Order You Are an Artist by Sarah Urist Green today via your local bookstore (most will ship to you cheap or free!) or request it from your local library: bit.ly/2kplj2h Join Sarah, me, and special guests on the book's virtual tour: www.theartassignment.com/tour You can find excellent free Art Assignments here: ua-cam.com/video/hOHmfuD58lM/v-deo.html
I just reserved a copy from my library, and they are only ordering the audio version. Not even the ebook (I could understand not wanting to order a hard copy right now. I guess. Sort of?) only the audiobook. My phone really needs a shrug emoji.
They say there isn't much to smile about these days. That may be true. Thank you John, for always making me smile; whether it be visible, or metaphorical. You are the one person (Not to leave out your family and Hank's) I desperately want to meet someday.
I ordered some for my college bookstore (and will peddle it to my college library once we all reopen)- can’t wait! Gives us something fun and intriguing to look forward to!
John: “We wrote hundreds of pages of emails to each other” Me: So cute! So sweet! My heart! John: “The most important book in our library is this book that Sarah made for me that contains all of those emails” Me: faints of cuteness and sweetness overload
I want to find that person for me. So badly. I thought I had, for awhile, and then my own shortcomings got the best of us. But watching things like this gives me hope that shes out there, so thanks for that
Thank you for saying this. Knowing someone is cheering you on when they don't even know you exist is something I needed reminding of, because I knew I supported all nerdfighters, even the ones I don't know exist, but I think I'd forgotten that they in turn support me too even though they don't know I exist. And the idea of John cheering everything I do is brilliantly funny and motivating 😂
I'm desperately endeavoring to disabuse my husband of the notion that dense, obfuscated language is just "how academic work is written." Ahem. I'm trying to convince him that clear, readable writing is good, and he should use it.
Sarah in a livestream: "please stop shamelessly promoting my book; it's embarrassing" John in a video without Sarah: "spends four minutes shamelessly promoting her book"
Random Washer It’s maybe my favorite thing about John. His love language must be acts of service because he is such an outspoken marketer for the people he loves.
“The ideas don’t come from having an extraordinary kind of life, they come from paying an extraordinary kind of attention to life” !!! Can’t wait to read the book :)
You opened by referring to her lack of sentimentality but HOLY MOLY she bound a book of the hundreds of pages you wrote each other as you became friends and developed feelings for each other. That's some deep and lovely sentiment.
I haven’t drawn much since I was a kid, but because I was sent home from college and can’t see my friends I’ve been drawing portraits of their pets on postcards and sending them in the mail. When they text me their joy I feel more like an artist than I’ve ever felt like an anything.
When my 5yo asked me what an artist was I said, "someone who enjoys making art" and he asked me if HE was an artist because he enjoyed making art so I said "absolutely!"
@@Xob_Driesestig Oh hey that's the title of this art textbook I have from my contemporary art class in college! Oh wait, it's actually "But is it art?". Similar concept.
If you can afford to buy books during this time and please try to pre-order through your local bookstore. This way you’re supporting both your favorite authors and your local bookstore. Also, once you’ve finished reading your books consider donating them to your local library if they’re currently open or once they do so that when this is over and people are recovering from the financial blow they can still appreciate good literature.
Same here. Mathematician in my third year, working on resonances in geometric scattering (don't ask). What's your discipline and topic? And yeah, I can totally relate to that. There's no retrenchment in rigor possible, thus I'm struggling horribly on the accessibility part.
@@lonestarr1490 Education, and my topic *was* a look at perceived immersion and related learning found in a VR sim for higher ed med students. Can't do much with that these days--it's hard to observe and interview students watching a VR sim when students can't gather together. Unfortunately, I'm also on an employment-related time table, so waiting for "all that stuff out there" to end is not an option. Thankfully, however, my committee might let me do a meta-analysis. I just need to draft a new proposal in extremely short order 😕
@@lonestarr1490 And you really think you can mention your topic to another PhD candidate whose lifeblood is fueled by curiosity and expect not to be asked what resonances in geometric scattering are? 😆 Now I want to know more than ever!
@@Dyundu Yeah, that virus shatters many plans these days. I'm sorry that it hit you in that way. I mean I could tell you what resonances are (poles of the resolvent of the Laplace-Beltrami operator on a hyperbolic Riemannian orbifold). But you would probably know as much as before. Instead, I can tell you this: "Can One Hear the Shape of a Drum?" is a famous question in mathematics. It's about how geometric and spectral properties of a surface are intertwined. Those properties are basically two different ways of describing a surface and that also plays a huge role in physics: geometry is essentially the classical mechanics' way of describing the world, spectral theory is the way of quantum physics. Getting spectral information out of a known geometry is rather easy (most of the time), but the other way around was unclear for a long time. It turned out that, in general, no, you can't hear the shape of a drum. There is more than one setup resulting in the same frequency, for instance. So mathematicians asked the further: If you can't hear the (whole) shape of a drum, what can you hear? Or under what circumstances or additional assumptions can you hear the shape? And that's basically the mainframe in which I'm working. For a special kind of surfaces, you have the so called Selberg zeta function, which is defined solely by geometric means but nethertheless bears spectral informations, in the sense that its set of zeros contains the resonances. What we're doing is constructing a set of operators with which we can represent this zeta function in a way that it's zeros can be written in terms of eigenspaces of these operators. Since also these operators are defined completely on the geometric side, we - in some sense - drag the spectral information deeper into the geometry to find relations which are way more explicit than before and thus easier to work with. What my supervisor and I proved is that such an approach is always possible for a certain kind of surface and we can give a step-by-step guide on how to explicitly construct these operators.
There’s nothing quite like having an artist you respect and admire telling you that you are an artist too, because so often I get wrapped up in the creations instead of the creating. Thanks for being you, and I can’t wait to read Sarah’s book and continue to shape my idea of art.
I am currently a student teacher and one of my teachables is Art. I preorder this book specifically for the purpose of using it in my lessons to inspire students.
