'Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent and independent with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play.' - Matisse Use this essential guide to crack artistic algorithms and improve, sustain and nurture your creativity. Brief Lessons in Creativity presents a rich variety of artistic methods and solutions for you to try, and is packed with inspiration and practical takeaways. Stay curious like Rauschenberg by immersing yourself in the world through seeing, reading and researching. Repeat and revisit with Cézanne to try things differently, and collect and remix with Matisse and Bacon. Appreciate the importance of solitude and space with Bourgeois, and improvise freely with Van Gogh. With every chapter, learn how to create your best work and embrace a new sense of playfulness.

'the mundane becomes special as soon as you pay attention to it' - Susan Hiller This essential guide delves into the techniques, routines and mindsets of boundary-shifting artists, and the ways in which seeing differently can lead to creating something original. Learn the advantages of a different angle with Georges Braque, view everyday sights in a new way with Alex Katz and open your eyes to the possibilities of colour with Josef Albers. In every chapter, inspiring anecdotes and practical exercises will you help you gain a new perspective and reinvigorate your work.

'Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist' - Picasso Whether it's through disrupting a routine, turning an idea on its head or challenging the norm, Brief Lessons in Rule Breaking will give you the confidence to take creative risks and experiment, free from self-doubt. Be inspired by the artistic avant garde with wise words from Abramovic, Duchamp and more.

From celebrated art historian, curator, and teacher Sarah Lewis, a fascinating examination of how our most iconic creative endeavors—from innovation to the arts—are not achievements but conversions, corrections after failed attempts. The gift of failure is a riddle: it will always be both the void and the start of infinite possibility. The Rise—part investigation into a psychological mystery, part an argument about creativity and art, and part a soulful celebration of the determination and courage of the human spirit—makes the case that many of the world’s greatest achievements have come from understanding the central importance of failure. Written over the course of four years, this exquisite biography of an idea is about the improbable foundations of a creative human endeavor. Each chapter focuses on the inestimable value of often ignored ideas—the power of surrender, how play is essential for innovation, the “near win” can help propel you on the road to mastery, the importance of grit and creative practice. The Rise shares narratives about figures past and present that range from choreographers, writers, painters, inventors, and entrepreneurs; Frederick Douglass, Samuel F.B. Morse, Diane Arbus, and J.K. Rowling, for example, feature alongside choreographer Paul Taylor, Nobel Prize–winning physicists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, and Arctic explorer Ben Saunders. With valuable lessons for pedagogy and parenting, for innovation and discovery, and for self-direction and creativity, The Rise prompts deep reflection and sparks inspiration.

'Everyone would benefit from reading Judkins, if only because he is so entertaining . . . packed with counterintuitive insights and hard truths' - Psychology Today Make Brilliant Work is an inspiring guide to unlocking your creative potential, showing you the methods and techniques that will transform your efforts and help you achieve your best ever work. You don’t have to be brilliant to produce brilliant work. Many of the characters you will meet in this book failed at school, lacked natural talent, were not especially gifted or were repeatedly sacked. But their methods produced brilliant work – and they will work for you, too. Make Brilliant Work is the essential book from Rod Judkins, author of the international bestseller The Art of Creative Thinking. Whatever your creative endeavour, you might find it hard to produce something significant and important. The real-life heroes in this book will show you how to make the transformation from ordinary to extraordinary. From Frida Kahlo to Steve Jobs, and star architect Zaha Hadid: the figures in Make Brilliant Work will show you how to think for yourself, take risks and persevere to create brilliant work. 'Whatever your creative hang-up, Rod Judkins has steps you can take now . . . An admirably straightforward, no-nonsense guide to getting over yourself and getting to work' - Mason Currey, author of Daily Rituals: How Artists Work

Gawker tech-blogger and journalist Ryan Tate reveals how businesses can inspire greater creativity and productivity by giving employees the freedom to experiment and explore their passions. We're at a crossroads. Many iconic American companies have been bailed out or gone bankrupt, while others are fighting to survive ever-increasing digitization and globalization. In The 20% Doctrine, Tate examines how companies large and small can incubate valuable innovative advances by making small, specific changes to how work time is approached within their corporate cultures. The concept of “20% Time” originated at Google, but Tate takes examples from powerful businesses like Yahoo!, National Public Radio, Flickr, and the Huffington Post to demonstrate how flexibility and experimentation can revolutionize any business model. By pursuing their passion projects, employees can fuel innovation and foster new ideas. Only through a new devotion to the unhinged and the ad hoc can American businesses resume a steady pace of development and profitability.

