For over sixty years, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s renowned artist, art educator, and pioneer of art therapy, Don Seiden, has lived the aesthetic philosophy he shares in Art Works, inspiring students and colleagues throughout the world. His message is simple: No matter who you are or what the medium, creating art allows you to see your life more completely, and looking at your life more creatively enriches your art.

To document this philosophy, Seiden began working with a writer, Amy Davis, leading to a twenty-year collaboration and close friendship. Despite vast differences in the authors’ ages, backgrounds, and artmaking styles, they found that the aesthetic philosophy they were recording together could guide everything they did, including the work of writing a book. Art Works weaves Seiden and Davis’s intimate dialogue into each chapter, offering glimpses of their journey and practical suggestions that apply to any artmaking experience.

More Praise for Art Works

“Reading Art Works is like taking a long, deep inhale and then feeling your breath bring you back to your center, to your deepest knowings, to what art means to you and to your life. The wisdom in these pages is not to be missed.”

— Karen Skalitzky, author of A Recipe for Hope: Stories of Transformation by People Struggling with Homelessness

“. . . As you proceed through the book, you feel as though your consciousness about the world of art is being somehow reshaped and enhanced. This is a must read for artists and art educators of all persuasions.”

— James McNeill Mesplé, visual artist

“Playful, encouraging, inspiring.”

— Maggie Kast , dancer and author of The Crack Between the Worlds: A Dancer’s Memoir of Loss, Faith, and Family

“A generous and life-changing book.”

— Dayna Block, artist and founder of Open Studio Project