Book Guild - Chapter 3

Welcome to the fourth edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. Nearly 150 artists have answered a list of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented as a series of online and print projects. Secret Sunday was the first project and the links to all the secrets can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The Book Guild is the second project and Chapter 3 starts right now!


All artists participating in The Pulse were asked to name their favorite art books. The Book Guild will present this list, along with links, book reviews, giveaways, and interviews with many of your favorite authors. And as members of The Guild, I am hoping YOU will participate by leaving comments related to the books in each post - for example thoughts, book reviews, personal experiences, or a link back to your own blog posts that include artwork based on a project in the listed book.
_______________
Chapter 3: Create



Celebrate your Creative Self by Mary Todd Beam was picked as a favorite book by both Roxanne Stout and Shona Cole.



Also by Mary Todd Beam, The Creative Edge is a favorite of Amy Grennell.



About Creative Entrepeneur by Lisa Sonora Beam, Carmen Torbus says "it is chock full of practical business planning tools incorporated into an art journal. It's brilliant."



Zen of Creativity by John Daido Loori is recommended by Carole Leslie.



A while ago Vivian Bonder decided to sell and give away many of her art-related books. "To be honest I haven't missed them at all. One book I have bought fairly recently is Sharon Gaynor's Creative Awakenings and although I haven't worked through it yet, it seems amazing."



As one of her favorites, Terry Rafferty mentioned The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life by Twyla Tharp.

Gwen Buchanan recommends Creating a Self-Portrait by Tom Coates. Gwen says "examples of work by the masters and contemporary artists are analyzed in terms of technique, approach, media and individual style... visual inspiration and practical insights abound... I love this book!!"

_______________

Mark you calendars now. The next Chapter of The Book Guild, coming on Sunday April 18, will spotlight the most popular author from the survey. Hear her inside story in her own words!!

Sand Box

Desert Sands Series...

Shield

Detail

Ingredients: vintage paper, vintage book cloth, book board, found objects, wire, grommets, dye ink, calligraphy ink, leafing pen. 6" x 6".

Available for purchase in The Altered Page on Etsy.

Sold. Thank you!

All Sorts of People

What defines an artist?

from Grolier's The Book of Knowledge, published in Canada in the early 20th century:

"In the autumn some people can call up clearly in their mind's eye the vision of what a certain landscape looked like in the spring. It is natural for them to notice these things, and to make these comparisons or associations. When they are talking to people, they do not attend very particularly to the tones of the voice, and they are perhaps not particularly interested in what is being said, but they are watching and remembering and comparing what other people never notice at all, even in the faces of people that they love - the movement of the eyelids, the little tricks of the lips, the poise and movement of the head, and so on.

These people are artists, drawers, painters, sculptors, architects, and decorators. It is unfortunately true that the artistic people usually despise the scientific people because they care so little for beauty, and often make such ugly things; and the scientific people, in their turn, despise the artistic people for caring so much about the mere surface of things, and being so little interested in what lies behind them.

But when men grow wiser they will learn how foolish all this is, and that both these kinds of people are necessary, for it takes all sorts of people to make a world."

Hmmmm...what defines an artist to you? Discuss...

From the Treetops

Since last August, Julie from The Land of Lost Luggage and JeriAnn from Commuter's Journal have co-hosted an ongoing, online collaboration called Getting Arboreal: A Nature Collection. The idea was to chose a tree to follow over time and through the seasons. I chose a whole grove of trees in Central Park - just a few of the more than 4 million trees in the Park. The location is by Bethesda Terrace, one of my favorite spots in the Park.

My trees in late August 2009 from the original post...



Here they are in early November 2009 as posted here...

And some new pictures, during one of the many snow days in NYC this past winter...

Completing the four seasons, here are pictures from today...

And not wanting to make the other trees jealous (this one you will want to enlarge!)...

You can follow the links to all the participants by clicking through the list on the sidebar of Julie's blog.

Book Guild - Chapter 2

Welcome to the fourth edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. Nearly 150 artists have answered a list of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented as a series of online and print projects. Secret Sunday was the first project and the links to all the secrets can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The Book Guild is the second project and Chapter 2 starts right now!


All artists participating in The Pulse were asked to name their favorite art books. The Book Guild will present this list, along with links, book reviews, giveaways, and interviews with many of your favorite authors. And as members of The Guild, I am hoping YOU will participate by leaving comments related to the books in each post - for example thoughts, book reviews, personal experiences, or a link back to your own blog posts that include artwork based on a project in the listed book.
_______________
Chapter 2: Mixed-Up



Kim Palmer says that for techniques,Creative Paint Workshop for Mixed Media Artists by Ann Baldwin "is just brilliant."



Mixed Media Explorations by Beryl Taylor was a "threepeat" in the survey. Beryl's book was favorited by Tracie Huskamp, Marilyn Gallas, and Christy Sobolewski. Marilyn added "I would love the be the seamstress that she is. Alas I have trouble threading the needle!! Her art is incredible - so many minute details. I just drool every time I look at this book!!" And Christy desribed this book as "My all time favorite and has been for two years running. I love Beryl’s style (although far from my own) and this book is like eye candy."



Jo Archer picked Mixed Media Mosaics by Laurie Mika as her favorite.



Mixed Emulsions by Angela Cartwright was listed by Becky New as her current favorite.



Marion Bockelmann favorited Mixed Media Self Portraits by Cate Coulacos Prato.



Leslie Marsh had this to say about Mixed Media Nature Journals by L.K. Ludwig: "I collect art books, and I gather inspiration from all of them, but the one I return to over and over is Mixed Media Nature Journals. I am influenced by nature’s details, and L.K.’s techniques enable me to translate those into art."



As her favorite, Gail Pierce chose Textile Translations: Mixed Media by Maggie Grey.

Desert Sands

Desert Sands series

Crossing

Detail

Ingredients: vintage paper, vintage book cloth, book board, papyrus, found metal, altered metal, dye ink, leafing pen. 6" x 6".

Available for purchase in The Altered Page on Etsy.


Dune

Detail

Ingredients: vintage paper, altered paper, book board, handmade paper, acrylic paint, gesso, shellac, found metal, altered fabric, altered metal, brads, calligraphy ink, dye ink, leafing pen. 6" x 6".

Available for purchase in The Altered Page on Etsy.

Swallenges

LaWendula at Woven Letters continues to host a series of creative and exciting swaps and challenges (swallenges).

I participated in her Letters and Numbers swap recently and was partnered with Lay Hoon from mescrap studio in Malaysia. Here are some of the items I sent to Lay Hoon:

And I was lucky enough to receive the following treasures from Lay Hoon:

I was also part of LaWendula's Collage Box project. She filled a box with bits and pieces of paper and other art material. One by one the box was sent out to a group of people all over the world. Each person was to take 12 pieces from the box and use these to create a collage. They were then suppose to add 12 new pieces and send the box on. Clever, right? Here are the pieces that I chose from the box:

And here is the collage I made from these items:

I used only parts of the 12 pieces I chose, including a playing card which became the substrate for the collage. The only other ingredients were dye inks.