There’s a particular pleasure in reading books about making. Business books are “maker” books, in a sense. So are self-help books. The best of these “maker” books are the ones with lots of anecdotes, where we get to see the principles at work. Even though these books can be cheesy, we’re drawn to them anyway, because they help us bridge the gap between thinking and action.
Bruce Herman’s new book, Makers by Nature: Letters from a Master Painter on Faith, Hope, and Art, is a warm, perceptive, and visually beautiful contribution to this genre. The subtitle implies that this is a book only for painters or creative artists, but Herman’s gentle reflections on the process of painting go far beyond technical tips; rather, he delves into why he makes, and the answer to that has significance for every human being.
Admittedly, I have a horse in this race. A few years ago, I edited and contributed to a book called Why We Create: Reflections on the Creator, the Creation, and Creating. It’s been a jam-packed couple of years, however. In the time since, AI waved and said, “Hello, World!” and the question of why we create has been subsumed into a more foundational question: Should we create anymore? Or should we hand that activity off to computers and content ourselves with consuming?
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