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Living Color: A Writer Paints Her World
Join the bestselling author of Wild Mind and Writing Down the Bones as she explores a new realm of creativity--the world of color--and offers us an intimate view of how everyday life is transformed into art.
In twelve high-spirited chapters, Natalie introduces us to her family, her artist friends, her New Mexico home, her painting trips to Europe--always focusing on the questions faced by any creative person, whatever their medium. Why, for example, does an artist choose some subjects and not others? ("I was crazy about the wrong-color sky and the heart-sinking beckoning of headlights on old cars," she acknowledges.) How does a painter draw nourishment from another painter's work? ("I didn't want fancy art theories. I wanted a direct connection with the painting before me.") When is it time to move into a new form? ("I had to go to an empty white canvas and find out what was within me.")
More than 60 four-color reproductions of Natalie's distinctive and joyous paintings appear throughout. The result is a feast for the eyes and a celebration of the creative spirit in action.
In twelve high-spirited chapters, Natalie introduces us to her family, her artist friends, her New Mexico home, her painting trips to Europe--always focusing on the questions faced by any creative person, whatever their medium. Why, for example, does an artist choose some subjects and not others? ("I was crazy about the wrong-color sky and the heart-sinking beckoning of headlights on old cars," she acknowledges.) How does a painter draw nourishment from another painter's work? ("I didn't want fancy art theories. I wanted a direct connection with the painting before me.") When is it time to move into a new form? ("I had to go to an empty white canvas and find out what was within me.")
More than 60 four-color reproductions of Natalie's distinctive and joyous paintings appear throughout. The result is a feast for the eyes and a celebration of the creative spirit in action.
154 pages, Paperback
First published September 2, 1997
93 people are currently reading
944 people want to read
About the author
Natalie Goldberg
57 books1,254 followersNatalie Goldberg lived in Brooklyn until she was six, when her family moved out to Farmingdale, Long Island, where her father owned the bar the Aero Tavern. From a young age, Goldberg was mad for books and reading, and especially loved Carson McCullers's The Ballad of the Sad Cafe , which she read in ninth grade. She thinks that single book led her eventually to put pen to paper when she was twenty-four years old. She received a BA in English literature from George Washington University and an MA in humanities from St. John's University.
Goldberg has painted for as long as she has written, and her paintings can be seen in Living Color: A Writer Paints Her World and Top of My Lungs: Poems and Paintings. They can also be viewed at the Ernesto Mayans Gallery on Canyon Road in Sante Fe.
A dedicated teacher, Goldberg has taught writing and literature for the last thirty-five years. She also leads national workshops and retreats, and her schedule can be accessed via her website: nataliegoldberg.com
In 2006, she completed with the filmmaker Mary Feidt a one-hour documentary, Tangled Up in Bob, about Bob Dylan's childhood on the Iron Range in Northern Minnesota. The film can be obtained on Amazon or the website tangledupinbob.com.
Goldberg has been a serious Zen practitioner since 1974 and studied with Katagiri Roshi from 1978 to 1984.
Goldberg has painted for as long as she has written, and her paintings can be seen in Living Color: A Writer Paints Her World and Top of My Lungs: Poems and Paintings. They can also be viewed at the Ernesto Mayans Gallery on Canyon Road in Sante Fe.
A dedicated teacher, Goldberg has taught writing and literature for the last thirty-five years. She also leads national workshops and retreats, and her schedule can be accessed via her website: nataliegoldberg.com
In 2006, she completed with the filmmaker Mary Feidt a one-hour documentary, Tangled Up in Bob, about Bob Dylan's childhood on the Iron Range in Northern Minnesota. The film can be obtained on Amazon or the website tangledupinbob.com.
