The Art of the Brick

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PrefaCe

Some years ago I was a lawyer. But I never made a

particularly happy lawyer. After a time, I decided what

I really wanted to do with my life was make art. So I

quit, and I became a full-time artist.

It was a big decision. But when I made the leap, I

was prepared. I had already created what I felt were

meaningful works of art, and I knew I could eventually

make a living creating art.

What I wasn’t prepared for was the opposition—from

people I knew well, from acquaintances, and even

from people I didn’t know at all. During those first six

months, I heard passing complaints and objections

from people who held no stake in my life whatsoever.

I was told that I was crazy, that I was wrong, and that I

was wasting my life. I won’t lie, there were times when

I worried the naysayers might be right. But just a few

years after I quit, the complaints dried up.

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Quitting your job to become an artist certainly isn’t

for everyone. But the creation of art should never be

opposed. Not just because the world could do with

more beautiful things, but because there’s a mountain

of evidence that shows that making art will improve

your life in surprising ways.

Making art helps schoolchildren achieve significantly

better math and science scores. Making art helps keep

less advantaged kids in school, and art classes lower

America’s terrible dropout rate.

Making art builds self-esteem and self-awareness—

qualities that aren’t always in great supply, or at least

aren’t evenly distributed, in our society.

Making art helps combat depression, a shockingly

common American condition suffered by nearly one-

tenth of the population. Making art helps people

manage serious illnesses like cancer and Alzheimer’s.

Art is all around us, in commerce and in the creativity

and imagination of the everyday.

Art is not optional. I’ll say it again, in capital letters.

ART IS NOT OPTIONAL.

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Perhaps that’s not even a controversial opinion these

days. But it bears repeating: art is necessary, vital, and

indispensible. Not only to the personal happiness of a

few odd ducks like myself, but to society as a whole.

I hope that this book serves as an inspiration to those

waiting to create. Don’t leave art until you have “more

time.” Do it now. If you are the kind of person who’s

too busy to make art, you’re probably just the kind of

person who should be making art.

All of us have creative thoughts, those urges and ideas

that beg you to pick up a pen or brush or camera

or even a LEGO brick. Creative ideas are gifts, like

windows that open for just a short time. Art is in the

here and now.

So take a look around, wherever you are. There’s art

there. Do you see it?

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