Lynda Barry — What It Is: A Talk on Creativity

Join us for a talk on creativity by award-winning author, artist, and cartoonist Lynda Barry. Author of 21 books, Barry was the acclaimed creator of the seminal comic strip Ernie Pook's Comeek, and in 2019 received a MacArthur "genius" grant.

"Why do people wish they could write, sing, dance, and draw, long after they've given up on these things?," asks Barry. "Does creative activity have a biological function? There is something common to everything we call the arts. What is it? It's something I call 'an image', something that feels alive and is contained and transported by something that is not alive — a book, or a song or a painting — anything we call an 'art form'. This ancient 'it' has been around at least as long as we have had hands, and the state of mind it brings about is not plain old 'thinking'. This talk is about our innate creative ability to work with images and what the biological function of this thing we call 'the arts' may be. Please note: There will be swear words, party tricks, and jokes about balls."

On Friday, February 20, Barry will lead a drawing jam for anyone interested in creating comics. Information will be available in January.

Lynda Barry has worked as a painter, cartoonist, writer, illustrator, playwright, editor, commentator and teacher and found they are very much alike. The New York Times has described Barry as "among this country's greatest conjoiners of words and images, known for plumbing all kinds of touchy subjects in cartoons, comic strips and novels, both graphic and illustrated." Widely credited with expanding the literary, thematic and emotional range of American comics, Barry's seminal comic strip, Ernie Pook's Comeek, ran in alternative newspapers across North America for thirty years. Barry has authored 21 books, worked as a commentator for NPR, and had a regular monthly feature in Esquire, Mother Jones Magazine, Mademoiselle, and Salon.

Barry has received numerous awards and honors for her work, among them two William Eisner awards, the American Library Association's Alex Award, the Wisconsin Library Association's RR Donnelly Award, the Washington State Governor's Award, the Holtz Center for Science & Technology Outreach Fellowship, The Museum of Wisconsin Arts Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2017 Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Cartoonists Society. She also received an Honorary Doctor of Arts degree from Philadelphia University of Art in 2015, and was inducted into the Cartoonist's Hall of Fame in 2016. In 2019 Lynda Barry was honored as a MacArthur Fellow (also known as the Genius Grant). In 2020 she received the 2019 NCS Reuben Award for Cartoonist of the Year, and in 2021 Oregon State University presented her with the Stone Award for Literary Achievement.

Admission is free.

Photo courtesy of Lynda Barry.

This event is supported in part by the Arts+ initiative, Visual Arts Visiting Artists and Designers, and the Center for Innovation, Research, and Creativity in the Arts.