Everyday Matters

Such real writing and drawing here. I couldn't put this book down yesterday when I got it. This guy combines his drawings and his thoughts about life in a way that is just so honest and human. He opens up his life (and medicine cabinet) for everyone to see. I highly doubt that you can read/look through this book and not want to start your own drawing journal. My favorite parts: * Danny's Drawing in the beginning of the book where he traced Jack's hands and then drew the view from Jack's window. -Oh, I loved that! *The honest account (the thoughts and the drawings)of the trajedy that changed their lives. (ie: - "I didn't know anyone who was married to a cripple. I didn't know anyone who was disabled at all.") - And the part about how the people acted to him at work following his wife's accident. *I liked the drawing of the Books with the statue book end- I've read almost all of them! *I liked the drawings of people in various places. Which makes me wonder what people must think when they see someone looking them over and then writing or drawing in a book. How funny that these people are out there somewhere and most likely have no idea that they've been drawn and included in a book. Makes me want to get brave enough to go out in public and draw. I love this book. This is a book I will revisit many times over. I got this book after I bought "The Creative License" -Which I also highly recommend. These books have changed the way I look at ordinary things. I see normal/boring things that I usually wouldn't pay a bit of attention to -and now, I think about how I would draw that. I take a small sketchbook with me everywhere now. It's really cool. One of the great things about this book and "The Creative License" is that it gives you the confidence and the desire to draw/sketch even if you've never drawn before. You see Danny's drawings, and it just makes you want to try it too. Once you start it though, you're hooked and you want to draw or sketch everyday!-And why not? It's fun!

I loved this book. I collect books on how to keep an art journal and this is the first one that unleashed my drawing and writing about everyday life. The other books are so polished and beautiful it made me feel like my drawings and writing weren't quite good enough. I love how he includes partial drawings because my sketchbook is full of partial drawings, they caught a glimpse of something so they are worthy of keeping. I also love how his writing can be a simple or funny thought that occurred to him during a drawing, rather than always something deep and profound. A beautiful book that will go on my very special favorites shelf to be read again and again.

After reading Everday Matters I felt like I'd had a mini vacation, met some wonderful people, and it ended too soon! Refreshing and inspiring - not just for art, but for life.

If you want to be inspired to draw, or to write, or to live more fully, or best of all to do all three simultaneously, (and if you only have 60 minutes to move closer to your goals)- Everyday Matters is a must read. It's real, charming, witty, whimsical, and teaches art and life lessons that can be applied BY ANYONE. For all those who say "but I can't draw" and even more for those who say "but what shall I draw" this has some answers to the first question and many to the second. It's hard for me to say whether Danny is a better artist, writer, or philosopher. Fortunately we get all three in this slim volume. I can't wait for his next book.

Everyday Matters is such a special, intimate, lovely book, it's hard to know where to begin singing its praises. To open the book is to steal a look inside the sketchbook (a.k.a. the heart and mind) of a man who has just realized that drawing might help him see everything more clearly -- including seeing his way into a whole new life, one in which his wife is in a wheelchair. And that man happens to live in and draw pictures of New York City, which he adores. Besides the delights of Gregory's words and images -- which are sometimes funny, and other times poignant -- the book also serves as a nearly overwhelming incentive to pick up a pen and draw. And by drawing, to see objects again for the first time. If by publishing the book Gregory wished to remind people to look at the world around them with fresh, hungry, sensitive hearts and eyes, he has succeeded with this reader.