How to Be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum Review

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(More customer reviews)Smith's newest book is the most recent installment in her passionate, ongoing process to distill life and the art process (indistinguishable to most artists) down to it's bare matter. If you can embrace playfulness, open courageously to the idea of art as life, are willing to turn off the television and look around you, love to challenge yourself to learn to BE and create from essence as opposed to trend or fancy, Explorer is for you.
As an author, she seems to live her life exactly the way she writes (as one can easily pick up when visiting her blog The Wish Jar Journal).

As an artist, she is apparently very well read on the subjects of art and life and willing to push beyond art school rules to find her own voice among so many artsy voices that seem to blend together these days. For an insightful, modern perspective on gathering the fodder to create amazing experiences, I was not disappointed with this book.
I completely disagree with other reviews which state that this book is not for deep thinkers. I find her simple, freshened concepts to be timely and revolutionary, just what artists have been missing from our creative processes.
I also recommend Wreck This Journal and Guerilla Art, also by Keri Smith.

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From the author of Wreck This Journal, an interactive guide for exploring and documenting the art and science of everyday life.Artists and scientists analyze the world around them in surprisingly similar ways, by observing, collecting, documenting, analyzing, and comparing. In this captivating guided journal, readers are encouraged to explore their world as both artists and scientists. The mission Smith proposes? "To document and observe the world around you. As if you've never seen it before. Take notes. Collect things you find on your travels. Document findings. Notice patterns. Copy. Trace. Focus on one thing at a time. Record what you are drawn to." With a series of interactive prompts and a beautifully hand-illustrated two-color package, readers will enjoy exploring and discovering the world through this gorgeous book.

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Wreck This Journal Review

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(More customer reviews)When this journal arrived, my heart sank when I saw there was a tiny tear on the bottom of the spine. My first reaction was to contact Amazon and have them ship me a brand new copy. Then I came to my senses; the whole purpose of the journal *was* to wreck it, and in light of what I was going to do to it, a tiny tear would be the least of its worries.
You see, I made a promise to myself: Follow the instructions and wreck the journal, no matter what my better judgment told me.
It took a few days to get started. In fact, I spent those first few days grieving over what I had to do to the journal (yes, I started by reading through some of the instructions). When it comes to my books and journals, I'm a perfectionist and *damaging* any of them makes me uneasy. Even the sight of someone else damaging a book makes me uneasy.
But, when I finally let loose and did one of the tasks in the book, suddenly it didn't seem so bad. (Plus, it helped that I started with such an innocuous task -- sticking a sticker from bought fruit on a page.) Before long, I was flinging the book at the walls, ripping pages, drawing with glue, showering with it, and a bunch of other interesting (yet highly suspect) activities.
At the end of the day, my family members may think I'm a little nuts for buying a journal I would eventually destroy, however, it's incredibly fun, liberating, and therapeutic. Enough so that I enlisted the aid of a Starbucks barista for my recent experiment (and I think he liked it too).
Truth be told, it exceeded my expectations. Usually, I'm not a guided-journal girl, but Kerri somehow transformed what could be a boring task into something amazing. Kudos to her for it.
(Between you and me, I'm strongly contemplating getting one just for my journal collection. It's *that* good.)

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For anyone who's ever wished to, but had trouble starting, keeping, or finishing a journal or sketchbook comes Wreck This Journal, an illustrated book that features a subversive collection of prompts, asking readers to muster up their best mistake- and mess-making abilities to fill the pages of the book (and destroy them). Acclaimed illustrator Keri Smith encourages journalers to engage in "destructive" acts-poking holes through pages, adding photos and defacing them, painting with coffee, and more-in order to experience the true creative process. Readers discover a new way of art and journal making-and new ways to escape the fear of the blank page and fully engage in the creative process.

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