Goldberg has been a serious Zen practitioner since 1974 and studied with Katagiri Roshi from 1978 to 1984.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
September 13, 2022
fun & light & a breeze
there's a chapter about how she finds museums utterly exhausting that spoke right to me lol. she attempted to change this by zeroing in one one art piece that her eyes caught and engaging with it for at least a few minutes analyzing details and colors and then seeing how her mind unfolded after while wandering through museums.
she reflects on why she can only remember female writers and barely any female painters (i tried recalling i think i only know like 3 lol compared to a laundry list of female writers) and the reasons were interesting (this book was published in the 90s so I'm curious how much it's changing in art world now):
1. More women are writers because it is something you can do in secret or private. It's more threatening to create visual art because there is much more exposure and women haven't had much public support
2. Anyone can afford paper and pencil but to paint you need money and you have to take up physical space
3. Many renowned women painters had a man behind them (o'keeffe had stieglitz, frida kahlo had diego rivera etc..)
4. Women can support women writers. A book is affordable. Paintings often aren't. Men, usually the holders of money, buy male artists' work
there's a chapter about how she finds museums utterly exhausting that spoke right to me lol. she attempted to change this by zeroing in one one art piece that her eyes caught and engaging with it for at least a few minutes analyzing details and colors and then seeing how her mind unfolded after while wandering through museums.
she reflects on why she can only remember female writers and barely any female painters (i tried recalling i think i only know like 3 lol compared to a laundry list of female writers) and the reasons were interesting (this book was published in the 90s so I'm curious how much it's changing in art world now):
1. More women are writers because it is something you can do in secret or private. It's more threatening to create visual art because there is much more exposure and women haven't had much public support
2. Anyone can afford paper and pencil but to paint you need money and you have to take up physical space
3. Many renowned women painters had a man behind them (o'keeffe had stieglitz, frida kahlo had diego rivera etc..)
4. Women can support women writers. A book is affordable. Paintings often aren't. Men, usually the holders of money, buy male artists' work
October 11, 2013
This is a terrific book. I attended Natalie Goldberg's workshop based on this book in Taos, New Mexico in 1997. We did some drawings in class as well as fast writing. Natalie's work is based on following the first thought "from the bottom of the mind." So even with our drawings, we were to look and see and draw continuous line drawings without thinking. Like the walking meditation we did to get to the fence-line or building we drew, just put the pencil or pen on paper and go. It was mind opening for me and one of the reasons I teach practice writing these days. For sure, buy this book and any of Natalie's books. I highly recommend all of them!
June 28, 2022
I think I have to stop read art books by ladies from New Mexico (an oddly specific genre I've seemed to have hit on this year). I kept having the same feeling reading this as I did reading 'the artists way' earlier this year.
Sooo many chapters of both start with versions of 'As I sit in my perfectly sunlit Taos studio, pondering my latest zen retreat (or month in Europe, or pilgrimage to Matisse's studio), I consider what it means to be an artist.'
I'm sure it's meant to be inspiring, but I find it utterly unrelatable to my everyday life as a budding artist in the midst of a life full of other - non-art based - realities.
Sooo many chapters of both start with versions of 'As I sit in my perfectly sunlit Taos studio, pondering my latest zen retreat (or month in Europe, or pilgrimage to Matisse's studio), I consider what it means to be an artist.'
I'm sure it's meant to be inspiring, but I find it utterly unrelatable to my everyday life as a budding artist in the midst of a life full of other - non-art based - realities.
March 16, 2016
Goldberg was my first introduction into the simplicity of writing every day. Now she is my first intro into painting every day.
She takes away our fear and fills us with courage and inspiration.
Let’s go. Let’s go paint.
She takes away our fear and fills us with courage and inspiration.
Let’s go. Let’s go paint.
