CITYist

All the minutiae of every day life—the planning, executing and discussing of daily tasks, suddenly becomes a lot more interesting when you add art the equation. A new book, Lists: To Dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts, and Other Artists’ Enumerations from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art (that was a long one), by Liza Kirwin, offers some insight into the business of making art, from the every day struggles with technique to lists of paintings sold and supplies to get. With often funny and poignant illustrations or fanciful scrawl, the lists shed some light on the artistic process. Check out some more works from the book after the jump. We promise: they’re more interesting than your grocery list.