1 comments about Children, Clay, And Sculpture.

1. This book is extremely useful for classroom teachers and homeschooling families alike. It slowly and thoroughly works through the progression of skills from first using clay to creating finished sculpture. The chapters include information for teaching the skills, multiple examples of professional artwork that can be studied to view the technique at hand, tons of pictures of student work with the age of the student identified (very helpful for knowing how to set your expectations at a realistic level) and every chapter includes free exploration ideas as well as specific exercises.
   
   Chapters:
   
   Before You Begin
   Explorations
   Making Sculpture
   Sculpting in Relief
   Animals
   Heads and Faces
   Figures
   Improving Sculptures
   Finishing and Displaying Sculpture
   
   I have taken classes with Cathy Topal; she teaches in the Education department at Smith College, helping prospective teachers learn how to teach art. The care and attention she has taken to laying out the exercises in this book clearly reflect this experience - she can think both like an experienced teacher of art and like a mentor to new teachers. This book is a valuable purchase for any art teacher or homeschool family and can be used with students from age 4 to high school level. It will grow with your child and can be used over and over to explore topics in more depth in subsequent years. I give it my very highest recommendation.

2 comments about The Railway: Art in the Age of Steam (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art).

1. The quality of exhibition catalogs ranges from poor to excellent. In this case, we have a catalog that fulfills all most important requirements.
   For one, although some snobs describe it as "pretty pictures', the reproductions are accurate, and their size is good. Especially when it comes to paintings that belong to private collections, the only hope to be reminded of the emotions one felt in the presence of the real painting, is to enjoy a decent reproduction. So I consider it a very important quality for a catalog to present well sized, good quality reproductions of all the works of art being exhibited.
   Although this catalog is not a treatise about the subject of the exhibit (and I don't believe it should be), the texts are very accurate, while at the same time they are short and concise. This is what a catalog should provide, as opposed to being the space to host infinite, boring, and cryptic prolusions by some solipsistic scholar.
   Last but not least, the structure of the catalog is very good, with the last few pages providing small reproductions of all the artwork organized by author, with short explanation blurbs that perfectly serve their purpose.
   Overall, a very good catalog for a fantastic exhibition that brought together, in some cases for the very first time, some of the most wonderful masterpieces ever created.



2. This is a wonderfully illustrated book that documents the profound transformation an amazing technology (steam locomotion) had on all strata of society. It features masterpieces from 19th and 20th century artists and photographers and is highly readable and informative. It appealed to me as both a railway enthusiast, a reader of American and European history and as someone who enjoys art in it's many genres. I highly recommend this book.

3 comments about Land & Environmental Art (Themes & Movements).

1. This Themes and Movements series of books is an excellent one for the neophyte as well as the
   expert.



2. Worth the price, a complete and well done editorial work. I recomend the entire series Themes & Movements.



3. This book should be a permanent reference for all artists including photographers and architects. The timelessness of the projects reflects the timelessness of the book itself. The diversity of projects and their ideas makes a remarkable statement about art and its boundaries.

No comments about Process: 50 Product Designs from Concept to Manufacture.

5 comments about Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt.

1. Interesting and inspiring! I loved the stories of the quilters - real people who were extraordinary and humble.



2. If you liked the Gee's Bend Quilt exhibit, then you have to have this book as well as the one before it The Quilts of Gee's Bend: Masterpieces from a Lost Place and the one after it, Mary Lee Bendolph, Gee's Bend Quilts, and Beyond, which focuses upon the work of Mary Lee Bendolph, perhaps the greatest living Gee's Bend Quilter. There are others, too. These women are worth supporting in any way you can. They are truly great artists. Other gems to seek out are The Quilts Of Gee's Bend the video on them made by Vanessa Vadim and and Tim Arnett and the CD collection of Gee's Bend music made both in the 30s, when the FSA became aware of the artistry of Gee's Bend, and at the time of the recent exhibition of Gee's Bend's Quilts which is still touring the world.



3. The stories of the women of Gee's Bend, as told by themselves, touch ones heart and should remind us of a time when one used what you had and met the challenge of creating such things of beauty as their quilts. They definitely thought "outside the box" and broke all the rules of quilting to produce some splendid pieces of art. Primative? yes, but their artistic eye as shown in their work, places their work on a level with the great artists of the world. Great photos of the ladies and wonderful color pictures of the quilts. I would recommend the book for artists as well as quilters.



