2 comments about Quotable Women: A Celebration (Introducing Courage Gift Editions).

1. Both the outstanding and brilliant artwork by international women artists, as well as the inspiring words of women from all walks of life, has made this my favorite gift to women of all ages. To the young, it is the legacy of the best, placing our hope for the future in their hands.
   One of my daughters gave this gift to me on Mother's Day and the real gift was that now I know that she truly knows her mother's heart. Thank you all. Maria



2. This is the most beautiful book I have ever seen; it combines the words of women with colorful paintings that make the words sublime. It involves both hemispheres of the brain in a holistic approach to words and images, and produces many joyful moments.

No comments about Marble Queens and Captives: Women in Nineteenth-Century American Sculpture.

1 comments about The Treasures of Coptic Art in the Coptic Museum and Churches of Old Cairo.

1. The most important museum in the world for Coptic antiquities, Egypt's Coptic Museum founded in Old Cairo in 1908 houses icons, stone pillars, textiles, incense burners, Bible containers, wall paintings, papyri, wooden altar screens, crosses, and church chandeliers, among other objects. Many of these are made from ivory and bone; and others from local and imported stone, paints, wood, fabrics, and other materials for religious, artistic, and cultural items of their period. A few surviving Coptic churches are also pictured to bring in to a limited degree Coptic architecture.
   
   Over 130 of the assorted antiquities are pictured in clear color photographs of various scales, including many full page, allowing for appreciation and study of their details. For example, smaller pieces of jewelry are pictured close-up so that their carvings of figures and details of their features and clothing stand out. Parts of some textiles have close-ups where not only the woven figures and patterns can be viewed discretely, but their weaving is apparent. Text goes beyond just identifying the varied objects to treat theological inferences and implications as well as artistic and historical points of note. One image of Christ from about the seventh century "employs various devices" to render him "more approachable." Chief among these is the "halo around his head" calling to mind his particular holiness as a living person "[r]ather than representing him in a mandorla [a large oval halo frequenting enclosing a figure, from the Glossary], which would indicate his existence beyond time and space."
   
   The work of coffee-table size, quality, and style offers a particularly handsome as well as a comprehensive portrayal of this distinctive, long-lasting religious art which reflects the pagan, Romanistic, and Middle Eastern cultures of its beginnings over two thousand years ago. Gabra is a former director of the Coptic Museum; Eaton-Krauss, a specialist in Egyptian art and archaeology.

No comments about Foundations of Art and Design.

No comments about In the Victorian Style.

No comments about Documenting America, 1935-1943 (Approaches to American Culture).

1 comments about Art Nouveau Animal Designs and Patterns: 60 Plates in Full Color (Dover Pictorial Archive).

1. This is an excellent book containing many different art nouveau animal patterns. The paper used is excellent. All the patterns contain a rich blend of color and the designs are wonderful.

No comments about World of Aztecs: in the Florentine Codex (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana).

2 comments about Art of Chinese Brush Painting (Artist's Library Series).

1. I love this book and I have several books on Chinese brush painting. (I'd not part with any of them.) What I like is that she gives you a sense of porportion and she teaches you how to not just draw the figures but how to add to the subject and balance the picture. Chinese painting is about simplicity and doing it has taught me how to do more with my other works. This is a bit pedantic for intermediate artists but everyone can learn from it.



2. I painted some of the pictures as she directed, and I wasn't exactly skilled as she and yet the results were so charming people like them enough to hang them on the wall. She teaches technique, and its wonderful. :>

5 comments about Why Architecture Matters: Lessons from Chicago.

1. This is essentially a collection of updated columns from Blair Kamin's 1990s-era reports on the state of architecture in Chicago. In many instances, there are "postscripts" updating the information to the new millenium.
   
   These are pretty good items, but suffer from the architecture critic's foremost risk: the "ain't it awful" trap that can detract from the pure enjoyment of excellent design. "This is a great, beautiful building, but right across the street is a Kwik-E-Mart." Equivocation is an inevitable part of human experience, but it can also sometimes induce a killjoy effect.
   
   Leadership means creating a vision of a preferred future state and then sharing that vision with others. Enthusiam matters. And so do results.
   
   In Chicago architecture today, there is a whole lot more to celebrate than to decry. Let's celebrate more!



2. Okay, first, why mistitled?
   This book is a compilation of columns and articles Blair Kamin wrote for the Chicago Tribune. He writes passionately (and well) about architecture, and the book is definitely worth reading. But the title is all wrong. If you want to know "Why Architecture Matters," don't buy this book. It won't tell you. If Kamin has a thesis about why architecture matters, he never comes out and says what it is.
   What you will get, if you buy this book, is excellent commentary on the state of contemporary design, particularly as it relates to that most architectural of cities, Chicago. Kamin covers his beat well, and has opinions which are, as Michael Feldman would say, "well reasoned and insightful." Particularly powerful is his extended analysis of how architecture does and does not impact the social pathology of public housing in Chicago. This is great stuff--well researched, well reasoned and well written. Kamin looks past the conventional wisdom about the evils of high-rise public housing to what's really going on there--and whether what's going on has anything to do with the architecture or not. As I said, great stuff.
   If he'd just called the book "Architecture Matters," I'd have given him 5 stars. The "Why" in the title begs for a thematic core that, unfortunately, is just not there.



3. At the heart of this book, a collection of Kamin's Chicago Tribune articles spanning nearly a decade, is the author's adherence to his "consistent but flexible principles" of Activist Criticism. His critiques are not mere assessments of buildings as works of art; they are convincing arguments that as a whole show us the significant role architecture plays in a city. Far too many urban-dwellers blindly take whatever buildings go up around them and fail to realize how architecture shapes their lives, for better or worse, but Kamin implores us and our civic leaders to be more discerning, demanding worthy projects that will strengthen our cities.

   Blair Kamin is not just a great critic with sharp insight: he's a terrific writer whose articles are seasoned with wit and a highly readable eloquence. Upon reading his work, it is no surprise that he won a Pulitzer Prize for criticism. It helps to be familiar with Chicago's landmark buildings, but that is not a prerequisite to learning some important lessons. This book is not just pleasure reading for architecture students, but for anyone who cares deeply about the architectural decisions being made in his or her city. By frequently reviewing proposed projects, Kamin goes on the offensive, raising some keen questions that go alarmingly unasked by the developers and politicians involved. This approach, with the resulting influence he wields, has altered the course of events in Chicago many a time (though, sadly, not always). One wishes he had the final approval on all the city's projects before groundbreaking. Architecture, as he says, is the "inescapable art" we all have to live with on a daily basis, and Kamin's activist criticism encourages us to learn from past mistakes in order to form a more livable city.




4. He makes clear the difference between a building as a structure and a building as part of a living city. While the examples are mainly from Chicago, this book is a must-read for anyone who loves cities.



5. Mr. Kamin's obvious lack of experience in actually constructing anything other than useless "Architect-talk" is all over this book. Slanted for those who cannot find their own voice - Kamin reveals nothing but garbled particles of writing, framed within his false exhalted position as critic-extraordinaire.

   Why buildings matter should be re-released and re-titled "why do we need architecture critics?" I have walked down the streets of NYC and learned more about why architecture matters. Buildings are inert without the culture surrounding them. Critics are inert without practical experience to draw from.

   pass on the book, grab a coffee and stroll the streets of your hometown instead.

   Pass of Kamin and his pretentious thesaurus of architectural "criticism".