August 17, 2022
Accessible and playful. Includes thirteen memoir chapters, twenty-two assignments for the reader, and a gallery of the author's paintings.
page 66: painting as sustenance and enrichment to the writing life:
"When I left painting, I didn't realize that I gave up a deep source of my writing, that place in me where I can let my work flow. When I cut out painting, I cut off that underground stream of mayhem, joy, nonsense, absurdity. [...] because I never took painting seriously."
page 75: snowball effect, urgency of color:
"I wanted the red, although I knew it distracted me from the simple perfection of gray and blue, but when I painted the red, then I wanted to add a dash of orange, and then, oh lord, how could I forget lime green. Pretty soon I missed pink, and then I'd feel an urgency to brush a patina of turquoise in the background."
page 77: white as emptiness
page 66: painting as sustenance and enrichment to the writing life:
"When I left painting, I didn't realize that I gave up a deep source of my writing, that place in me where I can let my work flow. When I cut out painting, I cut off that underground stream of mayhem, joy, nonsense, absurdity. [...] because I never took painting seriously."
page 75: snowball effect, urgency of color:
"I wanted the red, although I knew it distracted me from the simple perfection of gray and blue, but when I painted the red, then I wanted to add a dash of orange, and then, oh lord, how could I forget lime green. Pretty soon I missed pink, and then I'd feel an urgency to brush a patina of turquoise in the background."
page 77: white as emptiness
January 20, 2015
Of all of Natalie Goldberg's books, this is my favorite. In it, she explores the creative process and living the creative life. She gives women, in particular, permission to take up space to do their art. They don't have to sit in the laundry room, under the staircase, or even at the dining room table to write, draw, imagine. The idea of studio becomes alive. The vibrant drawings that accompany the twelve chapters jump off the page as does the writing.
March 22, 2024
A scattered collection of memories that felt choppy to read. Even though it can be read in any chapter order, it didn't pull together for me. I do hope the author was able to come to terms with the grandfather's disapproval of dungarees. I really didn't end up as inspired by the book as I had hoped.
March 28, 2014
Books on art and painting are out of my usual literary comfort zone. I do not paint, my stick figures usually come out looking horrifically deformed, and I couldn't tell you the difference between an impressionist and a surrealist. It is for that reason I was excited to receive this book (which, I am legally obligated to report I won on Goodreads First Reads).
I expected the book to inspire creativity in my writing, while coaxing me out of my niche and into the world of painting. Even though the book had less to do with writing than painting, I feel that the author gave me exactly what I was looking for.
This book is a collection of short essays that memorialize Ms. Goldberg's painting, her creative process, and the place art has within her life. The writing was passionate, but without the pretentiousness that would be expected from someone knowledgeable in art. Usually when an author discusses a medium so open to interpretation (painting, wine, music, film, etc), I am dismayed by over-complicated, self-congratulatory language that seems more concerned with impressing the audience than with conveying the simple pleasures of the moment. You'll get no such thing from this book.
That is not to say the writing was simple. There is a fully developed richness here that is difficult to quantify. As a non-artist, I could still appreciate the struggles that accompany the creative process. In fact, this book made me want to pick up a paint brush and learn to create for myself.
Ms. Goldberg addresses core issues for artist and non-artist alike. She touches upon our fear of failure and turns it into a strength. She also encourages the reader to retreat inside and acknowledge the pain, doubt, joy and contentment that exist within all of us. Though I haven't had the opportunity to attempt the lessons she has provided after each essay, I am eager to begin the journey.
Living Color has changed the way I look at the world around me. It was like an unexpected letter from an old friend, taking me back to when life was simple and free. I would encourage anyone who struggles with making time to enjoy the beauty in life to pick up this book and invest a couple of hours. It will be time well spent.
I expected the book to inspire creativity in my writing, while coaxing me out of my niche and into the world of painting. Even though the book had less to do with writing than painting, I feel that the author gave me exactly what I was looking for.
This book is a collection of short essays that memorialize Ms. Goldberg's painting, her creative process, and the place art has within her life. The writing was passionate, but without the pretentiousness that would be expected from someone knowledgeable in art. Usually when an author discusses a medium so open to interpretation (painting, wine, music, film, etc), I am dismayed by over-complicated, self-congratulatory language that seems more concerned with impressing the audience than with conveying the simple pleasures of the moment. You'll get no such thing from this book.
That is not to say the writing was simple. There is a fully developed richness here that is difficult to quantify. As a non-artist, I could still appreciate the struggles that accompany the creative process. In fact, this book made me want to pick up a paint brush and learn to create for myself.