“The ideas don’t come from having an extraordinary kind of life, they come from paying an extraordinary kind of attention.” I really like this. I don’t know much about art, and maybe I don’t understand it as well as some people do, but I still enjoy it. I watch The Art Assignment from time to time and it helps me see the beauty in art - to appreciate it rather than to just know it’s appreciated. I really look forward to Sarah’s book, I’m sure it’s as incredible as you make it sound. :)
Dear John and Sarah, I'm so excited for the book to come out and I'm sure it will be incredible and lovely and a little magical and the best that could happen to distract us all a little and inspire new ideas :) Lots of love and as always have a wonderful evening🤗
This week I will paint eggs and hide them in my family's garden for my mother and adult sister to find in easter.I hadn't thought about it that way but I guess that is art. Not just the painting part but also the hiding part. It's very cool to think about it this way.
Once, a writer told me, "Your pain is the greatest way to make art." All the *catastrophe* right now is what's inspiring me to write about the painful, but unifying experience of being human. Thank you John and Sarah for inspiring me to continue writing and finding art in all the pain.
I CAN'T WAIT I CAN'T WAIT I CAN'T WAIT I CAN'T WAIT I CAN'T WAIT I CAN'T WAIT I've had my copy preordered for a good while and I'm so excited. This is the book people need right now. My wife and I have struggled during quarantine because we have all the time in the world to produce art, but we are so self critical and so profoundly uninspired that making art just seems like another lofty TODO dream (like cleaning the garage or actually taking care of the yard). Despite not being able to go on a proper book tour, I am confident that this book is going to reach exactly the right people and speak to them in exactly the right way. More people need to hear what she has to say on the subject than ever. I CAN'T WAIT
I am literally making handmade greeting cards as I watch this. The card is just paper cut out like toilet paper. I'm giving them to my neighbors as a way to bring a smile to their faces. I don't usually think of myself as an artist so this made me smile. Thank you, Sarah and John. 😊
I always pondered over what categorizes as "art". I've finally settled on this one : anything that moves you is art. The Art Assignment moves me, and so does your voice John.
I love how excited and encouraging John always is for those he loves who are writing books. Like, when An Absolutely Remarkable Thing came out, it felt like John was even more excited about Hank's book coming out than John was excited for his own books to come out. It feels like the same thing is happening here with Sarah's book, and I love it.
The Yeti’s “well you’re writing, so you are a writer” line really resonates with me. My first book was published 2 years ago and I kept saying things like, I’m trying to be a writer or I’m trying to be an author. And a friend finally said, “hey there’s some dudes out there who have written like a page who call themselves writers. You wrote a whole book and it was published. You’re a writer!” It really changed how I talked about myself.
“It will still be, and it will be wonderful.” I love that. I had a conversation with my therapist today about being sad that my law school graduation was postponed. Somehow that makes me feel as though it won’t be as important or wonderful when the day finally comes. But it will still be. And it will be wonderful.
I saw that Sarah curated a list of Art Assignments that could be done from home, like, in a time of quarantine. I shared the playlist with my students and their parents along with other great resources for creating art in this time. Thank you for the playlist, Sarah, and for all of the Art Assignments. I can't wait to read your book!
John, I'm 50 and I haven't watched or read you much in the last ten years ... I was a huge fan of you and Hank and Ze Frank in the mid-2000s and then Crash Course a bit later .... but in these times I wandered back to vlog brothers and here you are, drawing my eyes and ears and attention straight back with words and ideas that stick into my brain like a harpoon. I'm making a garden, and it's been as you said, tinged with sadness despite the new life and growth and all that, but I didn't realize until just now that the garden is art, and I'm an artist. My DH and I are deciding where to place boxes and rocks and plants to make the yard and our lives more beautiful and productive and to have things to share with others. And that's art. We are artists. Thanks mystery lady Sarah. Thanks John. I love you!
I am a writer. I am a poet. I’ve been writing stories since I was eight and writing poetry since I was eleven. These two things have been a part of my identity for so long, that I have gotten past all the feelings of being an imposter. I used to think I wasn’t really a writer because I almost exclusively write short stories, most less than two pages long. But since then I have realized that the capacity to write a full-length novel does not dictate if a person is a writer or not. I am a writer because I write. Recently, I have gotten more into visual art. This is something I have been reluctant to do for a long time, mostly because my best friend is a very talented visual artist and every time I tried to draw something, I felt like a phony trying to mimic my friend. This feeling was exacerbated by the fact that at this point, I’m just bad at visualizing things in my head and I don’t have the experience to create anything that I can’t see right in front of my face. It seemed like drawing what I see in a picture from my phone was just another form of mimicry, not real art. After thinking about it for a while, I realized how turned around my reasoning was. As a poet, I turn my observations, experiences, and emotions directly into words. All forms of art are mimicry, because all forms of art are representations of one thing or another. Art is a way of communicating the things we don’t want to say, and also a way of conserving the beauty of things, that like all things, are not permanent. Art is exactly what you need it to be, and other people can’t dictate what you need. If you create art, you are an artist.
The Art Assignment has been so so so important to me, i dont know who or where i would be without it, it shaped me so much in my adolescence, i dont know how else i would've found out how much I NEED to create SOMETHING in order to be happy... And i love the tone of the show (that is, Sara's tone), i've learnt a lot from it i think. I'm really excited for the book!
I love how you talk about the people and things that you love, John. I am so excited to get Sarah's book. I have never felt 'artistic,' so I'm excited to explore the different ways that I might be wrong about that.
I work in wood mostly. (wooden swords and shields, picture frames and little boxes) I always thought of my creations as me just playing around, but apparently I too am an artist. ☺️
“The ideas don’t come from an extraordinary life they come from paying an extraordinary attention to life. Those are powerful words, thank you for bringing them to my attention. I’m in the process of writing my first novel, and I’ve kind of been stuck at a writers block, but I think I’ve now hit a breakthrough. Thank you Sarah and you too John
Has it's another episode of how much John loves his wife! Real talk, I live for these. The world is blessed to have both of you. I'm so excited to get a copy of Sarah's book when it's released in Spain. Also the book of your emails is the kind of love I aspire to. Thank you for sharing with us. Big congrats to Sarah 🧡✌🏻
"It is hard to feel unambiguously happy or hopeful about anything right now. Every celebration is tinged with sadness from birthday parties to book releases, and there is no getting around that." This very much sounds like my experience with grief after my mom died. Thank you for putting words to it.
