No comments about Nanoq: Flat Out and Bluesome: a Cultural Life of Polar Bears.

5 comments about Making Bits & Pieces Mosaics: Creative Projects for Home and Garden.

1. Really great book with lots of ideas of how to make mosaics out of found objects. I highly recommend it. Full of Fun!



2. Marlene, aside from being a good friend, a wonderful painter, and a beautiful woman, is an inspiration. Buy this book-- making things from broken china is calming, and fun.



3. I wish I hadn't spent the money on this book. While it does give you the basics of doing mosaics, there's maybe 6 pages of it. If you've ever done any tile work, then its useless. The rest of the book is centered on doing specific projects. Frankly, the example pieces in the book were downright ugly. Most of them looked like they were just a smashed plate re-assembled. There's really no color or design patterns. The rest had doll heads all over them, which I found pretty creepy. If you're a beginner, this might give you the basics but there should be better books out there. If you're looking for inspiration, there HAVE to be better books out there than this one.



4. This book has a lot of finished pieces that I found to be almost ugly. The techniques as instructed are not as in depth as I have seen in other books. I recommend you purchase to accompany another mosaic book, but I would not make it my primary instructional book.



5. I love the challenge of creative household projects and bounce back and forth between several different ones, but by far, mosaic tiling is my favorite! I used this book for the ideas & know how. It has great pictures and well thought ideas I had never thought of. I tiled my porch walk way with a wonderful mosaic tile design & I receive complement after complement (even from the mailman!). Everyone wants to know who did it!

5 comments about Women by Women.

1. These four-dozen photographers present a wide range of views: delicate, playful, graceful, fetish-exotic, or something that has no good name. The collection combines B&W images with a few in color, all beautifully printed on bright stock.
   
   With such variety, no one word captures the whole collection. A few images (e.g. p.51) convey simple honesty, an affectionate documentary. Others (p.1, 20-21, 37) display the figure's simple or complex (p.31) elegance. Yet others (p.89) treat the model as monument, or as embodiment of passion (p.35, 100, 104). Despite all the variety displayed here, it just reminds the viewer that each individual model, each unique woman lives all these moods and more at different times.
   
   Does the woman's view really make a difference? I honestly can't say - maybe it does. Maybe playtime lingerie and unwalkable heels occur less frequently, maybe there are fewer of the exaggerated "art" poses, maybe implants appear more often than in other recent collections. Maybe not - and maybe if you ask me again, I'll give a different answer. Maybe the subjective differences between men's and women's views have little effect on the objective look of the photo. No matter. This collection offers a gorgeous, varied, and often surprising look at women's beauty.
   
   -- wiredweird



2. while the cover modle is not a good represintation of the models in the book. It is a book that really shows the real everyday women that roam the earth in all thier natural beauty. I bought this book to aid in an art class study. This was an outstanding book to own.



3. Up front, here's my only objection: I do not believe that quality fine-art nude images are created based on the gender of the photographer. I take absolute exception to that premise --that a woman, or a man, for that matter--makes more significant images because of their gender, which is the major selling point of this book. (I mean, look at the title, fer God's sakes!).
   
   Having filed that objection, I still give this publication 5 stars for utterly magnificent work. Sensuality, self-awareness, vulnerability, beauty, and hope abound in every image. The best of what it is to be human is revealed in this book (which is exactly the point, the only point, of this type of work).
   
   Thank you, Stephanie, for your beautiful work.
   
   To the publisher: I understand about marketing into a niche, but please don't make it about the artist's gender-- That's such a cheap marketing shot. It's about the freshness of her vision, and the proficieny of her art, which would be true regardless of her sex. . . .
   
   Granted, I bought this book with the hope of learning something new about artistic photographic vision from a woman's perspective-- much as I've read feminist writers to learn new perspectives in literature-- Hurston, Walker, et al. And, while I see poignancy in every shot, there is nothing significant that I can attribute to the photographer's gender. . . .
   
   And then I began to wonder, How would I know the difference between a man or a woman behind the camera? Granted, again, there are differences between Sturges and Mann-- but I can't define them as being gender-based; it's a larger socio-economic context between the two of them.
   
   I could be wrong, of course-- and I am certainly open to the perspectives of others.
   
   But I suspect it's a marketing thing. And it hooked me. I bought the book. To wit:
   
   I am totally impressed with the work-- and couldn't care less about the gender of the artist. If you love fine art photography, buy this book.



4. Beautifully done by some of the best female photographers out there. Thoughtful, sexy, comely, and none of the condescension so often implied in photographs taken by men.



