I have been drooling over this book for months and now that I bought a new camera I can actually share it with everyone. It’s called Formal Addictive Programs by Nadine Nakanishi of Sonnenzimmer. In this first release by Nadine she attempts to shed some light on her creative process, while “focusing on the commonalities of figurative and abstract images” (her words, not mine). The book offers 18 simple instructions to help the reader expand upon a singular idea. For example, the first couple instruction in the book go something like this…

#1 Draw a grid system of an existing drawing and establish anchor points.
#2 Focus on those anchor points.
#3 Connect your anchor points while disassociating yourself from your original drawing. Connect them while envisioning a new one.

Not only does the book help with some free-form exploration, the production of the book is super on point including a screenprinted vellum dust jacket, a beefy text weight stock on the inside and 2 color offset printing. If this book doesn’t help you explore some new directions in your work then either you are really amazing or slightly delusional. Pick it up from the Sonnenzimmer store.

© Julia Rothman 2007