Ms. Goldberg addresses core issues for artist and non-artist alike. She touches upon our fear of failure and turns it into a strength. She also encourages the reader to retreat inside and acknowledge the pain, doubt, joy and contentment that exist within all of us. Though I haven't had the opportunity to attempt the lessons she has provided after each essay, I am eager to begin the journey.
Living Color has changed the way I look at the world around me. It was like an unexpected letter from an old friend, taking me back to when life was simple and free. I would encourage anyone who struggles with making time to enjoy the beauty in life to pick up this book and invest a couple of hours. It will be time well spent.
October 18, 2017
I randomly grabbed this off the shelf at the library, my new browsing style with a two year old in tow. I started reading it the same evening but almost immediately quit because the beginning was so happy and gushy - the one thing I can't abide in books on creativity! After a few days I picked it back up and found I missed the intro/forward and that was pleasant enough that I decided to try the rest of it but I skipped past the unpleasant part I'd already encountered. The rest of the book was much better, much more palatable. I enjoyed her family stories and following along on her journey of discovering how art fed her and how she pushed through her discomforts to find freedom in her art. I put down some notes so that I can try some of her lessons later. I even started one piece based on her exercises. All in all, a great book but only if you can tolerate the hippy-zen-boomer perspective and a dash of too much positivity (that's a challenge for us cuspers!)
January 24, 2015
Love, love, love this book. I think it is the second best book I have ever read about painting. And I'm not even a painter. It was completely engrossing to read because it is so rare to find an individual who is both so talented at painting and at writing about it.
It's hard to describe what it's about, and it rambles and wanders around from her early childhood to her life in New Mexico, to trips to Europe, to her study of meditation.... but what weaves all this together is her passion for writing and painting.
As a former dilettante, I found myself saying "Yeah!" and pumping my fist when she talks about her long struggle with the concept that she had to chose painting or writing, and her final realization that one feeds the other, and that it is not only not a bad thing, but actually a really good thing to do both.
It's hard to describe what it's about, and it rambles and wanders around from her early childhood to her life in New Mexico, to trips to Europe, to her study of meditation.... but what weaves all this together is her passion for writing and painting.
As a former dilettante, I found myself saying "Yeah!" and pumping my fist when she talks about her long struggle with the concept that she had to chose painting or writing, and her final realization that one feeds the other, and that it is not only not a bad thing, but actually a really good thing to do both.
July 21, 2015
I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, this is a wonderful book by a beloved author. On the other hand, its a reprint of a book I already have with the same title but a different subtitle. Nowhere on the jacket does it say that, so I paid full price ($25) for a book I already own. Granted, the new version has updated artwork and lesson suggestions at the end of every chapter, but I wouldn't pay full price for this. How disappointing that the new publisher didn't note it was a reprint. I feel duped.
July 22, 2016
As I first started this book, I thought, wow, I really like this author! As it progressed, I lost interest because so much of it centered on her trips to France and other locales that are hard for me to relate to. It became like a travelogue of her vacations. There were good parts tho. I especially enjoyed her family memories and the lessons. Also it was fun to see her artwork throughout the book and her thought process as to how she came to draw certain things. I like her childlike use of color. Very cheerful.
September 17, 2007
one of my favorite authors and Buddhist friends writes about her life and illustrates it 'in living color'. It's subtitled A Writer Paints Her World.
here is a tiny excerpt to give the flavor "I noticed that the blue of my paints wasn't blue enough to get the intensity of that New Mexico sky. I painted the sky red instead."
Tender stories of family and friends ... the paint of her father is extraordinary
here is a tiny excerpt to give the flavor "I noticed that the blue of my paints wasn't blue enough to get the intensity of that New Mexico sky. I painted the sky red instead."
Tender stories of family and friends ... the paint of her father is extraordinary
February 22, 2013
Debated between 3-4 stars. I love her voice and enjoy reading her work. I find myself laughing and relating - and highlighting passages where she describes things so eloquently.
