Steal Like An Artist, really

It took literally months for this interview to make on the air during the jazz morning show on KUVO, “First Take with Lando and Chavis.”  I carried the book for weeks and weeks, wanting the perfect inspiration that would match the exploding creative potential within the pages of “The Steal Like An Artist Journal,” the companion to the best-selling book by Austin Kleon (“a writer who draws”).

Finally, with some help from summer intern Alec Simpson, an edited version of the interview is below, complete with soundtrack.  

Kleon’s premise challenged me, but his exercises for “creatives” in the making entertained me.  Not only did Picasso say, “Art is theft,” but Kleon said, “Nothing comes from nowhere.”

  “When we’re young, it’s about copying, in private. You learn those cover songs. You digest all that material, and then you move in to combining the things you are copying into new works.  Eventually you transform those works into something of your own.”   See the comparison chart: “Good theft = credit. Bad theft = plagiarize.”

For Kleon, his notebook is his creative life.  ”Keeping a notebook is the creative heart of everything that I do. Every day, no matter what.” (Like I tell my kids, almost daily, “did you write that down?!)

In the podcast-length feature below, Kleon talks about spirit-bending prompts including “tip jar wars,” finding the sublime in the mundane (“paying attention”), your creative family tree, Curtis Mayfield, and making good art (usually with constraints, difficulty, pain).

The “Steal Like An Artist” KUVO playlist:

• Straight Ahead, “Once Upon A Time,” from the CD “Look Straight Ahead.”
• Tupac, “Me Against the World” (title track).
• Nina Simone, “Four Women,” from the CD “Wild is the Wind.”
• Curtis Mayfield, “We’re a Winner,” from the CD “Curtis Live.”
• Charlie Parker, “Confirmation,” from the CD “Compact Jazz.”

interview with Austin Kleon, with accompanying music