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Edward Carey at Austin Public Library

October 24, 2018


I actually left the house last night to attend Edward Carey’s art show opening & book release for Little at the Central Library gallery. It was a special treat because after Edward read, he was interviewed by his wife, Elizabeth McCracken. (It was their first time onstage together.)

I’m inspired by how much pictures and words are fully integrated in Carey’s work. His stories often start with a drawing, and he’s drawing constantly while writing. (I wondered about how much his visual thinking makes it into his classroom work —  he mentioned that in his courses at UT he talks to his students about maps and the importance of knowing the worlds of your characters.) If you read this blog regularly, you might remember his bit on productive procrastination:

The exhibit (up until January) is very well done, and organized by book. (The second great exhibit I’ve seen in the space — the first was Lance Letscher.) Here is original artwork for The Iremonger Trilogy:

And here’s a drawing from the new one:

Carey’s work is wonderfully dark, but with a good splash of humor. (It’s fitting that earlier in the day my 3-year-old was drawing pages out of Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies.)

There’s a lot to like in the show, but my favorite thing might’ve been this bowl of his pencil stubs — Tombow Bs, I think— which resembled an ashtray with cigarette butts. (Carey is a former chain smoker.)

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An unlit cigarette

April 29, 2018

The most embarrassing thing I do when I’m working in the privacy of my studio is suck on one of these cigarette pencils.

My dad, my two brothers, and my best friend were all nicotine addicts when I was growing up, so when I first tried smoking cigarettes like every other moronic college student, I was too scared by how much I liked them to form a habit.

Then I bought one of the cigarette pencils in a novelty store a few years ago and was surprised how much dangling one from my lips helped me concentrate on my work. Really strange. I also, ironically, got kind of addicted to these tea tree toothpicks I originally bought to help my dad stop smoking. I like to chew on one when we watch TV.

Then, a few weeks ago, musician Blake Leyh tweeted things he learned from Brian Eno as a studio in 1980, and the first one was: “You can hold an unlit cigarette in your hand in the studio instead of smoking it, & it has much the same effect.”

So I’m not the only one!

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Austin Kleon

Austin Kleon (@austinkleon) is a writer who draws. He’s the bestselling author of Steal Like An Artist and other books.
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