My younger brother is a computer scientist who struggles with his mental health and is endlessly creative - in non-conventional ways. I do the whole boring painting thing but he collects, sculpts out of paper, re-imagines and designs. While the rest of my family would probably describe ourselves as musical/artistic, I'm not sure he sees himself as an artist. I'm excited to buy this book for him for his birthday, and hopefully do the assignments together as we're on lockdown, to relieve stress and build our relationship. John, please thank Sarah for me! This book looks wonderful.
When I was still in school, I found I had my best art days when I forgot the key to my locker. I had whatever was in my bag. I tore out pages of my sketch book and let them fall on the table. I bought rubber cement from the bookstore and adheared the papers together before pinning them to the wall. I projected a image of a elderly woman across my papers and outlined her facial features with charcoal. After mounting the pages on black matte board I continued the drawing in the negative spaces with white pastel. I submitted it to the art show with the title Dementia and won Dean's Choice.
I have probably made this comment before, but your videos are a touchstone for me. Your voice is calm and soothing, especially welcome during these uncertain times. You discuss things that stimulate thought and action. Your concern about, and the efforts you make to make the world around you a better place have inspired me to endeavor to be a better human. Thank you so much.
My mum is going through the process of starting to think of herself as creative (at the age of >60) after always thinking of herself as A Scientist who Cannot Art, so I think I am going to get her this to encourage her in her creative journey!
sarah's ability to talk simply about complex topics is one of the reasons the art assignment is one of my favorite (if not my downright favorite) channels on youtube
I have always been loath to call myself “an artist”, often thinking that doing so would somehow be pretentious, or that the sole prerequisite to being an artist was for someone else to actively say to me, “Your art made me feel today and I enjoyed that feeling. Thank you.” Only then could I admit that perhaps I had successfully taken one step closer to my goal of earning that exalted title among my heroes and mentors. My perspective has evolved and been enlightened since watching this video, but I would still like to say to you, John, that your art made me feel today... and I enjoyed that feeling very much. Thank you!
I was sent home from my dance conservatory a few weeks ago and haven’t been able to create much since I’ve been home. I have no idea when I’ll be able to dance in a studio again, and every small ballet class on Zoom in my tiny bedroom is tinged with sadness and fear of the future. I’m so excited for this book to come out, and hopefully I’ll find ways to engage in art and dance in brand new ways. I appreciate you framing art as something accessible and not some far-off high brow experience. That perspective is much needed, now more than ever.
I’ve been down on myself a lot lately because I’ve felt my creativity has been stunted by quarantine and resulting dip of depression. Writing has been difficult and uninteresting. However, I’ve been cooking a lot more often, an endeavor that I greatly enjoy and I’ve been teaching my boyfriend how to be better at. It’s been helpful to think of this as my own kind of art, not pressuring myself to “be more creative.” Thanks for this, John ❤️
As a kid, I snapped a picture of a broken window because the break was roughly shaped like a duck. Fast forward 30 years, I'm a photographer. It comes from unexpected places. 💖
I got my husband a book of all our earliest emails too!!!! We spent a lot of time getting to know each other over them and they are very special to us - they were sent via Bebo and amongst many other things include both of us subtly trying to express our feelings for each other and the other person totally missing the hints each time! Well done to Sarah on the book - can't wait to read and explore it!
I preordered this book for my husband a while ago. So glad that the wait is almost over! I'm really looking forward to giving him a gift "just because" - and experiencing all the cool things he does with it. Thank you Sarah and John!!
You videos leave my eyes wet and my heart full. Your words teach, reach, and stick to your audience. I also find myself needing your words and thoughts in a way I didn’t expect. Thank you for all that you do.
I'm looking forward to this book so much. I used to be an abstract expressionist painter but it was to expensive to keep painting, now I write "poetry".
I just recently started watching Art Assignment videos. I’ve found the videos to be so inspirational. The video on video games as art inspired me to write an argument paper in my rhetoric class about video games as interactive art. I recently made a collage for my little sister. I feel less embarrassed about the art that I want to do and compare myself less to my friends who practice traditional forms of art. Seriously everyone needs to go watch the Art Assignment!
I ordered a copy last week, and it will be a gift for my wife. She is an amazing poet, songwriter, and artist, but life and work have always forced her artistic endeavors to take a back seat. I hope the book can rekindle her creative side. Please thank Sarah for me! :)
It's actually kinda nice that there's going to be a virtual book tour. This means that anyone who couldn't have made it to a physical tour (whether because of finances or geographic location) can now be a part of it.
I re-read *THE FAULT IN OUR STARS* again for the hundred times & I must say that I'm so so thankful for you John ❤❤❤❤ & congratulations to Sarah she's the most amazing person who can make art understandable ❤❤❤❤
Congratulations to Sarah!! I hope the virtual book tour goes well - and a positive is people from all over the world will be able to tune in, which is nice :)
Despite growing up in a non-sporty family I realised in my teens that to move is to be human. Despite my chronic illness I must incorporate it as I am a body as much as a mind. Now in my mid 20s, I am realising the same about creating. I’ve felt creatively stunted my whole life. But to art is to be human as I am an imagination as well as a body. I can incorporate that into my self conception and life now too.
You and your wife need hugs. I was tearing up watching you tear up. This is such a rough time. Congratulations to her and I think I will order the book. Now is a good time to make art
I've never imagined myself as an artist, but I am. I am an artist, because I create meaning in my own life, and in other's lives. I am an artist, and so are you Best of luck Sarah Take care of yourself, and take care of each other
Yes! Realising that anything I intentionally created made me an artist whether I believed it or not. It really does start with validating yourself and not looking at others to define what an artist ‘should’ look like. Loved this video so much 💛
I love embracing what you shared, that art-making not optional for humans. Attention and engaging is being an artist. And that the creation of a rich sef, to me, feels like a collaboration. I love myself, which as been shaped by me and countless people in my life near and far that have been generous and loved me. I am an artist because I create so much change and value. I am siked to enjoy the book and make more art and change with my attention.
You are an artist! How you found the focus, attention, intelligence, self-connection, time and space to write and record such a cogent, moving vlog in these times is a miracle.
Wonderfully worded. Thank you. A friend of mine had her debut novel drop April 1st. Because there wpuld be no live premier, she instead walked into the woods to her favorite sitting rock, whete she proceeded to video the in boxing of her novel with happiness and tears of gratitude. I dare say not one person who watched he video left without tears as well. Thank you for Shari g so beautifully about your wife's book, about the way she sees things differently. I hopoe the book does very well.people need her message. We all see things so differently, which helps us create in such different ways.