4. This book is great, and the pictures are wonderful. I'm studying for an upcoming exhibition and I am very satisfied.



5. I am really enjoying reading and looking at the pictures of the quilts in this book. I have met several of the ladies and decendants of the Gee' Bend Quilters and find their stories so interesting. The quilts definitely do define the quilters, their strengths and weaknesses, their ups and downs. I recomend this book to anyone who holds quilts near and dear to their hearts.

1 comments about Basics Design Image (Basics Design).

1. This series of books are an excellent resource for graphic designers. It really helps me when I am given an open brief and asked to be really creative. Image is a great mix of inspiration and technical advice.

5 comments about Scene of the Crime: A Writers Guide to Crime Scene Investigation (Howdunit Series).

1. This book was printed in 1992. It's definitely a great book for its time, as it's pretty detailed with crime scene investigation techniques. I just wish it had been updated since then.



2. Lots of good, basic information about how the police handle crime scenes. I learned a lot, and it was also a pleasure to read. I read it in one afternoon. Even if you have an amateur sleuth, this will help you a lot.



3. i cannot express enough my appreciation of Dr. Wingate for making this material available to other crime writers. the information in this book has helped me tremendously, and i would gladly reccommend it to others! i cannot wait to recieve other 'howdunit' books; as i continue to write. please keep the information coming, Dr. Wingate!
   mary speranza (author, POOKIE)



4. I found this book to be both interesting and informative and also very useful in writing a crime story. It will definitely give you an idea of how the cops in your story should act at a crime scene and what they should and shouldn't do. The book is also helpful even if your main character isn't a cop at all. I do have a couple of complaints about the book though. For one thing, the author gives way too much detail on some things. Like the fingerprints. The chapters on fingerprints seemed to be aimed more at someone who wants to become a fingerprint expert instead of just writing fiction about them. I found parts of the fingerprint chapters to be extremely boring and I even skipped through a small portion of it. Although some amount of detail can add realism to a story, I really cannot understand why anyone would want to put THAT much detail on fingerprints into a work of fiction. Secondly, the author slips into stories of personal experience several times in the novel. Most of the stories are interesting and could help a writer, but a couple of them just seem to be rambling by the author and really have nothing to add that would help anyone in writing a novel. But despite these complaints, I still found the book to be very useful and, for the most part, very interesting. I would definitely recommend it.



5. A great source of information on the field of Crime Scene Investigation. This books gives a great comprehensive overview of the field and how it may work from small towns to larger cities. A great source to find out if it may be something you would like to get into as a career.

5 comments about Turner in His Time, Revised and Updated Edition.

1. Arranged chronologically the book is divided into six chapters; chapter one covers the first twenty five years of Turner's life with the other five chapters covering ten years each. Well written and very readable the text provides an insight into Turner the man and Turner the artist, and includes numerous quotations from Turner and his contemporaries; it succeeds among other things in bringing alive the artist as a person.
   
   Concluding the book is an extensive Chronology; Inventory of the Late Residence of J.M.W. Turner; Turner's Library; Bibliography; a detailed List of Illustrations and an Index.
   
   The book is fully illustrated throughout, with the images usually on or close to the page on which they are discussed. In total there are 186 illustrations of which 164 are in colour. The illustrations not in colour are mostly engravings and the like, period photographs or the work of other artists. The majority of the illustrations of Tuner's work are full page (or as large as the picture format will allow on the page with a margin), with some full-page or page-and-half bleed images along with a few double page images. There are a few actual-size details of paintings; very informative. The quality of the pictures is excellent, often revealing the texture of the paint, and the colour very good. Very usefully each picture is accompanied by a brief description or commentary, but irritatingly not with the details of the pictures dimensions; surely with the great range in size of Turner's work these should be included alongside the image, (there are of course to be found in the List of Illustrations).
   
   This is a large handsome volume, almost square in format, which provides a very good survey of the artist and his work. It covers all aspects of Tuner's output, including his oils, water colours and examples from his sketch-books. The choice of work ranges from the very well known to the "I didn't know Turner painted that!" Very interesting are the few examples of his very early work, including a water colour produced when he was about eleven years old. Providing as it does a comprehensive overview of the artist and his work, this is a very worthwhile publication.



2. I was very satisfied with my purchase. I was also impressed by the speedy delivery time from Amazon.
   Regards,
   Craig Taylor



3. Beautiful Turner book with many colour reproductions, excellent chronology. Flawless work! Highly recommended Thames & Hudson art monograph.