5. i enjoyed the book loads as it is a collection of photos from several female photographers. although there's a lot of variety, there's no porn and all of the material is within 'normal' limits. no surprises, plain artistic and erotic stuff, but i liked that.

   there are macros and full body shots, and surprisingly many women are on a bed, partly covered by sheets or such. the feeling that comes across the book is joy but it's not too obvious, i think the photos are just positive in how they perceive women. what was also interesting is that even if there is erotism in the photos, it is not the same as when men photograph it. women in the book are not objects.

   i can recommend this book :)

2 comments about Summer Diary.

1. Bel Ami is probably the most famous and best purveyors of the super young actor/model types. This collection is proof again of their flair for their niche. For the Hawks, there is ample Chicken.



2. "When George Duroy took his models in 2003 to film Bazaar: Out At Last 4 in Cape Town, South Africa, not only did they produce a first-class movie, but they also created this book of souvenir photos. Inside are 136 pages of models Mark Aubrey, Sebastian Bonnet, Yves Carradine, Sascha Chaykin, Ethan Clarke, Josh Elliot, Sean Ellis, Brandon Manilow, Matt Phillipe, Liam Phoenix and Marc Vidal. This is another book for the distinguished fan's well-adorned coffee table." - Summary from TLA Video

No comments about Pottery for Life: A Guide for Beginning Potters and Those with Special Needs (Ceramics Handbooks).

4 comments about Price Guide to Holt-Howard Collectibles: And Related Ceramicwares of the '50s & '60s.

1. I ordered the book and generally liked it, but was disappointed it does NOT include all the Christmas items HH made and that this is a small section of the book.. :0



2. if you are looking for information on Holt Howard collectibles, this is the book for you. I has lots of color pictures and descriptions with specifics.



3. This is one of the best books on Figural Kitchenware of the 50's and 60's that I have seen so far. Not only great pictures, but the best information about Holt Howard Collectibles as well as nock offs. I have used my copy more than any other reference book I own on Kitchenware. Walter Dworkin can't put out another soon enough. Can't wait!



4. Highly recommend this book not only for the detailed description but also for the great color photos. Most price guides have alot of descriptions but not many photos, not this one! I enjoyed reading the description and seeing a photo. A must have for any collector

3 comments about Tempo, Tempo! The Bauhaus Photomontages of Marianne Brandt.

1. Extremely well researched and uniting for the first time an extensive body of Brandt's photomontage, this book brings together a critical study of interwar Germany with an abundance of visual material. The author (Art History, SUNY Buffalo) places Brandt's forays into montage in the context of wider social, economic and technological changes arising out of the World War I. Reuniting collections previously fragmented between the United States and the former East and West Germanys, she demonstrates the myriad ways through which Brandt drew meaning and significance from the splinters of the past and on topics as diverse as gender, militarization, and the transformation of modern urban life. Readers interested in Bauhaus design or in Brandt's metal work will find this book a fascinating complement to a little known side of Brandt oeuvre. A thoroughly pleasurable book, I highly recommend it to all those interested in the arts of the Weimar era, the study of gender in interwar Germany, or to anyone interested in art history more generally.



2. Tempo, Tempo! is a highly informative, beautifully presented, and intriguing look at a set of photomontages by one of the few women members of the Bauhaus collective, Marianne Brandt. Elizabeth Otto's selection, analysis, and interpretation of Brandt's work gives us a fascinating glimpse of part of the history and culture of Weimar Germany. Brandt's photomontages, and the images she used to create them, drew on a number of themes--global militarism, changing perceptions of masculine and feminine gender roles, industrial development and machinery, metropolitan spaces, images of the "exotic"--that have as much resonance today as they did when she created this body of work. The photomontages reveal more and more as you study them, and Otto's accompanying texts, in both English and German, guide the reader to further insights on how to read these complex works of art. It is an erudite text, but not an inaccessible one. It is an enjoyable read, and the photomontages themselves are fun to study. I definitely recommend this text for anyone interested in Weimar history and culture, women in art, or art history generally.



3. Tempo, Tempo! The Bauhaus Photomontages of Marianne Brandt is a comprehensive look at the works of this fascinating woman. One can read the book in English or German, or attempt to go back and forth between the two. The author does a tremendous job interpreting Brandt's images and relates them to the culture of the time. One can learn a lot about Brandt and history through this book.

No comments about Mark Wallinger: Credo.

No comments about Richard Prince: Untitled (couple) (One Work).

No comments about Designing Interiors With Tile: Creative Ideas in Ceramic, Stone, and Mosaic.