{ "item_title" : "Conscious Creativity", "item_author" : [" Philippa Stanton "], "item_description" : "Full of tips and tricks on how to look at the world with a curious eye, it's a brilliant way to breathe creativity (back) into our lives. - Flow magazine Crammed with practical ideas, inspirational images & creative exercises, Conscious Creativity leads the reader through the process of establishing what kind of creative you are...-Mslexia The purpose of this book is to enable you to look at things in an alternative and more substantial way, so that you arrive at composition through genuine interest.-Juno magazine Philippa Stanton is passionate about people connecting to their innate creativity and has distilled these incredible techniques and ideas on how we can tap into that. Philippa is a massively successful Instagramer at @5ftinf and yet she is only too aware how these little two dimensional squares can limit our experiences and restrict our creativity, so it's not without a little irony that she's written a book to encourage people to step away from their screens and connect more with the 3D world. It's a fascinating subject and I wholeheartedly recommend the book for anyone who's working in the creative industry or is curious about the world around them.-Sophie Robinson (DIY SOS, The Great British Interior Design Challenge, This Morning)Unlock your creative potential with Conscious Creativity: a practical, playful guide bursting with inspiration to help bring more colour into to your life. There is creativity in all of us, but it can easily be buried beneath our everyday concerns or need a spark to bring it back to life. Whether you've lost your mojo or just need some fresh ideas, artist and photographer Philippa Stanton's lively guide will stimulate your imagination and reinvigorate your creative life. Engage your curiosity and connect your observations to your creative practice with activities such as:Noticing all the hues of one colour you can see around youCreating an abstract textured image using herbs, spices and other dry ingredients from your kitchen cupboardsCollecting shadows: photograph hidden shapes and dark spaces that you haven't noticed beforeConscious Creativity will help you open your senses to the beauty you may not notice every day, and show you how to capture it. Simple, engaging exercises that encourage observation and experimentation will give you an insight into your own aesthetics as you take a conscious step to note the colours, shapes, shadows, sounds and textures that fill your world, and how they make you feel. Bursting with practical ideas and inspirational images, embrace the joy of creating, and learn to use your natural curiosity to take a leap into the most creative time of your life. If you like this, you might also like Creative Flow and Nature Tonic.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers2.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/78/240/634/1782406344_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "19.99", "online_price" : "19.99", "our_price" : "19.99", "club_price" : "19.99", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }

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Lifestyles: February 2019

File this one under “Titles Whose Time Has Come.” Sure, there are other guides to the chemical intricacies of cannabis and its therapeutic properties, but none are quite like Nikki Furrer’s A Woman’s Guide to Cannabis: Using Marijuana to Feel Better, Look Better, Sleep Better—and Get High Like a Lady, which keeps a central question in mind at all times: How do I help my mom discover the joys and benefits of this amazing stuff? Furrer thoroughly and conversationally lays out the uses of cannabis (analgesic, antidepressant, anti-anxiety, anti-aging and more); explains the whole sativa/indica breakdown; and explores the differences between THC and CBD. If you’re already a cannabis consumer, you’ll be a much better informed one for having read this book. If you’re new to the green? Well, hi(gh), glad you’re here!

Speaking of evergreen topics: Creativity and how to nurture it is one of them, but Conscious Creativity: Look. Connect. Create. strikes me as a truly fresh take on the subject. This is a redefining of creativity as an improved state of being in a world that constantly wears us down. Partly it’s the bright, wabi sabi photos accompanying the text; partly it’s Philippa Stanton’s encouraging but matter-of-fact tone. This book doesn’t try too hard to be inspiring, and as such, it succeeds. Plus, I love Stanton’s attitude toward mess: “The amorphous contents of a drawer which have been secretly shaming you might in fact turn out to be a creative liberation,” she writes. The exercises she provides are designed to make you see and experience surroundings in a new way—to utilize boredom, to notice color, to challenge ingrained perception. Note to self: Put down yo’ phone and pick up this book. 

“I often forget just how many people lack basic photography skills,” I groused recently to a friend. A tad harsh? Perhaps, but seriously—with just a few smart tips, anyone can snap much better photos, no matter the camera. And in the Instagram age, doesn’t this qualify as a life skill? Henry Horenstein’s Make Better Pictures is a succinct, handy resource for shutterbugs of all stripes, with each page focused on a single aspect of photography. Take “Clubbing,” page 85, which offers four practical tips for shooting at low-light events and concerts. Or “Hip,” page 103, which details the advantages of positioning your camera not at eye level. Throughout, a single image illustrates each topic. 

 

This article was originally published in the February 2019 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.