1 comments about Sensorium: Embodied Experience, Technology, and Contemporary Art.

1. This is must in the library of anyone who studies or practices new media art.

1 comments about Criticizing Art: Understanding the Contemporary.

1. A wonderful book. Boy, i was dragged through galleries and museums by my parents throughout the 60's and 70's, seeing things I thought interesting, some beautiful, some scary, some outright nonsensical. I never got to understand nothing, though I felt the impact of "the better stuff". Mr. Barrett does a wonderful job in being sincere and easy to understand as he, with impressively up-to-date examples, puts forth the meaning behind those formulae of formalism, modernism, post-modernism and the like. He carefully introduces techniques of criticism which are acknowledged as "best practices", but always underlines that other avenues will take us to excellence, too. I definitely appreciate what he covers under the "feminism" and "multiculturism" headlines, cos when we get to see it, we rarely have the nomenclatura to understand it properly. This is not just a book for someone who in earnest wants to make a living off "criticizing art", but for anyone young (in mind) enough to set out on the adventure to enjoy, understand and recommend contemporary art with some kind of vision for the betterment of mankind. The art, Mr. Barrett tells us, is all there - it's now up to us to make something with it.

3 comments about The Fabulous Women of Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell.

1. This book is a must see! The artist really have an eye for detail. I love it!



2. Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell are the best fantasy artists in the planet! This collection of their works depicting fantasy women is by far one of the best fantasy art collections you will find in the bookshops! The art is wonderfully reproduced in the printed form with text that explain their aims, experience and motivations regarding each of the paintings. I highly recommend this book and all of the other Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell books!



3. 100 great paintings without buying 100 books. Simply a great book. I am a big fan of fantasy books and I am very familiar with many of the works from this artistic pair. They have done books, magazines, calendars, posters, and even movie posters and I believe even a music cd cover. Their artwork is fantastic and this book displays the best of their best. But there are a couple of things that make this book stand out from the average compilation of art work.
   It isn't just about gorgeous women with swords. It is a tribute to the mercurial spirit of the female form. You can see this spirit in its full spectrum throughout the book. It is sensitive, passionate, battle-enraged, fiery, determined, innocent,or just plain sensual. Each work has a defined theme.
   Another thing I really like about this book is the comments and notes by Julie and Boris. They tell you a little bit about the works, explaining the symbology of each work, or what they were trying to achieve. It is a great bonus to be able to take a peek into the mind of the artist and it helps you see the paintings in a new way.
   And then there are the models; many of whom are real women like the scorchingly gorgeous Julie Strain or the brainy/beautiful queen of the B Horror Movie Brinke Stevens.
   If you are a fan of fantasy art or a fan of fantasy novels this is a great book for your coffee table but this is not your fathers coffee table book! Of all the range of expression the models portray in this book modesty is not one of them!

5 comments about Managing Traumatic Stress Through Art: Drawing from the Center.

1. This book has been a great support for me at home on difficult days during my recovery from PTSD. It often goes into much more depth on each subject/project than I am able to go with, but I like that I can go back and redo previous projects as I heal. The book always gets me started toward feeling and releaseing feelings, it is an outlet for fun and part of my "self-care" list. I had wanted to include art therapy in my healing process. I am not close to any practioners so this book has made it possible for me at home.



2. This is a great book, it took me 37 years to try to deal with PTSD and if I had worked it with another vet or a professional it might have been less painful.



3. I find this book a valuable companion easily adaptable for the professional social worker, counselor or therapist. Many of the exercises are easy to adapt and adjust for the needs of the client. Adjustable for group or individual work. My copy is filled with bookmarks. When I use it other therapists want a copy.



4. this is a really good book. i would recommend it to anyone recovering from trauma. you do not need to be an artist at all.



5. This book provides a series of VERY structured (not just an oil pastel, but a *black* oil pastel; not just two sheets of paper, but two 12" x18" sheets of paper), very specific exercises one can use to nibble away at the edges of PTSD. If that is what you're looking for, this is a decent book.
   
   If you are an artist, and are looking for a book that provides counsel on how to use your art to "manage traumatic stress," this is emphatically NOT the work you are looking for.
   
   The 26 'art experiences' in this book are divided into three sections: 1. Developing basic tools for managing stress, which includes such exercises as drawing a safe place and making a 'comfort box'; 2. Acknowledging and regulating your emotions, which includes validating anger and making an imprint of fear; 3. Being and functioning in the world, which includes drawing your interpersonal boundaries.
   
   The art supplies called for to use this book in the manner its authors would like is a pretty extensive list. They are quite specific as to what materials should be used for each exercise. Unless you're actively making diverse art, expect to shell out some cash for materials.
   