John, you cheering on Sarah's book so fervently these past few weeks has been so much fun. Thank you for bringing light to a book that, I think, the world (or at least nerdfighteria) needs right now. Nerdfighteria: How's everyone doing? Anybody need some self care reminders?
Whenever I think about the purpose of art, I always think about these drawings I used to make as a kid. They're absolutely terrible, but my mother refuses to throw any of it away. Each of them comes with a description of what the picture is about, written in my mother's handwriting. I don't remember the interaction, but I imagine I probably went up to her with my latest drawing , presented it with excitement and love, explained it to her and she wrote it down. I have a number of creative hobbies these days - I keep a bullet journal, I play the flute, but like the perfectionist I am, I waste so much of the time I spend being creative trying to also be good and skillful and clever. But I think my younger self had the right ideas: she loved to create for its own sake, unconcerned with being "good" and making art with love. All of this cross-promotion must be paying off, because I am seriously considering buying Sarah's book. I /am/ an artist!
Some day I want John Green to promote something I do. It's wonderful to hear how he sees the beauty in the work of other people and gives voice to it, even when that person can't find the words to say it for themselves.
Librarian here - I’m sorry to say it will be a while before most libraries will have new books. If it was ordered before this, it still has to arrive and then cataloged into the collection. Most libraries are closed so nothing can be bought or added to the collection. Check out the Libby app and see if your local library has access, ebooks will be added to the collection sooner than later!
The art school that I’ve been attending has announced that it will be shutting down, after almost 150 years of operations. And it’s been devastated. It’s felt like I’ve lost my home. But I’m thankful for the reminder that art can be made anywhere and with whatever you have available. Thanks for bringing in more people into the art world!
It's my birthday today and this video hits really close to home. For the past few weeks, I've been feeling strange. I miss the feeling of being unambiguously happy. Its like I'm looking at my life as an audience looks at a movie. My days feel artificial in the way a photograph is only an imitation of the real thing. This gave me a little bit of hope today. Thank you for this John. DFTBA.
This is such a beautiful and hopeful video!! Thank you! i sewed masks for some of my friends who work in grocery and am going to continue to do so when more mask making supplies arrive. I never thought of them as art until now- I thought of them as an obligation to people I care about since I have resources to keep them safe. And it kind of wore me out. But now that I can think of them as art- I feel so much better. I'm creating art that helps to keep people safe. Thank you for this much needed perspective. ADDENDUM: Thank you for the reminder that art keeps the human spirit alive.
In no small part due to the many forms of encouragement I've received from your videos, and the communities around not only this channel but many others that you're part of... I just wrote the first real, honest to gods draft of a cover letter of the sort I will need for submitting my first novel. It's taken me eighteen months to write this little, one page letter. I've written hundreds of thousands of words of fiction in that time, but this one page. 500 words at most? It has taken so much out of me, has been such a huge challenge, this time last year I would have said "I can never write this." You helped me get this far. All of you. Thanks.
![Дон ДОН, Алаудинов и СБЕЖАВШИЕ из под Курска ахматовцы 😁 [Пародия]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dEfCf5IK26Q/mqdefault.jpg)
Order You Are an Artist by Sarah Urist Green today via your local bookstore (most will ship to you cheap or free!) or request it from your local library: bit.ly/2kplj2h
Join Sarah, me, and special guests on the book's virtual tour: www.theartassignment.com/tour
You can find excellent free Art Assignments here: ua-cam.com/video/hOHmfuD58lM/v-deo.html
I just reserved a copy from my library, and they are only ordering the audio version. Not even the ebook (I could understand not wanting to order a hard copy right now. I guess. Sort of?) only the audiobook.
My phone really needs a shrug emoji.
I can't seem to order them in India. Any places I can order them from?
They say there isn't much to smile about these days. That may be true. Thank you John, for always making me smile; whether it be visible, or metaphorical. You are the one person (Not to leave out your family and Hank's) I desperately want to meet someday.
I am a future art teacher and i have come up with so many lesson plans from her channel and i preordered the book and I'm SO EXCITED!!!
I ordered some for my college bookstore (and will peddle it to my college library once we all reopen)- can’t wait! Gives us something fun and intriguing to look forward to!
John: “We wrote hundreds of pages of emails to each other”
Me: So cute! So sweet! My heart!
John: “The most important book in our library is this book that Sarah made for me that contains all of those emails”
Me: faints of cuteness and sweetness overload
It sounded like John also just about fainted at that point too
I want to find that person for me. So badly. I thought I had, for awhile, and then my own shortcomings got the best of us. But watching things like this gives me hope that shes out there, so thanks for that
Who in the world is chopping onions here, surely that is why my ears are misty
Haha, for real. Also, I love that they did that for an entire year before actually dating.
@@eliontheinternet3298 I did not think this was going to be a John video I cried during. WRONG again!!!!
I love when John is a cheerleader for someone he loves. And in this one, he’s also a cheerleader for all of us.
Krissy M this is such a lovely way to put this!
louloureads ❤️
@@krissymillard1823 yeah, human goals and couple goals right here.
Ersu Yecan ✨
Thank you for saying this. Knowing someone is cheering you on when they don't even know you exist is something I needed reminding of, because I knew I supported all nerdfighters, even the ones I don't know exist, but I think I'd forgotten that they in turn support me too even though they don't know I exist. And the idea of John cheering everything I do is brilliantly funny and motivating 😂
The way John describes Sarah's writing ("simultaneously accessible and intellectually rigorous") is the way I hope to write someday.
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Omg so true
I'm desperately endeavoring to disabuse my husband of the notion that dense, obfuscated language is just "how academic work is written."
Ahem. I'm trying to convince him that clear, readable writing is good, and he should use it.
Sarah in a livestream: "please stop shamelessly promoting my book; it's embarrassing"
John in a video without Sarah: "spends four minutes shamelessly promoting her book"
Random Washer It’s maybe my favorite thing about John. His love language must be acts of service because he is such an outspoken marketer for the people he loves.
“The ideas don’t come from having an extraordinary kind of life, they come from paying an extraordinary kind of attention to life” !!! Can’t wait to read the book :)
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This line is so amazing that I am going to use it as often as I can.
“well, you’re writing, so you’re a writer.” a million times yes. if you’re doing the thing, you are the thing you’re doing. turns out, i’m an artist.
