Syllabus

Lynda Barry argues that the ability to draw and write isn't a specialized talent reserved for professional artists but a universal human capacity rooted in the physical relationship between hand, eye, and brain, one that most people abandon somewhere in childhood out of embarrassment or judgment rather than any real loss of ability. Presented as a hand-lettered, collaged compilation of the syllabi, exercises, and notes from her university courses on creativity and cognition, the book treats drawing less as an artistic outcome and more as a state of attention, a way of encountering the world that produces images almost as a side effect.

This matters because so much of adult life trains people to evaluate their creative output instantly, deciding whether a drawing or piece of writing is good enough before they've even finished making it, which shuts down the very process that produces anything interesting. Barry's approach insists that judgment and creation are separate acts, and that reclaiming the willingness to make bad, unpretentious images and words, repeatedly and without evaluation, is what actually opens up genuine creative thought.

Who should read it

Educators, working artists feeling blocked, and any adult convinced they "can't draw" who wants a structured, low-stakes way back into visual and written expression. It rewards readers willing to actually do the exercises rather than just read about them.

About the author

Lynda Barry is an American cartoonist and MacArthur Fellow best known for the comic strip Ernie Pook's Comeek and the graphic memoir What It Is; she has taught interdisciplinary courses on creativity at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.