   This particular book, it seems to me, is well-suited for art therapists or occupational therapists (and fairly well written to that end); not so much for the artist at home.

3 comments about Best Movies of the 70's (Taschen 25).

1. I cannot believe that for around $10, you get an absolutely beautiful, high-quality hardcover with amazing photos and well-written, critically insightful text. It's just a steal. Great to pick up and locate a film you've just watched for additional details. I just did it for Robert Altman's "Nashville."



2. Little to tell, you have to buy it. the book contains not only excellent reviews of films by critics, but also subject analysis, data concerning film creators, history of cinema and certainly has picked to review many of the great films of the decade.



3. Excellent photos, movies and information. Very nice. I loved this Taschen's collection.

4 comments about Critical Terms for Art History.

1. you will find books such as this one. A Ph.D. is not required to understand it, but it will give you an intellectual workout, as it is not a beginner's handbook. You need to have read some art history (beyond the "what, where, when, who" level), and some art criticism, to see the rationale behind its chapter headings. It is also not a book about works of art as such, but about the special terms and concepts used in current interpretive writing on the "fine" arts (primarily arts of Western European derivation, but the contributors are sensitive in handling the cultural bias of their sources). ALL of the authors are distinguished authorities on the topics they discuss. I think it is a strength of this book that they do not share a homogeneous intellectual background, or ideological bias, and also that they are not all the same age, but made their greatest contributions at different points in the recent (roughly, between 1970 and 1990) "crisis" of art historical writing. The most useful feature of this book, to my mind, is that it provides carefully argued contextual analysis of critical terms which either 1) have a long history of use (and therefore need unpacking before we can grasp the "unconscious"--sometimes contradictory--values they impose on the works to which they're applied), or 2) have been recently introduced to enable an informed critique of traditional art history. The cumulative effect of the various essays is to demistify some of our more cherished assumptions about the value of art: its timeless messages, its inspired origins, its spiritual uplift, its higher expressiveness/beauty/perfections. In other words, if you hope for a "feel-good" treatment of art critical standards, this is not your book. And yet, if you can accept that making and using works of art are social activities, and like the other products and customs of human societies, are constantly in flux even as they depend for their existence on inherited techniques, formulas, and ideals, then this book will provide a wonderful "relief map" of the intellectual foundations of current art history/art criticism.



2. Most of these essays are written by extremely prominent art historians and critics, such as WJT Mitchell, Homi Bhaba, the late Michael Camille, Jas' Elsner, and Nina Kallmyer. Each writer explores a "charged" term currently used in art criticism, such as "representation," "social art history," "ugliness," and "beauty." In each essay, the writer explores the meaning of the term by applying it to a single work of art. Though the essays vary in difficulty, each is ultimately very rewarding. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of art criticism. An absolute must for journalists, art critics, and students.



3. This book does present scholarship that uses and (sometimes) defines a variety of themes and approaches to art criticism, but most of the writings are highly esoteric, randomly selected, and not always focused on the visual arts. If you don't already have a solid understanding of concepts like "Post Modernism" and "Commodity" don't expect any clear answers here. This is less of an explanatory textbook-type work, and more of a compilation of modern critical writing. Pre-requisite: PhD.



4. If you interested in reading about particular themes in contemporary art. This book covers a whole slew of art crit terms.

   Each individual term is explored by its own essay. Each essay is written by a different author (mostly in the 80s and 90s). These essays are around 14 pages long, so these terms are explored rather in depth. The writing is so thick in this book it takes a good chainsaw to hack through 'em. But the effort is well worth it.

   Here's the terms explored: Representation, Sign, Simulacrum, Word and Image, Narrative, Context, Meaning/Interpretation, Originality, Appropriation, Art History, Modernism, Avant-Garde, Primitive, Ritual, Fetish, Gaze, Gender, Modes of Production, Commodity, Collecting/Museums, Value, Postmodernism/Postcolonialism, and Figuration

   My favorite essay so far is the one on Simulacrum.

   I would recommend this book to anyone interested in art criticism. It provides some interesing viewpoints.

5 comments about The Borden Tragedy: A Memoir of the Infamous Double Murder at Fall River, Mass., 1892 (Treasury of Victorian Murder (Graphic Novels)).

1. Too often, cartoons are thought of as "kid stuff". But Rick Geary has created a well-researched account of the infamous Borden murders in cartoon format, & it is useful for adults & children alike.
   
   Filled with illustrations from old photos, maps & blueprints, you get an excellent feel for the events. Geary makes plain other features, such as the oppressively hot Summer temperatures, the eyewitness that saw Lizzy in the yard, clean & un-bloodstained, & many other documented facts that less fair authors choose to omit.
   
   This early era in American History come across well, & the cartoon approach makes the "horse & buggy" period comprehensible to the Internet Generation.
   
   A big thumbs up for this one.



2. Detailed introduction to a baffling case
   
   I'll bet that most Americans have heard of Lizzy Borden, and know something about her reputation of having killed her parents with a hatchet. Beyond that, not so much.
   
   "The Borden Tragedy" tries to cover all bases in the case, introducing the reader to the major actors and the theories behind the murders, which occurred (I'm embarrassed to admit) in my own backyard -- Fall River, MA, barely half-morning's drive from my home. In the sweltering, mid-morning hours of August 4, 1892, someone brutally murdered Andrew and Abby Borden inside their cozy home with multiple blows from a weapon. A maid, a grown child, a border and neighbors scurried about, seemingly oblivious to the grisly drama unfolding inside. Suspicion fell, naturally, on those closest to the tragedy. But hard evidence was equally hard to find. Were the Bordens done in by those of their own household? Was this s revenge crime related to Mr. Borden's business ventures? Or was a madman on the loose?
   
   The book reconstructs in fascinating detail the movements of the many individuals on that fated day, but also in the days preceding. The Bordens were odd, in their way, but not seemingly bizarre. Father Andrew was a quite stern and forbidding man, though not unsentimental. He wore a ring Lizzie gave him as a gift years before. Stepmother Abby was hardly beloved, but seems not to have been detested. Daughters Emma and Lizzie, in their 40s and 30s respectively, were unmarried and still lived at home with their parents. If there were resentments, they were kept carefully in check. But was there more to the family drama than met the eye? While the speculation of moderns minds may tend toward the lurid (weird dad + 2 single women = ?) , the author follows the lead of his 19th century subjects and leaves this promising territory unexplored.
   
   The book does a nice job of laying out the rather confusing facts of the murders the subsequent trial, and the aftermath for the involved parties. Though the murders were brutal, involving extensive injury to faces and heads, the wounds are always hidden by shadows, except for a display of the skulls in the trial scene. This minor mercy makes the book appropriate for kids about 10-12 and up who have an interest in the story.
   
   The author's only stumble was in what must have been a marketing gimmick on the back cover -- a comparison of the Borden case with the more recent OJ Simpson case. Oh well. At the back of the book, the author does include a few newspaper clippings of the day, giving the interested reader the chance to get a feel for journalistic styles of the late 19th century.
   
   "The Borden Tragedy" gave me a good grounding in the case. Next time I swing (!) through Fall River, I'll have to pop by their home (still standing) and their family grave.



3. best part is on the back cover where it compares oj simpson to the borden girl! very fun book to read although id have put more dialogue in it. but it does cover the murders nicely.



4. This is an illustrated novel to provide a quick tour of this famous unsolved crime. The `Bibliography' fails to list David Kent's "Forty Whacks", the one best book on this case. Geary's book necessarily skims over the details; there are no page numbers. If Abby was called to the front door to receive a note would the door still be triple-locked as at night? The position of Andrew on that sofa shows how he was found; he must have been sitting upright (try it and see). The drawing of the barn omits the stairs to the second floor. Geary sums up the arguments for Lizzie's innocence, and covers the other solutions from other authors.
   
   The wounds on Andrew's skull suggest a right-handed killer who faced him; or a left-handed killer who struck while Andrew was reclining. Abby's killer would have to be right-handed to hit her right side of her head from the back; or left-handed if she faced the killer. This is one of the puzzles of this crime. The question about Andrew "apparently fallen over from a sitting position" can be explained by Andrew putting on his shoes to greet a secret visitor. Lizzie was guilty of withholding the identity of this visitor. But her actions were approved by the members of the Fall River ruling class. The back cover compares Lizzie Borden to O.J. Simpson on a number of similarities. The last item about "any other individual" points to an unknown subject given the lack of evidence against either (no bloody clothes or shoes, no murder weapon). Somebody else did it. It would be more accurate to compare Dr. Sam Sheppard to Lizzie. Both were at the crime scene, neither had blood spatter on their clothes or the murder weapon. Both were correctly found not guilty, but suffered from prejudice for the rest of their lives.
   
   You can read about other True Crime cases. If no one in the household did the murder, it was an intruder (or unknown subject). The Borden murders was solved in Arnold Brown's book: it was a nephew of Andrew. Lizzie kept this secret to avoid a scandal. Members of the Fall River ruling class knew, and also kept this secret (except to acknowledge it was a secret). Arnold Brown spent two years researching his book. That was more time than the professional writers used. Brown admits he has no documentary proof for his conclusion, the nephew's birth certificate is kept secret by Massachusetts' laws. There can be no documentary proof of the Mellen House Gang conspiracy because a secret is never committed to paper (else it is not a secret). Brown believes the conflict was over Andrew's will. But a will does not require an heir's presence. Andrew did business from his home, he often made loans to people and foreclosed on their property when they couldn't pay. I believe the secret visitor was there to explain why he could not repay a loan that was due. There are many stories of murder for money in True Crime. Remember the loan from Dr. Parkman to Dr. Webster?



5. Rather than read a single book that "solves" the Borden killings (there's a new solution every few years), you should get a copy of this. This book beautifully outlines the ambiguity of the Borden scenario, leaving the reader with both the sense that noone but Lizzie could have done it, AND that there's simply no way she could have done it. This book clearly and beautifully lays it all out for you. With his expert eye Geary's illustration-diagrams clarify things in a way that even a movie can't. The wierd layout of the Andrew Borden house has never been more clear than in his cut-away illustration.
   
   Noone understands like Geary, the usefulness to a reader of foregrounding the factual information, which leaves you in a position to think more critically about the events. I find his books to be the most useful authority for getting my head around the facts and movements of the suspects, moreso than in the non-fiction books covering the same topic. Geary's best books bring the crime scenes and milieus vividly back to life. His calm, methodical sequencing of the surrounding events lends an operatic and important scale to some tawdry murders. They are perfect for reading just before bedtime.

5 comments about Dragons (Beyond Projects: The CF Sculpture Series, Book 1).

1. I just recently decided to dabble in polymer clay. I bought a previous book on "how to" and techniques. Then I bought this book. This is not a book for someone who has never dealt with polymer clay. She gives ideas on how to make dragons. As for things on mixing clays, tools, etc you will need to find in another book. After I read the first book I bought, I then read this one. I started and finished my first dragon last night. I used Christi's directions from beginning to end and was extremely pleased on how my dragon turned out. I couldn't believe that I made it myself. Christi's book is very detailed and explains what you need to do step by step. She also adds some humor to it which makes it a lot of fun to read. I highly recommend this book.



2. Christie Freisen/s claying books are entertaining, informative but above all, she encourages you to explore your own creativity and it works. I love all of her books. They are an entertaining read and a great how to books, full of humor and other good stuffs. Keep up the good works Christie....... We clayers here in St Louis, MO love you.



3. Such a fun book! Christi is highly entertaining. Her lovely personality comes shining through Loud and Clear!!! I have a great time pulling out these books and following along with her step by step. I am always very satisfied with the results. And usually I am not a step by step kinda person. I am more of the no rules/color outside of the lines kinda gal but, Christi makes it fun to follow along! I can't wait for the rest of the series. So far I've made a few frogs, a dragon, a sea-horse, and some flowers, vines and foliage.
   
   I recommend the entire series. Even my young nieces and my mother-in-law creating projects from these books!



4. Wow, this book is fun from front to back. I have it on my work table open to a favorite page even if I am not working on "whimsical, small creatures of polymer clay" at the time. It has very good directions and clear colorful pictures. It is "user friendly" and I hope there will be more like it. I would like to have a collection of her books. KF



5. This is the 3rd book I bought of this artist and it was just as much of a joy to read and study as the other 2. Her writing and her instructions make it a real joy to read and study. She really makes learning fun. Isn't that what we would like everything to be?! Fun?
   I wasn't a big fan of dragons until I bought this book. It just might change your mind too!

5 comments about Business And Legal Forms for Fine Artists (3rd Edition).

1. This latest edition by Tad Crawford should be required in every Artists reference library. The forms are valuable and the suggestions that accompany each form can easily save a lot of grief by reminding the Artist of what is important to be aware of.



2. By using this resource, an artist can protect themselves and their financial condition through legal means. Most artist just want to do the art and by using this resource, forms that apply to specific events to promote that art give the artist tools to protect themselves. Very good resource - have already put it to use.



3. Extremely useful and informative book. This is the second edition I've bought - 1st edition was 18 years ago & out-dated.



4. Tad Crawford has written a whole series of books out of his expertise in the law and creative arts, with a special focus on photography. I'd suggest looking at Tad's other books, too, since this one is more action-focused without extensive explanations of the whys and wherefores of it.
   
   "Business and Legal Forms" has the documents you'll need, such as copyright transer forms, publishing contracts and stock listing forms for your creative work. His descriptions are very helpful. Of greatest practical use, though, is the included DVD containing MS Word documents of all of the forms.
   
   If you're just getting started in fine arts, or even if you have been working a while, you need this book!



5. Very well organized and comprehensive. DVD provided makes printing a breeze.

No comments about The Nancy Book.