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I had my last psychologist say exactly the same to me and I’m now slowly completing my first novel. Which is damn scary and exciting.
"You are the thing you're doing" --- eh. More like "You are a doer of the thing you're doing (among other thigns)"
You opened by referring to her lack of sentimentality but HOLY MOLY she bound a book of the hundreds of pages you wrote each other as you became friends and developed feelings for each other. That's some deep and lovely sentiment.
Rachel Grubbs I thought about that too. What a lovely gesture from someone who is not a sentimental person but who loves a sentimental person ❤️
I haven’t drawn much since I was a kid, but because I was sent home from college and can’t see my friends I’ve been drawing portraits of their pets on postcards and sending them in the mail. When they text me their joy I feel more like an artist than I’ve ever felt like an anything.
That's so lovely! -John
I love that!
I don't know why but 'I feel more like an artist than I've ever felt like an anything' has me tearing up. Also, what a wonderful thing to do!
yes also weeping now, thank you
❤
John trying to hold it together while showing the email book Sarah gave him is so... human
John is a refreshing reminder of what humanity can be if we allow ourselves to just be
When my 5yo asked me what an artist was I said, "someone who enjoys making art" and he asked me if HE was an artist because he enjoyed making art so I said "absolutely!"
But what is art?
@@Xob_Driesestig Baby don't paint me, don't paint me ...
@@Xob_Driesestig Oh hey that's the title of this art textbook I have from my contemporary art class in college!
Oh wait, it's actually "But is it art?". Similar concept.
John and Sarah are such a nerdy power couple and I love it.
Hellz yeah. Relationship goals.
If you can afford to buy books during this time and please try to pre-order through your local bookstore. This way you’re supporting both your favorite authors and your local bookstore. Also, once you’ve finished reading your books consider donating them to your local library if they’re currently open or once they do so that when this is over and people are recovering from the financial blow they can still appreciate good literature.
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I’d like to apologize to my friends and family for the deeply terrible grammar in this comment.
@@mariewikiwaka3851 it doesn't matter, you have put a wonderful thought!!!
mastah lright If I change it John’s like goes away and I’m ashamed of how much it matters to me.
@@mariewikiwaka3851 hey I reread your comment, really no major errors!! And John's like matters to all nerdfighters, c'mon don't be ashamed!!
I'm buying it later this month to celebrate getting my BA in art history!
Hooray, and unambiguous congratulations! -John
Working on my dissertation. Can confirm that balancing accessibility and intellectual rigor is damn well near impossible.
Indeed. It's especially hard in a dissertation because the demands of intellectual rigor are very, very high. -John
Same here. Mathematician in my third year, working on resonances in geometric scattering (don't ask).
What's your discipline and topic?
And yeah, I can totally relate to that. There's no retrenchment in rigor possible, thus I'm struggling horribly on the accessibility part.
@@lonestarr1490 Education, and my topic *was* a look at perceived immersion and related learning found in a VR sim for higher ed med students. Can't do much with that these days--it's hard to observe and interview students watching a VR sim when students can't gather together. Unfortunately, I'm also on an employment-related time table, so waiting for "all that stuff out there" to end is not an option.
Thankfully, however, my committee might let me do a meta-analysis. I just need to draft a new proposal in extremely short order 😕
@@lonestarr1490 And you really think you can mention your topic to another PhD candidate whose lifeblood is fueled by curiosity and expect not to be asked what resonances in geometric scattering are? 😆 Now I want to know more than ever!
@@Dyundu Yeah, that virus shatters many plans these days. I'm sorry that it hit you in that way.
I mean I could tell you what resonances are (poles of the resolvent of the Laplace-Beltrami operator on a hyperbolic Riemannian orbifold). But you would probably know as much as before. Instead, I can tell you this:
"Can One Hear the Shape of a Drum?" is a famous question in mathematics. It's about how geometric and spectral properties of a surface are intertwined. Those properties are basically two different ways of describing a surface and that also plays a huge role in physics: geometry is essentially the classical mechanics' way of describing the world, spectral theory is the way of quantum physics. Getting spectral information out of a known geometry is rather easy (most of the time), but the other way around was unclear for a long time. It turned out that, in general, no, you can't hear the shape of a drum. There is more than one setup resulting in the same frequency, for instance.
So mathematicians asked the further: If you can't hear the (whole) shape of a drum, what can you hear? Or under what circumstances or additional assumptions can you hear the shape? And that's basically the mainframe in which I'm working.
For a special kind of surfaces, you have the so called Selberg zeta function, which is defined solely by geometric means but nethertheless bears spectral informations, in the sense that its set of zeros contains the resonances. What we're doing is constructing a set of operators with which we can represent this zeta function in a way that it's zeros can be written in terms of eigenspaces of these operators. Since also these operators are defined completely on the geometric side, we - in some sense - drag the spectral information deeper into the geometry to find relations which are way more explicit than before and thus easier to work with. What my supervisor and I proved is that such an approach is always possible for a certain kind of surface and we can give a step-by-step guide on how to explicitly construct these operators.
There’s nothing quite like having an artist you respect and admire telling you that you are an artist too, because so often I get wrapped up in the creations instead of the creating. Thanks for being you, and I can’t wait to read Sarah’s book and continue to shape my idea of art.
I am currently a student teacher and one of my teachables is Art. I preorder this book specifically for the purpose of using it in my lessons to inspire students.
That's great! I think it will be a wonderful resource for your classroom. -John
“The ideas don’t come from having an extraordinary kind of life, they come from paying an extraordinary kind of attention.” I really like this. I don’t know much about art, and maybe I don’t understand it as well as some people do, but I still enjoy it. I watch The Art Assignment from time to time and it helps me see the beauty in art - to appreciate it rather than to just know it’s appreciated. I really look forward to Sarah’s book, I’m sure it’s as incredible as you make it sound. :)
My local library has it on order and I put it on my list. Thank you.
Yay! -John
If you’re able to connect souls, yes, you are an artist. ❤️
She made a book of the emails 💑
So John's office is now the Art Assignment studio and Hank's office is now the SciShow studio. It seems these are the times we live in.
Awwwww, that email book!
