Book Snippet: The Artist in the Office - Summer Pierre (2010)

With the tagline “How to Creatively Survive and Thrive Seven Days a Week”, the book does a fantastic job of throwing out bite-sized ideas to elaborate on. It was a wonderful and random find; working full time does change your priorities, as do many other things, it was something I hadn’t expected to take up all of my time and energy, I began to feel sapped and would need lots of motivation during the week to do a doodle or two let alone a masterpiece. That’s why I like this book, it put art and creation into perspective, it has fantastic examples of how to create art on a time and material budget, using office supplies and stationery, as well as imbuing the work space with whimsical art, whether it’s drawings stuck on loo roll dispensers or mini photography projects using the work space environment (not a great idea if you are not allowed to do this at work!).

This is a super positive book where the author understands the importance of creativity for creative people, she urges readers to ‘shift your priority to find time for creativity… schedule your creative work like any other mandatory appointment’. If you work in the creative sector then this might be just what you need to detox and find time for your own ideas.

The art style of the book is quirky and modern, keeping it in line with its ethos of quick and fun art, full of ink drawings and colour wash, It also has little bio pages with inspiring and funny quotes from artists and writers. In all honesty, I don’t think this is a book you read in its entirety, I believe it is better enjoyed in snippets, flick open a page, keep reading and go make a scrapbook of all the random stickable things (staples not staplers!). A brilliant find, in fact, I am  going to keep my copy of the book in my draw at work!