Chapter Two

Reading----and Reading Right

The general consensus of Chapter Two is that an artist needs to read, read, read. He states that a good reader not only reads but reads beyond their level of understanding. Basically, in order to expand your brain and to exercise your brain it's not enough to just pick up any book and read, you need to pick up a book that might be hard to comprehend at first but with more and more insight into the concept and background of the words you will eventually understand. He talks about the time of Picasso where if you were an artist and your were not reading then you were considered and outcast. There are some that say as an artist reading helps you in being able to speak about art in an intellectual manner and that is important when trying to make your mark into that world. I actually liked this chapter. I say that because I am an English major and I feel that reading is very important in, again, exercising your brain. I read often and do so because I enjoy it, and if the author believes that an artist needs to read in order to succeed in this profession then I believe him, and I'm not saying go out and try to read just any old book with a bunch of big words, I think he means for the artists to go out and read about the history of art and the ideas of different eras and learn about what was done before so as to not repeat an idea that was done 100 years ago and call it new.