Dear John and Sarah,
I'm so excited for the book to come out and I'm sure it will be incredible and lovely and a little magical and the best that could happen to distract us all a little and inspire new ideas :)
Lots of love and as always have a wonderful evening🤗
Thanks! :) -john
This is my favorite part of my Tuesdays and Fridays you and hank keep me strong during this time of uncertainty. Thank you
@Autistic Perspective Yes exactly!!
This week I will paint eggs and hide them in my family's garden for my mother and adult sister to find in easter.I hadn't thought about it that way but I guess that is art. Not just the painting part but also the hiding part. It's very cool to think about it this way.
I'd say ESPECIALLY the hiding part. -John
The hiding part is the art of game design.
Once, a writer told me, "Your pain is the greatest way to make art." All the *catastrophe* right now is what's inspiring me to write about the painful, but unifying experience of being human. Thank you John and Sarah for inspiring me to continue writing and finding art in all the pain.
"It will still be, and it will still be wonderful". Life in general just now 💔💗
"A wondrously unsentimental person". I need that on a T-shirt or hoodie
I CAN'T WAIT
I CAN'T WAIT
I CAN'T WAIT
I CAN'T WAIT
I CAN'T WAIT
I CAN'T WAIT
I've had my copy preordered for a good while and I'm so excited.
This is the book people need right now. My wife and I have struggled during quarantine because we have all the time in the world to produce art, but we are so self critical and so profoundly uninspired that making art just seems like another lofty TODO dream (like cleaning the garage or actually taking care of the yard). Despite not being able to go on a proper book tour, I am confident that this book is going to reach exactly the right people and speak to them in exactly the right way. More people need to hear what she has to say on the subject than ever.
I CAN'T WAIT
I am literally making handmade greeting cards as I watch this. The card is just paper cut out like toilet paper. I'm giving them to my neighbors as a way to bring a smile to their faces. I don't usually think of myself as an artist so this made me smile. Thank you, Sarah and John. 😊
Ahh, I can't wait to do the assignments with my mom and grandma (who are both getting a copy)!
They're so fun to do with friends and family! Hope you all enjoy the book. -John
I always pondered over what categorizes as "art". I've finally settled on this one : anything that moves you is art.
The Art Assignment moves me, and so does your voice John.
TIL An escalator is art
Also war is art? The preventable death of millions of children is art? Neurochemical reactions are art? Death is art?
I love how excited and encouraging John always is for those he loves who are writing books. Like, when An Absolutely Remarkable Thing came out, it felt like John was even more excited about Hank's book coming out than John was excited for his own books to come out. It feels like the same thing is happening here with Sarah's book, and I love it.
I just ordered the book as a surprise for my mom. I really hope she enjoys it and can do some of the assignments in this time of isolation
What a nice gift! I think she'll love it. -John
The Yeti’s “well you’re writing, so you are a writer” line really resonates with me. My first book was published 2 years ago and I kept saying things like, I’m trying to be a writer or I’m trying to be an author. And a friend finally said, “hey there’s some dudes out there who have written like a page who call themselves writers. You wrote a whole book and it was published. You’re a writer!” It really changed how I talked about myself.
Hi everyone!
Raven esque hey
Hey how are you all?
Hewwo
Hello!
hi!
"Finding ways to build meaning together." That's really nice, I think going to hold on to that. It's also probably the best way to find meaning.
“It will still be, and it will be wonderful.” I love that. I had a conversation with my therapist today about being sad that my law school graduation was postponed. Somehow that makes me feel as though it won’t be as important or wonderful when the day finally comes. But it will still be. And it will be wonderful.
I saw that Sarah curated a list of Art Assignments that could be done from home, like, in a time of quarantine. I shared the playlist with my students and their parents along with other great resources for creating art in this time. Thank you for the playlist, Sarah, and for all of the Art Assignments. I can't wait to read your book!
So excited to receive my copy! Art has been an amazing outlet for me my whole life, but especially over the last several weeks.
I just bought You Are an Artist online from my local independent bookstore. Very excited to receive it next week! Congrats to Sarah! 💛❤️
1:33 "We were painting on walls before we could make walls." OOF.
John, I'm 50 and I haven't watched or read you much in the last ten years ... I was a huge fan of you and Hank and Ze Frank in the mid-2000s and then Crash Course a bit later .... but in these times I wandered back to vlog brothers and here you are, drawing my eyes and ears and attention straight back with words and ideas that stick into my brain like a harpoon. I'm making a garden, and it's been as you said, tinged with sadness despite the new life and growth and all that, but I didn't realize until just now that the garden is art, and I'm an artist. My DH and I are deciding where to place boxes and rocks and plants to make the yard and our lives more beautiful and productive and to have things to share with others. And that's art. We are artists. Thanks mystery lady Sarah. Thanks John. I love you!
“The ideas don’t come from an extroardinary life, they come from paying an extraordinary kind of attention to life.”
Well said.
I am a writer. I am a poet. I’ve been writing stories since I was eight and writing poetry since I was eleven. These two things have been a part of my identity for so long, that I have gotten past all the feelings of being an imposter. I used to think I wasn’t really a writer because I almost exclusively write short stories, most less than two pages long. But since then I have realized that the capacity to write a full-length novel does not dictate if a person is a writer or not. I am a writer because I write.
Recently, I have gotten more into visual art. This is something I have been reluctant to do for a long time, mostly because my best friend is a very talented visual artist and every time I tried to draw something, I felt like a phony trying to mimic my friend. This feeling was exacerbated by the fact that at this point, I’m just bad at visualizing things in my head and I don’t have the experience to create anything that I can’t see right in front of my face. It seemed like drawing what I see in a picture from my phone was just another form of mimicry, not real art.
After thinking about it for a while, I realized how turned around my reasoning was. As a poet, I turn my observations, experiences, and emotions directly into words. All forms of art are mimicry, because all forms of art are representations of one thing or another. Art is a way of communicating the things we don’t want to say, and also a way of conserving the beauty of things, that like all things, are not permanent. Art is exactly what you need it to be, and other people can’t dictate what you need. If you create art, you are an artist.
The Art Assignment has been so so so important to me, i dont know who or where i would be without it, it shaped me so much in my adolescence, i dont know how else i would've found out how much I NEED to create SOMETHING in order to be happy... And i love the tone of the show (that is, Sara's tone), i've learnt a lot from it i think. I'm really excited for the book!
