Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age: 12 to 18
- Grade: 7 to 12
Description
Far beyond a colouring book, Stop Making Art and Die is the first adult activity book that makes it impossible not to succeed and flourish as an artist. Written and illustrated by Gorilla House and Rumble House founder Rich Théroux, the book gets you not only drawing, colouring, and designing, but immerses you into the meaning and wellbeing of art. The brilliantly creative Théroux also relates a story of artists overcoming struggles and obstacles to build an artists’ Bohemia that is destroyed time and again, leaving only masterpieces in its wake.
Suitable for visual artists and aspiring artists of all types, Stop Making Art and Die encourages a deeper understanding of both artistic practice and philosophy of the artistic process while at the same time providing steps on what it takes to make an art gallery of your own. Printed on high quality, thick paper, the pages are perfect for drawing and designing with markers, gel pens, watercolours, or pencil crayons.
About the author
Besides being a caveman, Rich is a genius talent at painting and drawing. His art hangs here and there in prominent homes and galleries but he prefers not to boast about it. Rich is founder of Calgary’s Rumble House gallery and happens to also teach junior high school art. He is the author and illustrator of Stop Making Art and Die, and the co-author of the poetry book, A Wake in the Undertow, along with his partner Jess Szabo. Intriguingly, he calls himself a tomato can. He and his gang exist/co-exist in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Awards
- Runner-up, Book Publishers Association of Alberta
Excerpt: Stop Making Art and Die: Survival Activities for Artists (by (author) Rich Théroux)
You might not need a space but start thinking, if you had a space, where would it be?
Tower, boat, cube truck, tent, beach, space shuttle, the moon, downtown, shopping mall, church, school, old haunted house, warehouse, house, garage, friends house, parents house, travelling cart, bicycle cart, pub, bar, coffee shop, laundromat, tanning salon, library, university, TEDx, train station, bus station, bathrooms, in an old fashioned phone booth, in a shed, in an alley, in the space between two old buildings, vestibules, lobbies, hotels, office building, government building, shanty town, the country, the park, on an airplane, cruise ship, outside the grocery store, parking lots, in a castle, under a bridge, at your grandma's cottage, outside sporting events... I could go on, maybe you should go on:
See it, smell it, draw it, just start carving out an image of the space you want to be in. Forget about money and just picture the kind of lighting you want. What city is it in? What are the doors and windows like? Cut up pictures or draw, it but you have to find a way to see the space you need to be in.
…in a rocket?
Editorial Reviews
“Stop Making Art and Die asks big questions about creativity, fulfilment, and happiness and explores Theroux’s theories about the artistic process and what fuels that inner compulsion to pursue it.”
Eric Volmers, Calgary Herald, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette
Finally, an adult coloring book with actual art inside. Stop Making Art and Die is a manifesto for gorilla artists everywhere who are ready to change their relationship with art. Rich Théroux’s story pushes you, ignites something in you. It is generous, completely self-possessed, and lushly inventive—all the things an artist aspires to be. Laced with hard-won wisdom, these interactive comics are very colorable, very raw, and very cool. Elizabeth Hyde Stevens, author of Make Art Make Money: Lessons from Jim Henson on Fueling Your Creative Career
This book is a gift. It’s simple and all it asks is that you engage and make art. This has been Rich Theroux’s message in all his endeavours in Calgary, and there have been many, from Gorilla House to Rumble House and beyond. It’s ok. Go ahead. Create. Really, it’s all good. So simple and so beautiful. Rich has enriched the arts scene and the lives of thousands of artists immeasurably, and this book continues his awesome legacy. Buy it, read it, live it. Rich Theroux makes the world a better place to live in.
?Eugene Stickland, Novelist and Playwright
Being creative, expansive and generative in your thinking, stretching your imagination, risk taking, making art, and living your life with all this and more in mind are the stuff of being an artist. In Stop Making Art and Die, Rich Theroux invites all of us to stay in touch with the creative impulse and our desire to live a purposeful and personally meaningful life. Theroux cleverly encourages all to revisit and nurture the spark that sustains the artists in all of us. Vincent J. Varga, Museum Director, Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies
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