This winter, local artist Erica Jane Huntzinger is going to be the Maker-in-Residence at Mead Public Library! That means lots of art events in January and February. In addition, she’ll be creating a mixed-media wall mural for our makerspace – and you can watch that mural being created every Wednesday from 4-7! You can find more information about all the Maker-in-Residence events here.

So for this blog post, I thought I would ask Erica for some book recommendations in the arts! Below, you’ll find a variety of books that have influenced how she thinks about art, creation and creativity.

Ninth Street Women by Mary Gabriel

This book is the true account of five female artists – Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler.

“Set amid the most turbulent social and political period of modern times, Ninth Street Women is the impassioned, wild, sometimes tragic, always exhilarating chronicle of five women who dared to enter the male-dominated world of twentieth-century abstract painting–not as muses but as artists. From their cold-water lofts, where they worked, drank, fought, and loved, these pioneers burst open the door to the art world for themselves and countless others to come.” (from the dust jacket)

A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman

Diane Ackerman’s other works include the popular bestseller The Zookeeper’s Wife, and she has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award.

“[Her] lusciously written grand tour of the realm of the senses includes conversations with an iceberg in Antarctica and a professional nose in New York, along with dissertations on kisses and tattoos, sadistic cuisine and the music played by the planet Earth.” (from the publisher)

Creativity by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“The classic study of the creative process from the national bestselling author of Flow Creativity is about capturing those moments that make life worth living. Legendary psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi reveals what leads to these moments-be it the excitement of the artist at the easel or the scientist in the lab-so that this knowledge can be used to enrich people’s lives.

Drawing on nearly one hundred interviews with exceptional people, from biologists and physicists, to politicians and business leaders, to poets and artists, as well as his thirty years of research on the subject, Csikszentmihalyi uses his famous flow theory to explore the creative process. He discusses such ideas as why creative individuals are often seen as selfish and arrogant, and why the “tortured genius” is largely a myth. Most important, he explains why creativity needs to be cultivated and is necessary for the future of our country, if not the world.” (from OverDrive)