I love how you talk about the people and things that you love, John. I am so excited to get Sarah's book. I have never felt 'artistic,' so I'm excited to explore the different ways that I might be wrong about that.
Even when John speaks.... it still sounds like he’s reciting a book he’s writing. So many metaphors.
I work in wood mostly. (wooden swords and shields, picture frames and little boxes)
I always thought of my creations as me just playing around, but apparently I too am an artist. ☺️
You are! -John
“The ideas don’t come from an extraordinary life they come from paying an extraordinary attention to life. Those are powerful words, thank you for bringing them to my attention.
I’m in the process of writing my first novel, and I’ve kind of been stuck at a writers block, but I think I’ve now hit a breakthrough. Thank you Sarah and you too John
Has it's another episode of how much John loves his wife! Real talk, I live for these. The world is blessed to have both of you. I'm so excited to get a copy of Sarah's book when it's released in Spain. Also the book of your emails is the kind of love I aspire to. Thank you for sharing with us. Big congrats to Sarah 🧡✌🏻
"It is hard to feel unambiguously happy or hopeful about anything right now. Every celebration is tinged with sadness from birthday parties to book releases, and there is no getting around that."
This very much sounds like my experience with grief after my mom died. Thank you for putting words to it.
My younger brother is a computer scientist who struggles with his mental health and is endlessly creative - in non-conventional ways. I do the whole boring painting thing but he collects, sculpts out of paper, re-imagines and designs. While the rest of my family would probably describe ourselves as musical/artistic, I'm not sure he sees himself as an artist. I'm excited to buy this book for him for his birthday, and hopefully do the assignments together as we're on lockdown, to relieve stress and build our relationship. John, please thank Sarah for me! This book looks wonderful.
Hurray Sarah! Very excited for my copy to arrive in the post next week :)
"you're writing, so you're a writer"
Bold of you to assume just cause I want to be a writer I'm actually writing.
Weird, you wrote that comment. You’re just doing a very modern deconstruction of human interaction in an interactive way.
Lol. Yes. Exactly.
Lmao right? I've got like 2 different ideas for novels and I'm not writing either of them. They're just sitting in my brain collecting dust.
When I was still in school, I found I had my best art days when I forgot the key to my locker. I had whatever was in my bag. I tore out pages of my sketch book and let them fall on the table. I bought rubber cement from the bookstore and adheared the papers together before pinning them to the wall. I projected a image of a elderly woman across my papers and outlined her facial features with charcoal. After mounting the pages on black matte board I continued the drawing in the negative spaces with white pastel. I submitted it to the art show with the title Dementia and won Dean's Choice.
I have probably made this comment before, but your videos are a touchstone for me. Your voice is calm and soothing, especially welcome during these uncertain times. You discuss things that stimulate thought and action. Your concern about, and the efforts you make to make the world around you a better place have inspired me to endeavor to be a better human. Thank you so much.
My mum is going through the process of starting to think of herself as creative (at the age of >60) after always thinking of herself as A Scientist who Cannot Art, so I think I am going to get her this to encourage her in her creative journey!
Look it's the first of the four brothers green!
You know what is art? The love story that has blossomed between the two John Greens over the years. Magical
sarah's ability to talk simply about complex topics is one of the reasons the art assignment is one of my favorite (if not my downright favorite) channels on youtube
I have always been loath to call myself “an artist”, often thinking that doing so would somehow be pretentious, or that the sole prerequisite to being an artist was for someone else to actively say to me, “Your art made me feel today and I enjoyed that feeling. Thank you.” Only then could I admit that perhaps I had successfully taken one step closer to my goal of earning that exalted title among my heroes and mentors.
My perspective has evolved and been enlightened since watching this video, but I would still like to say to you, John, that your art made me feel today... and I enjoyed that feeling very much. Thank you!
I was sent home from my dance conservatory a few weeks ago and haven’t been able to create much since I’ve been home. I have no idea when I’ll be able to dance in a studio again, and every small ballet class on Zoom in my tiny bedroom is tinged with sadness and fear of the future. I’m so excited for this book to come out, and hopefully I’ll find ways to engage in art and dance in brand new ways. I appreciate you framing art as something accessible and not some far-off high brow experience. That perspective is much needed, now more than ever.
I’ve been down on myself a lot lately because I’ve felt my creativity has been stunted by quarantine and resulting dip of depression. Writing has been difficult and uninteresting. However, I’ve been cooking a lot more often, an endeavor that I greatly enjoy and I’ve been teaching my boyfriend how to be better at. It’s been helpful to think of this as my own kind of art, not pressuring myself to “be more creative.” Thanks for this, John ❤️
Me*spills tea ia a way that vaguely resembles a cat* "I have created art,I am an artistè"
beware of accents on that e
As a kid, I snapped a picture of a broken window because the break was roughly shaped like a duck. Fast forward 30 years, I'm a photographer. It comes from unexpected places. 💖
I got my husband a book of all our earliest emails too!!!! We spent a lot of time getting to know each other over them and they are very special to us - they were sent via Bebo and amongst many other things include both of us subtly trying to express our feelings for each other and the other person totally missing the hints each time!
Well done to Sarah on the book - can't wait to read and explore it!
The idea that we are all working with what we have reminds me of a flower pushing it's way up through a crack in the cement. "We are here"
Just pre ordered the book through a site here in Australia!
So proud of Sarah!
Give her a hug on my behalf if you see this.
I preordered this book for my husband a while ago. So glad that the wait is almost over! I'm really looking forward to giving him a gift "just because" - and experiencing all the cool things he does with it. Thank you Sarah and John!!
The little twinkle in your eye when you hold up the book of emails and remember her giving you that gift warmed my heart. :)
You videos leave my eyes wet and my heart full. Your words teach, reach, and stick to your audience. I also find myself needing your words and thoughts in a way I didn’t expect. Thank you for all that you do.
I'm looking forward to this book so much. I used to be an abstract expressionist painter but it was to expensive to keep painting, now I write "poetry".
I just recently started watching Art Assignment videos. I’ve found the videos to be so inspirational. The video on video games as art inspired me to write an argument paper in my rhetoric class about video games as interactive art. I recently made a collage for my little sister. I feel less embarrassed about the art that I want to do and compare myself less to my friends who practice traditional forms of art. Seriously everyone needs to go watch the Art Assignment!
