{"product_id":"9780988242913","title":"The Crowd, The Critic, and the Muse: A Book for Creators","description":"\"We are all creators. Whether or not we create is not up to us. We are human, and creating is what we do. Every interaction, movement, and decision is creativity at work. We are all artists. We all order creation around us into the world that we want to make.\"--Michael Gungor\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn The Crowd, the Critic, and the Muse, Michael Gungor takes an\u003cbr\u003euncompromising--and humorous--look at our creative selves and the world that we have fashioned around us. \u003cbr\u003eThrough story and reflection, Gungor shows how our deepest beliefs and assumptions about the universe affect how we order creation. Our art and our humanity are inextricably entwined.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSurveying pop songs and church services, fine art and movies, Gungor shows\u003cbr\u003ewhat these works of creation reveal about us--for better and worse--and\u003cbr\u003eoffers a powerful argument for why we can do better. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eArt is like fruit, and if we want to improve the quality of our creative output, we must tend not only to the fruit, but to the tree, its roots, and the soil that it is planted in. To become free as creators, we must not simply try harder, we must become different. Gungor argues that this kind of change demands both an awareness of one's own cultural conditioning and a healthy degree of faith, doubt, hope and love.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn award-winning, globetrotting musician, Gungor also reveals his personal\u003cbr\u003ejourney as an artist and creator, a tale of moving from innocence to wisdom,\u003cbr\u003efrom simplicity to complexity and back again, a tale of leaving home and\u003cbr\u003ereturning in a new, better, and more creative way.","brand":"Woodsley Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47133804298480,"sku":"9780988242913","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780988242913_p0.jpg?v=1763882927","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780988242913","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}