'It feels naive to be joyous right now, but I choose to put myself there'
In a world of fear, creativity can be our guiding light, says Wellington artist Jo Randerson, author of the new book Secret Art Powers.
Jo Randerson sees a lot of fear these days - about the well-being of the planet and its occupants, and the people who are in power.
The antidote to that fear, they tell Culture 101, is the feeling that things can change for the better, which creativity can inspire.
In their new book Secret Art Powers, Randerson explores how thinking like an artist can help increase resilience, hope and innovation.
"This miraculous book feels like an escape hatch for humanity," says musician Bret McKenzie of Jo Randerson's new book Secret Art Powers.
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Secret Art Powers was a book that "needed to come out", Randerson says, like a baby trying to be born or a volcano erupting.
The organisation of their ideas about creativity into six sections, though, was a more ephemeral process - "like in a really misty morning on the sea and you don't know if you can see the island out there, and then it slowly comes into view".
Jo Randerson's secret art powers revealed!
Wellington illustrator Sarah Maxey worked from drawings by Jo Randerson's kids and their friends for the book Secret Art Powers.
Sarah Maxey / Barbarian
The book's illustrations - by "magical" Wellington book designer Sarah Maxey - are based on drawings by Randerson's children, their friends and some adults who happened to be around.
"We'd do these drawing parties, and I'd be like, 'Okay, I want to see like a maggot chewing through a blanket'. Everyone would have two minutes to draw it, and then Sarah would choose the one that illustrated the idea best or was most evocative."
The power of imagination - one of six "art powers" Randerson writes about in the book - is also the power of faith in a way, they say.
"It feels sometimes naive to be hopeful and joyous right now, but I definitely choose to put myself there and a lot of the thinkers I really admire do as well."
Wellington illustrator Sarah Maxey worked from drawings by Jo Randerson's kids and their friends for the book Secret Art Powers.
Sarah Maxey / Barbarian
With smartphones, it's very easy for us to keep drifting along on an information highway, says Randerson, who spoke to RNZ earlier this year about being diagnosed with ADHD in their 40s.
What we really need instead, they say, are things that "calm us down and slow us and connect us".
New Zealanders are incredible, resourceful beings with the power to shape the future, Randerson says, especially in our home country.
"Things need to change, and I choose to believe that they will, and I think that they will."
