Author and cartoonist Lynda Barry visited Hofstra University on Wednesday, Oct. 22, and Thursday, Oct. 23, to dive into the creative mind and how it arises in everyday life. Along with several workshops given in the Axinn Library, Barry also connected with students and faculty through an immersive lecture in the Helene Fortunoff Theatre at Monroe Lecture Center.
Barry has published several notable works over her career including, “One Hundred Demons,” “Syllabus,” “What It Is,” “Cruddy” and many others. She said she sees her workshops as a way to inspire people to connect with themselves.
“What I want people to be able to do when our workshop is over is to have the urge to show someone else how to do what we did in our class,” Barry said. “There is something about the experience of drawing in this way that makes us want to give it to other people. It’s kind of like a really good joke that you hear and then want to tell someone else.”
Many of her beliefs center around the differences between artistic ability and creativity. Barry highlighted that being creative does not mean being great at something.
“People give up on drawing at about the age of eight or nine,” Barry said. “Often it’s when they are trying to draw in a realistic way. The thing they are drawing doesn’t look like the thing they are trying to draw, like a nose or hands. This is why I love teaching people about drawing comics because comics rely on simple lines that anyone can do.”
Part of Barry’s view is how creativity and drawing should be interwoven with many different areas of academic studies, part of the reason she brought her lecture to Hofstra.
“Drawing in a simple comics style can also bring about serious insight, and my work with graduate students in different fields has convinced me that the comics style of drawing has enormous potential in any academic research,” Barry said. “If creative thinking is about setting the conditions for insight and discovery, drawing is a very simple and direct way to get you there.”
Her lectures included comics she’s drawn, videos that engage her ideas and ways she has connected drawing and comics into the lives of her students.
“I found her syllabus and lecture really inspiring,” said freshmen accounting major Isabella Dempsey. “It was really cool to learn from someone that had a different perspective of life from me, as someone who doesn’t really have much of a creative side. Being able to see and talk to someone that does and who has no hesitation or second thoughts about it really kind of just changed my perspective on a lot of the ways I look at life.”
Barry’s lecture was not about being taught. She said she believes everyone already has the skills to be creative, it’s about how to access it and find pride with it.
“What I love to do is to walk people back into drawing as something other than pleasing or not pleasing,” Barry explained. “For me it is an unsuspected way of thinking, of setting the conditions for insight and discovery. A drawing doesn’t have to look beautiful to be able to do this, in the same way your liver doesn’t have to be cute to keep you alive. This kind of drawing is very much like my liver. It may not be beautiful, but it is absolutely vital.”
The humorous and comfortable environment that Barry established during her lectures allowed students to resonate more personally.
“If something doesn’t go exactly how she planned it, like her books, she finds a way to go around it or find something else that’s inspiring,” said freshman creative writing major Jen Jen Dayton. “If I’m stuck in a creative front she recommends going about it in a different way, ‘take a break,’ as she says, ‘have a decoy novel.’ She even said that she wrote the book that I just bought with a brush and so I think that’s really inspiring.”
The workshops and lectures covered different perspectives and understandings but cemented the idea that everyone is creative.
“There is something about doing this kind of work with other people that makes all of the difference,” Barry said. “And the exercises I teach are very easy to do with other people because they are hilarious.”