Make sure your children grow dendrites! As children′s first teachers, parents need to provide a firm foundation for lifelong learning. In this new book, award-winning educator Marcia L. Tate provides a research-based road map for raising respectful, responsible children who achieve to their fullest potential. The best-selling author, mother, and grandmother shares brain-compatible strategies for guiding children toward personal, academic, and career success. Her latest book provides parents and caregivers with a wealth of practical tips and tools for: Creating a calm and brain-compatible home environment Incorporating positive physical contact and verbal communication Encouraging play that develops creativity and imagination Strengthening children′s auditory, tactile, kinesthetic, and visual modes of learning Preparing Children for Success in School and Lifeshows parents how to help children′s brains "grow dendrites" in everyday ways such as telling them stories, using music to enhance memory, turning homework time into fun time, and allowing them freedom to draw and write. From day one through graduation and beyond, you and your family will reap the benefits of the author′s 30+ years of experience with thousands of children.

Learn how to jump-start your imagination to conjure up innovative, worthwhile ideas with help from some of the greatest artists in the world. How do artists think? Where does their creativity originate? How can we, too, learn to be more creative? BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz seeks answers to these questions in his exuberant, intelligent, witty, and thought-provoking style. Think Like an Artist identifies ten key lessons on creativity from artists that range from Caravaggio to Warhol, Da Vinci to Ai Weiwei, and profiles leading contemporary figures in the arts who are putting these skills to use today. After getting up close and personal with some of the world’s leading creative thinkers, Gompertz has discovered traits that are common to them all. He outlines basic practices and processes that allow your talents to flourish and enable you to embrace your inner Picasso—no matter what you do for a living. With wisdom, inspiration, and advice from an author named one of the fifty most original thinkers in the world by Creativity magazine, Think Like an Artist is an illuminating view into the habits that make people successful. It’s time to get inspired and think like an artist!

Bring Novelty Into The Classroom To Get Knowledge Into Students’ Brains! You can invest time and effort into perfecting your lesson plans, encouraging good student behavior, and ensuring your classroom accommodates every learning style. But if your students don’t remember what you teach them, what’s the point? Banish this concern forever when you use the strategies in this thoroughly updated third edition of Marcia Tate’s bestselling Worksheets Don’t Grow Dendrites, which details twenty definitive brain-compatible techniques to maximize retention and minimize forgetting in learners of all ages. Tate’s techniques are drawn from the latest neuroscientific research and learning style theory and are described step-by-step for immediate application in your classroom. Learn how to: Incorporate interactive fun to your existing lessons, including field trips, games, humor, and even music and rap Use graphic organizers and word webs to solidify lessons visually Facilitate innovative methods of project-based learning You’ll also benefit from new sample lesson plans, activities, and illustrations that reflect the latest research on how students’ brains develop and function. With this book, your students will retain the information from your classroom for years to come.

Can two IRL enemies find their happily ever after online? Stella Greene and Wesley Clarke are Gene Connolly Memorial High School's biggest rivals. While the two have been battling it out for top student, it's a race to the bottom when it comes to snide comments and pulling the dirtiest prank. For years, Stella and Wes have been the villain in each other's story, and now it's all-out war. And there is no bigger battle than the one for valedictorian, and more specifically, the coveted valedictorian scholarship. But Stella and Wes have more in common than they think. Both are huge fans of Warship Seven, a popular sci-fi TV drama with a dedicated online following, and the two start chatting under aliases--without a clue that their rival is just beyond the screen. They realize that they're both attending SciCon this year, so they plan to dress in their best cosplay and finally meet IRL. While tensions at school are rising and SciCon inches closer and closer, the enemy lines between Stella and Wes blur when a class project shows them they might understand one another better than anyone else--and not just in cosplay. From the author of The Last Confession of Autumn Casterly comes a heartfelt story about rivalry, friendships, and defying preconceived notions--even the ones about yourself.