Table of Contents

Introduction
 
Part I: The Tools
Chapter 1: Keeping a Visual Journal                                                                             
Chapter 2: The Mindset—“I” is for Improvise
Chapter 3: Getting Started
Chapter 4: Coloring 101
 
Part II: The Practice
Chapter 5: The Unplanned Painting
Chapter 6: The Language of Images
Chapter 7: Oops, Ouch, and Aha!
Chapter 8: Letting Go
Chapter 9: Myth, Magic, and Psyche
Chapter 10: Working the Edge
Chapter 11: It’s Over When It’s Over
Afterword: The Journey Continues
 
Resources Section
Materials
Asking More Questions
Additional Exercises and Prompts
Attributions for Chapter Opening Quotes 
Endnotes
Suggested Reading

Acknowledgments

About the Author

A longtime artist familiar with battling creative blocks, Barbara Diane Barry developed and teaches an improvisational painting approach that helps us to break free from blocks and honor our creative imaginings. She created "Art for Self-Discovery," a studio art program for adults, children, and business communities that has reached nursing home residents, cancer patients and stroke survivors, battered women, adults in transition, and children with ADD.

She teaches in public school art residencies throughout the five boroughs of New York City and is part of an outreach program at Symphony Space that introduces students to various cultures through art making and visits to the city's art museums. She is a faculty member at Manhattan's C.G. Jung Foundation and is a guest educator at the Rubin Museum of Art.

Reviews

“Barbara Barry provides a practical and workable solution to the most daunting problem for all those who yearn for self-expression through art: How to get started. Her prescriptions for painting as journal-keeping and her imaginative exercises show her skills as a teacher and her respectful empathy for the beginner’s fear of the blank page and the inner critic. So often, just getting going is the problem. This book will make you want to jump in.”
—Betty Edwards, author of the international bestseller Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
 
“Much more than just a wonderful guide for learning to paint, this book is a glorious gift to anyone who yearns for a more creative life!"
—Michael J Gelb, author of How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci

“I love this book! It supports readers exploring themselves in a symbolic way that results in true transformation. I am already using it with myself and my clients.”
—MJ Ryan, author of This Year I Will…
 
 “There are two ways of spreading light—to be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it. This book combines both. When you paint in your journal, you are the candle that creates the light that shines on your inner thoughts and fears, and the journal reflects back this light to make you aware of the creative choices you must make to navigate through the difficulties of life.”
—Michael Michalko, author of Thinkertoys and Creative Thinkering

“Barbara Barry has developed an amazing method for opening the creative flow for anyone who wants to dip in and draw from deep water. Writers, poets, painters, chefs, designers, or anyone who wants to work from a creative center can let her be the guide.”
—Linda Leonard, Ph.D., author of The Wounded Woman and The Call to Create
 
“Some of my most profound and powerful breakthroughs have happened with paintbrush in-hand standing in front of my own wild, intuitive paintings. That's why I'm so delighted that creative souls now have Barbara Diane Barry's Painting Your Way Out of a Corner to turn to for guidance on their own self-discovery journeys. Barbara's insightful exercises will help you quiet the inner critic, ignite your intuition, and rev up your innovative problem solving abilities. So pick up your paintbrush and give yourself full permission to play!”
—Jennifer Lee, author of The Right-Brain Business Plan