Studios · The Art Assignment · YouTube

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