I ordered a copy last week, and it will be a gift for my wife. She is an amazing poet, songwriter, and artist, but life and work have always forced her artistic endeavors to take a back seat. I hope the book can rekindle her creative side. Please thank Sarah for me! :)
It's actually kinda nice that there's going to be a virtual book tour. This means that anyone who couldn't have made it to a physical tour (whether because of finances or geographic location) can now be a part of it.
I re-read *THE FAULT IN OUR STARS* again for the hundred times & I must say that I'm so so thankful for you John ❤❤❤❤
& congratulations to Sarah she's the most amazing person who can make art understandable ❤❤❤❤
Congratulations to Sarah!! I hope the virtual book tour goes well - and a positive is people from all over the world will be able to tune in, which is nice :)
I love him supporting his wife constantly on her book, it's so sweet
Despite growing up in a non-sporty family I realised in my teens that to move is to be human. Despite my chronic illness I must incorporate it as I am a body as much as a mind. Now in my mid 20s, I am realising the same about creating. I’ve felt creatively stunted my whole life. But to art is to be human as I am an imagination as well as a body. I can incorporate that into my self conception and life now too.
You and your wife need hugs. I was tearing up watching you tear up. This is such a rough time. Congratulations to her and I think I will order the book. Now is a good time to make art
I’ve loved her videos! Assuming she writes them, I agree with your assessment. I already preordered the book and can’t wait!
She does write them! And thanks for preordering the book; I hope you love it as much as I do! -John
Both my best friend and my sister are artists. Their birthdays are later this year and I will absolutely be buying a copy for both of them.
I've never imagined myself as an artist, but I am. I am an artist, because I create meaning in my own life, and in other's lives. I am an artist, and so are you
Best of luck Sarah
Take care of yourself, and take care of each other
Yes! Realising that anything I intentionally created made me an artist whether I believed it or not. It really does start with validating yourself and not looking at others to define what an artist ‘should’ look like. Loved this video so much 💛
I love embracing what you shared, that art-making not optional for humans. Attention and engaging is being an artist. And that the creation of a rich sef, to me, feels like a collaboration. I love myself, which as been shaped by me and countless people in my life near and far that have been generous and loved me. I am an artist because I create so much change and value. I am siked to enjoy the book and make more art and change with my attention.
You are an artist! How you found the focus, attention, intelligence, self-connection, time and space to write and record such a cogent, moving vlog in these times is a miracle.
Wonderfully worded. Thank you. A friend of mine had her debut novel drop April 1st. Because there wpuld be no live premier, she instead walked into the woods to her favorite sitting rock, whete she proceeded to video the in boxing of her novel with happiness and tears of gratitude. I dare say not one person who watched he video left without tears as well. Thank you for Shari g so beautifully about your wife's book, about the way she sees things differently. I hopoe the book does very well.people need her message. We all see things so differently, which helps us create in such different ways.
John, you cheering on Sarah's book so fervently these past few weeks has been so much fun. Thank you for bringing light to a book that, I think, the world (or at least nerdfighteria) needs right now.
Nerdfighteria: How's everyone doing? Anybody need some self care reminders?
Whenever I think about the purpose of art, I always think about these drawings I used to make as a kid. They're absolutely terrible, but my mother refuses to throw any of it away. Each of them comes with a description of what the picture is about, written in my mother's handwriting. I don't remember the interaction, but I imagine I probably went up to her with my latest drawing , presented it with excitement and love, explained it to her and she wrote it down. I have a number of creative hobbies these days - I keep a bullet journal, I play the flute, but like the perfectionist I am, I waste so much of the time I spend being creative trying to also be good and skillful and clever. But I think my younger self had the right ideas: she loved to create for its own sake, unconcerned with being "good" and making art with love. All of this cross-promotion must be paying off, because I am seriously considering buying Sarah's book. I /am/ an artist!
Some day I want John Green to promote something I do. It's wonderful to hear how he sees the beauty in the work of other people and gives voice to it, even when that person can't find the words to say it for themselves.
Librarian here - I’m sorry to say it will be a while before most libraries will have new books. If it was ordered before this, it still has to arrive and then cataloged into the collection. Most libraries are closed so nothing can be bought or added to the collection. Check out the Libby app and see if your local library has access, ebooks will be added to the collection sooner than later!
If one searches for beauty where there is none, that hope becomes the missing beauty and fills the void. There is always beauty, so long as we look.
The art school that I’ve been attending has announced that it will be shutting down, after almost 150 years of operations. And it’s been devastated. It’s felt like I’ve lost my home. But I’m thankful for the reminder that art can be made anywhere and with whatever you have available. Thanks for bringing in more people into the art world!
It's easy to lose faith in a time like this, and then I watch your videos and I see that truly great people still exist
It's my birthday today and this video hits really close to home. For the past few weeks, I've been feeling strange. I miss the feeling of being unambiguously happy. Its like I'm looking at my life as an audience looks at a movie. My days feel artificial in the way a photograph is only an imitation of the real thing. This gave me a little bit of hope today. Thank you for this John. DFTBA.
wishing you a happy birthday, or, if happiness is hard to feel right now, at least a calm and balanced birthday and taking care of yourself
This is such a beautiful and hopeful video!! Thank you!
i sewed masks for some of my friends who work in grocery and am going to continue to do so when more mask making supplies arrive. I never thought of them as art until now- I thought of them as an obligation to people I care about since I have resources to keep them safe. And it kind of wore me out.
But now that I can think of them as art- I feel so much better. I'm creating art that helps to keep people safe.
Thank you for this much needed perspective.
ADDENDUM: Thank you for the reminder that art keeps the human spirit alive.
Preordered it when you first announced it! Brothers Green have taught me to believe in myself-no matter what.
In no small part due to the many forms of encouragement I've received from your videos, and the communities around not only this channel but many others that you're part of...
I just wrote the first real, honest to gods draft of a cover letter of the sort I will need for submitting my first novel.
It's taken me eighteen months to write this little, one page letter. I've written hundreds of thousands of words of fiction in that time, but this one page. 500 words at most? It has taken so much out of me, has been such a huge challenge, this time last year I would have said "I can never write this."
You helped me get this far. All of you.
Thanks.
"There's catastrophe everywhere" needs to be on a shirt
+
Yeah, with lot's of cat prints around it!
@@lonestarr1490 OMG yes!!