The Starving Artist's Way : Easy Projects for Low-Budget Living

Rating:
Summary: Help for the Hapless
Review: Best gift I have ever received! It is teeming with great ideas!

For a hopelessly square, artistically challenged, straight arrow like me, this book is a godsend. Now, I can act out my fantasy of living the bohemian life, and I don't have to bother with smoking unfiltered cigarettes, wearing a black beret, growing a goatee, moving to Williamsburg (Brooklyn), and snapping my fingers at free-form poetry readings. I just have to do a few of these easy art projects, leave the results lying around my house, and voila! Instant Hip.

And, of course, the best part of it all is that I don't have to spend a lot of money on art school in the process.

My favorite ideas were the "bread-n-jam mini layer cakes" and the "brocolli stem pickles" - I have learned that the way to my inner "starving" artist is through my stomach.

Rating:
Summary: The coolest book so far this year...
Review: This is an amazing peek into the creative life of starving artists. We all know one of these folks, who can make magic out of junk and leftover odds and ends, so that, even on the tightest of shoestrings, the starving artist lives with little luxuries, good food, in a groovy, and totally striking, home.

The starving artist is the one whose outfits, accessories, pad and vibe elicit coos of "Where did you get that?" and sighs of envy when the artist declares "Oh this, I made it." This book shows you how to create beautiful furnishings, objects, wearables and meals out of, well, stuff that you can either just find or is totally inexpensive.

I'm not very good at crafts, but always *want* to make things, so I got this book, which is really user-friendly, so I could make a modular lighting system, a "found object" bag, and At-Home Absinthe. I also got a couple of copies for my more crafty friends who I think will appreciate the new ideas and the sense of humor.

Plus it's chock full of little sidebars about all the contemporary and historical artists and movements that provide inspiration to starving artists everywhere (Vanessa Beercroft! Walter de Maria! Fluxus! Gaudi! Matthew Barney!), written in a non-fussy, non-condescending tone.