That said, I am not a fan of autobiographies in general...
That said, I am not a fan of autobiographies in general...
June 1, 2014
When I picked up this book, the work I was trying to create was stuck. The direction came to me after three hours of reading and I was inspired to pick up needle and thread again. Thank you Natalie.
February 9, 2008
I love this book!
February 25, 2008
Great chance to see Natalie's paintings and to get her larger thoughts on art outside of the focus of writing.
July 24, 2009
It was inspiring
July 26, 2009
Loved this
March 1, 2010
A color explosion with crooked lines and nice stories.
August 19, 2011
Making the experiences of life into a visual journey.
November 10, 2023
A great, accidental, find on my part .. in the library Art Section ... picked up at random because the cover painting/sketch attracted me. Although the full title of my copy is "Living Color: A Writer Paints Her World" (probably got retitled along the way, but probably the same book as here). The paintings/drawings/sketches/illustrations (not sure what the correct term is) are all phenomenal
(imho - obviously art appreciation is subjective)... they all just jump out and are very original - e.g., the use of colors and perspectives (or, let's say, unorthodox use of perspectives). As for the writing, also original in it's non-chronological approach. Very accessible writing style, easy to relate to.
Hadn't heard of her before and didn't know she was more famous (or at least equally famous) as a writer (and Zen teacher). I must get more of her books.
(imho - obviously art appreciation is subjective)... they all just jump out and are very original - e.g., the use of colors and perspectives (or, let's say, unorthodox use of perspectives). As for the writing, also original in it's non-chronological approach. Very accessible writing style, easy to relate to.
Hadn't heard of her before and didn't know she was more famous (or at least equally famous) as a writer (and Zen teacher). I must get more of her books.
December 28, 2017
I'm not sure I can consider this as having been "read" because I mainly skimmed the chapters and looked at the paintings. Nonetheless, it was interesting learning about Ms. Goldberg's process and how she got started painting when she was more interested in making it as a writer. Glad she managed to do both. The world is a more colorful place with her artwork being a part of it. I enjoyed reading the stories about the origins of her paintings. If you're a writer or an artist, it's worth a look. You'll enjoy it.
March 19, 2018
I thoroughly enjoyed viewing her art work and her own life experiences with painting. Even though I was not interesting in doing the exercises, I read them and considered the in other areas of my life. For an artist I would think they would be fun to work with. As with all of her books, I recommend them highly.
June 27, 2022
As a writer who also paints, I enjoyed hearing how Goldberg manages these 2 creative mediums in her life. And the challenges she faces while pursuing both art forms. She provided great personal examples of how they each inform the other. It is also filled with her paintings which remind me of Matisse’s work but with much brighter primary colors.
September 4, 2023
I always love Natalie Goldberg’s books, and this was no exception. I’ve found that reading her books always helps me get bold and branch out when I’m feeling particularly stuck in life. There’s a grounding quality to the way she writes that always helps me find my way back to what matters to me. I also really enjoyed looking at all of her paintings in this particular book
July 10, 2024
Painting is seeing and being.
Natalie shares with us what she sees as she is painting. She treats painting the way she does with her writing: like a zen moment. I love her writing and her paintings. She’s like a teacher and a friend. I feel that I know her, though I haven’t met her in the flesh. She’s so fun to know!
Natalie shares with us what she sees as she is painting. She treats painting the way she does with her writing: like a zen moment. I love her writing and her paintings. She’s like a teacher and a friend. I feel that I know her, though I haven’t met her in the flesh. She’s so fun to know!
January 2, 2023
I'm a long time fan of Natalie Goldberg's books about being a writer and the writer's journey, but until I read this book didn't realize she's also a painter. I very much enjoyed this book and will read it again.
June 10, 2023
“Writing, painting, and drawing are linked. Don’t let anyone split them apart, leading you to believe you are capable of expression in only one form. The mind is much more whole and vast than that.”
June 3, 2017
as always a terrific read
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews