5 comments about The Business of Faux: A Creative Evolution.

1. I love this book! I read over half way through it the first day it came. If you are thinking about starting your own decorative paint business or know someone who is, you should get this book. It is true to life experiances, had me laughing in places. I will keep this book to use as a referance in the future. By reading this book I've learned so key elements to help me in my business.



2. This is a good and informative book to read whether you are considering getting into the fields of the decorative painting, plastering and faux business or are already a pro. Pat brings up everything from idea to execution and has chapters on marketing, contracts and web design. A fine addition to your reference library.



3. Both the written and audio version of this book rocks. Not only is it full of information it is entertaining and the author wastes no time in getting down to the meat and bones of strategies and skills needed to make a decorative business succeed. The principles can be used in ANY business. TWO THUMBS UP!!!!



4. This book is amazing. im new in faux biz and it has helped me more then ANY book, more then words on this review could describe. The way pat ties real life experience and actual situations that occur, make it all the better. Im on my 3 rd time reading it. no lie. pats amazing.



5. You've got your skills as a decorative artist down pat...now it's time to get your business skills up to par. THIS is the book to help you succeed! It's a fast read, information is concise and easy to understand. There are tons of great marketing ideas and if you implement the lessons offered and the advice given, you'll have a successful business in no time. Buy this book and treat it as your own personal business manager!

1 comments about MUSEUMS & COMMUNITIES PB.

1. I had to buy this book for a graduate museum studies course but it was well worth it. I still have the book. Although some essays are outdated, it is a good look at issues in museums.

3 comments about Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence (Metropolitan Museum of Art Series).

1. Having marveled at the tapestry I purchased from Simply Tapestries, I went to the Museum of Modern Art to see their recent exhibit of Flemish tapestries. This book can almost act as a companion of this exhibit. I am amazed at the quality and quantity of the full color artwork. This book is a must for anyone who has purchased or intends to purchase a tapestry. The authors are obvious experts in their field. A wonderful art book of the highest quality. I learned so much about the history of these wonderful pieces of art.



2. I had no idea how important a medium tapestry was prior to stumbling on the Met exhibition during a recent visit to NYC and then reading this book. I was amazed to learn the amount of money spent to produce (and purchase!) them, and how important the industry was to the economy of the time . Anyone who thinks of tapestries as beige, boring and historically insignificant is in for a surprise.

   As for this book itself, the photography is stunning and lavish. Each time you look at one of these magnificent works you see something new--it's hard to believe that these are woven objects, the detail and color is so vivid...no wonder the NY Times listed it as a holiday gift buy. (I think they rated the accompanying exhibition one of the year's best too)




3. This collection depicting the tapestry exhibit recently held at the NY Met Museum is an indisputable gem. Entries are consise and thorough. Photographs are well done, some a bit too grey, but overall usable to all textile artists.
   Well worth the price and a steal at Amazon's price.

No comments about Shahzia Sikander.

5 comments about Chihuly's Pendletons: And Their Influence on His Work.

1. This 252-page large format book is a wonderful overview of the history, use and collection of Indian "trade blankets", the most famous of which are those made by Pendleton Woolen Mills. Although seemingly a coffee table book, it is also a good reference for many blanket patterns.
   
   From the earliest says of interactions between Europeans and Native Americans blankets played a major role in trans-cultural trade. The manufactured woolen blankets were thicker, warmer and more colorful than traditional Indian blankets laboriously made from woven animal hair. The colorful patterns became particularly important to the Indians who relied on the blankets as "robes" or overcoats for social occasions and ceremonies. The Indians draped the blankets over their shoulders and held them in place by clasping the edges together with one hand. Antique blankets that were actually used by an Indian will be heavily worn at the location where the edges were grasped.
   
   The trade blanket is a rare instance of a positive, mutually beneficial collaboration between European Americans and Native Americans. The Indians received a superior product that enhanced their lives and the Europeans responded by developing patterns derived from, but not really replicating, traditional Indian decorative themes. Pendleton still manufactures these blankets and nearly half are still purchased by Native Americans.
   
   The book contains 60 full-page or two-page color photographs of classic trade blankets, presumably from the collection of Dale Chihuly, the famous Seattle glass artist. There are also 24 classic black and white photographs that show Indians wearing trade blankets in the late 1800s and early 1900s. And there are large color photographs of wonderful trade blanket-inspired glass art Mr. Chihuly created.
   
   The text includes essays by Mr. Chihuly on collecting blankets and how the blankets influenced his art. There is also an essay by an historian on the history of the blankets, their manufacturers and trading them with the Indians from the 1600s to the present.
   
   Highly recommended to anyone interested in Native American history or folk arts in general. There is an outstanding image-keyed index to the blankets, classic photos and glass art.



2. Chiluly's Pendletons is an interesting book. It shows the early career of Dale Chiluly-who has become one of the pre-eminent artists in America. Chiluly's trademark is his flamboyent, contorted glassworks, which are displayed around the world.

   This book consists of two parts: The first part shows pictures of trade blankets. The second part shows how Chiluly incorporated ideas from his interests in Native American Arts into his early work...during his starving artists phase.

   Chiluly was interested fiber arts, he could not afford the expensive native American blankets; so he collected indian trade blankets...the most enduring trade blanket manufacturer being the Pendleton Woolen Mills. As his fame and fortune grew; so to did his collection.

   This is a very good book for people who wish to study how artists evolve in their work. You have a nice juxtaposition of indian art, photographs of native Americans, and pictures of Chiluly's earlier works.

   What the book is not: It is not an adequate scholarly treatise on trade blankets (it has a lot of nice pictures). The book shows his earlier works. These are all well done, but not quite as large and flamboyent as you might see in his later periods.

   All in all, I give the book high marks. Chiluly fans will enjoy this coffee table book. It helps you see the influences on this artist. It will also get you interested in trade blankets.




3. If you want to know about Native American trading blankets your money would be better spent on Kapoun's book titled "Language of the Robe" which tells it more like it is. I believe that Chihuly purchased the Kapoun's collection and became an overnight authority on the subject, if you catch my drift!
   I have photographed Pendleton blankets for years, and Chihuly and Lohrmann should be more accurate in their detailing of what is and isn't made by the Pendleton Woolen Mills. The photos are good, but there is still room for someone to do a thorough and interesting book on this very important topic. This isn't the one to waste money on, in my opinion.



4. My comments to distinguish what this book plays in the world of contemporary art, is not my intent. Rather I wish to acknowledge the sheer beauty and aesthetic warmth I get from the pages of this large sized book by Dale Chihuly. The rich and colorful geometric patterns that record the decoration and simplicity of the Pendleton Blankets is understood and achieved with out the necessity of additional text in the images. The unpretentious or incidental record that these black and white photographs of the American Indian provide as a documentary technic blends well together with sheer beauty of the American Trade blanket designs. The enchantment and functional magic of glass with it's extraordinary range of form and color linking past to the present, is uniquely profound as well. Chihuly brings to this mix of history and art by acknowledging the reader to move effortlessly from textile to photography, to glass. As an artist, Chihuly takes the fundamental and intangible and blends each together in his truly extraordinary glass cylinders to enrich our eyes and spirit. It's quite simply, a beautiful book.



5. Dave Chihuly is an American artist known for his physics-defying shapes: Chihuly's Pendletons explores the creations which inspired some of his work, focusing on American Indian blankets and weavings and providing chapters which present the artist's reflections on how Indian works influenced his productions. The full-page color photos are revealing, while the first-person insights are important.

3 comments about James Rosenquist: A Retrospective.

1. if i were to ever own just one of rosenquist's books, this would be it. it is the most thorough, colorful pictures and good information. definatly worth every penny.



2. As a catalog of the Rosenquist Retrospective at the Guggenheim, this is probably, if not, the best and most comprehensive book on the work of James Rosenquist available. My sister purchased it for me even before the show opened (which reminds me, I'd better see the show this week, as it's ending soon!), and it has fully satiated me as a source of Rosenquist's work.

   It's a very nicely bound, thick book which I find to be a very good deal in terms of the $65 (retail) price tag. The images are vivid and very finely reproduced in print. The majority of the pages are of Rosenquist's finished paintings from the 1950's up to the recent and refined work such as "Stowaway Peers Out at the Speed of Light". There are several foldouts, and yes, the large-scale Rosenquist classic "F-111" is one of them.

   But my main interest in getting hold of this book were the inclusion of Rosenquist's magazine cut-out collage maquettes that his large paintings were derived from. They obviously represent his influence into the pop art movement and are a development from his early career as a sign painter. After this section are the various edition prints which the artist is also well-known for. At the end of the book is a nice biography/chronology with photos of Rosenquist with family, at openings, etc.

   I highly recommend this book as a definate must for any Rosenquist admirer, or anyone into pop art.




3. No doubt about it, this is the best art book I own. As a HUGE fan of this artist, I may be slightly biased... but there are no doubts about the quality of this book - it is superbly bound and the quality of printing is just excellent. This book is definitely a good buy for any Rosenquist afficionado. Books on his paintings are hard to find so this one is undoubtebly a masterpiece. It is beautifully illustrated and excellently documented. There are not really any faults with this book. There are plenty of wonderful full page illustrations and some like F111 has a 4 page pull-out. I do believe you will not be disappointed - I highly recommend this book.

2 comments about A New World: England's First View of America.

1. John White (c. 1540 - c. 1606), was an English artists who sailed with Richard Grenville in 1585 to the modern day coast of North Carolina. He made a number of watercolors of the landscape and the native peoples they encountered. These are the first and most informative illustrations of Native American society of the Eastern seaboard. They were later engraved by Theodore de Bry; all the surviving original paintings are now in the print room of the British Museum.
   
   A New World: England's First View of America is beautifully illustrated and reproduces in full the British Museum collection of drawings and watercolors. White's duties included making visual records of everything he encountered, including plants, animals, birds, and human inhabitants, especially their dress, weapons, tools, and ceremonies. The collection also includes White's watercolors of Florida and Brazilian Indians.
   
   Each work is reproduced in color and supplemented by engravings by Theodor de Bry and others. In 1590 Theodorus de Bry and his sons had published a new, illustrated edition of Thomas Harriot's A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (Rosenwald Collection Reprint Series) about the first English settlements in North America (in modern-day North Carolina). His illustrations were based on White's watercolor paintings. One interesting aspect of this fine book is seeing how significantly de Bry changed White's works; the engravings are very detailed, but lack the life of the paintings.
   
   Kim Sloan places John White in his historical, cultural, and artistic contexts. Joyce Chaplin explores how White's contemporaries viewed his work and Christian Feest assesses its accuracy as historical documentation. Ute Kuhlemann examines the role of de Bry.
   
   I found this book a wonderful introduction to America as the English of the time must have seen it.
   
   
   Robert C. Ross 2008



2. Very well done, very informative, good attention to detail.

2 comments about Period Rooms in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Metropolitan Museum of Art Series).

1. In my opinion, this book is well worth having and a must for serious students of Interior Design and the Decorative Arts. Written in a scholarly fashion with beautiful photos, it is a marvelous resource affording the reader the opportunity to view period rooms in context. Arrived promptly in good condition, as described.



2. This book is one of the most helpful architecture and furniture books I have found. The met has put together a wide variety of periods and locations to let us look into the rooms of times past. The pictures are stunning and the descriptions are very informative.

2 comments about The Marche (Heritage Guides).

1. since le Marche is the region of Italy from which my family emigrated to America two generations ago, and since it does not get written about very much (which is why it isn't overrun with tourists), my heart skipped a beat when i read this book's description.
   
   as it turns out, this isn't really a book, in the sense of a work that has been vetted by a publisher at arm's length from its authors. rather, it's a "student project", by four students who haven't yet mastered elementary matters such as grammar and correct spelling of place names.
   
   the photos, which appear to have been taken with a pocket-sized digital camera, are as small as the viewing screen on the back of such a camera, and they have the look of having been printed out on a home-office computer. fine for a class project, but a rip-off for a slim volume costing $30.
   
   if you're interested in the giddy gushings of four self-absorbed college girls (there might also be a college boy somewhere in the mix), this is the "book" for you.
   
   but, if you're interested in learning anything about le Marche (aside from the fact that, like almost everywhere else in the world, it has beaches along its shores and restaurants in its interior), your wait for an informative book on this subject is not yet over.



2. There are very few books available that specifically address the Marche area but this is one super book that has it all. It contains a logical flow, had detailed maps, an excellent index, provides history and current information and, offers specifics on Where to Stay, Where to Eat and What is a Must to see. Well worth the money. This is a book for the backpack when in the Marche region

1 comments about A Simple Statement: A Guide to Nonprofit Arts Management and Leadership.

1. This is a very vague overview of starting and running a Nonprofit Art organizations. Though useful for all arts, the author specializes in Theatre in New York state and sometimes this is evident. Definitions of various players, such as the board of directors, and the role they play in the non profit are useful.
   
   This book is very short. It took me less than an hour to finish and I came away knowing more than I knew certainly but not enough to act. I'd consider it a primer on the topic, and further research will definitely be required.