4. I checked this book out at my local library. It is so good, I'm going to buy it. While I knew who Turner was and had seen one or two reproductions of his work in books about other, later artists, I had seen little of his work and knew nothing about him before reading this book. It has been an absolutely wonderful introduction and has spurred me to look for more about Turner's art. There are something like 168 reproductions of oil paintings, watercolors, and drawings; most of them are large and in color; all of them are outstanding. I have looked at them in awe. The great landscape painter is himself a marvel. His prodigious talent revealed itself very early (by age 11 at least) and was recognized by his father, a London barber. He hung his son's paintings in the window of his barbershop with prices attached. Thus, Turner was a professional from childhood. In as much he was blessed with a reasonably long, healthy, and extremely productive life as well as extraordinary creativity which increased, rather than decreased with age, Turner left the world with a huge treasure-trove of great art. Stylistically it spans the period from the Old Masters of the seventeen century to the Expressionists, and in my view, towards the end of his career, it verges on Abstract Expressionism.
   
   This book is a biography of the artist as he was perceived during his life. Thus, it is filled with an abundance of quotations from contemporary sources, which serves to make Turner a very real and likeable, though very prickly, man. However, the emphasis is on the pictures. Wilton is a Turner scholar. His discussion is well-informed, without being pedantic or impenetrably academic. He has appended lists of the contents of Turner's house/studio and the contents of his library, which were made after his death, a bibliography, and an index of the pictures included in the book, which identifies their locations.



5. Excellent reproductions that will knock your socks off. Also, interesting read.

3 comments about Where Madness Reigns: The Art of Gris Grimly.

1. I'm a fan of gris grimly. I was waiting for an art book of his for a long time. This book is....all right. I've seem much better art from him that I wish he could've included in this book. There's also not that much artworks. I expected more that's all.



2. really inspiring artwork.
   I have a few of his books (all bought for my two year old daughter of course) and, while I really like the illustrations, in most of them I feel the quality of the writing lets the book down.
   
   Not so with this book. The almost complete lack of text is spot on. Just a whole bunch of lovely, lovely pictures.



3. I've been waiting a few weeks for the release of this book and it's been worth it. I was going to buy one of his other books but thought I'd wait for this as it's an overall collection of his art.
   
   If you're into warped/horror/gothic/macabre/black humour/etc. type art then this is very much for you.
   
   I like to draw similar(ish) type art and if you're like me & you see art that you wish you could do half as good then hell the contradictory power station in my brain says its for you as well. Art so good that it'll make you bummed out :D :P
   
   But seriously if you like the art of Tim Burton, Edward Gorey to name just two then this is definitely for you. It mainly consists of his masterful use of character driven ink/watercolour and features mixed media/collage illustrations.
   Some piece titles include 'Lou Lou Escapes the Valley of the Zombies on her Noble Lycanthrope', 'Don't Worry, your Child's with Me at the Tea Party Doing Coke with Bugs Bunny and Abe Lincoln' and 'Cannibal Cake'...
   
   The cover on mine isn't like this listing, it features one of the inside pieces entitled 'United Disease Producers of America'.
   
   So good it'll make you sick.

2 comments about Reenchantment of Art.

1. The previous review tells you very succinctly what to expect from the contents of the book - this is to say what excellent, speedy accurate service Bradbooks, where my second copy came from, delivered. It said 'minor notes', and they were only on 2 pages; and "minor cover wear" - which turned out to be the sort of erosion on the lower front corner that just comes from putting books on shelves ! And it took 4 days,from ordering to delivery, so it was also very resonably priced for the quality, and accurate adherrence to amazon.com's guidelines.



2. The Reenchantment of Art is a passionate plea for artists to reacess the thought and practice of a century of modernism. Gablick`s earlier book, 'Conversations before the end of time' was a collection on interviews and discussions with critical thinkers on environmental issues. The Reenchantment of Art refines the issues raised in the interviews of the earlier book toward a contemporary art focus. It speaks against individualist thought in art making, pointing artists toward new possibilties in art practice.

   Using examples of environmental artists, Gablick provides insights into new working methods of important contemporary artists. These artists are using their creative abilty to ammend the destruction of modern society by engaging in art practices that give 'something worthwhile' back to the earth and its people.

   Environmental art is of critical importance in this next century. Gablick`s book shapes the foundation of perhaps the most important movement in contemporary art theory.