You will be creating for the rest of your life. You might as well do it on purpose. Everyone was an artist, once. But somewhere between kindergarten and now, we lost the confidence to create. We’ve crumbled under the pressure to find our place in the “real, grown-up” world and now see the art room as a happy memory with no real value. Instead of approaching the world with childhood freedom and peace, we fear unmet ambitions. We fear that our lives have little meaning, purpose, or value. We fear that God has a plan for us, but we’re missing it. Yet if we travel back to our seats in the art room, art teacher Matt Appling reminds us of lessons we’ve forgotten, the joy of creating, and the freedom we had to succeed or fail. We can relearn these lessons and practice them to lead the contented, joy-filled, and productive lives that God created us to live.
A must-have reference book for today's artists and art students. Every artist needs to learn and master the still life. Written by a well-known artist and expert instructor, The Art of Still Life offers a comprehensive, contemporary approach to the subject that instructs artists on the foundation basics and advanced techniques they need for successful drawing and painting. In addition to Casey's stunning paintings, the work of over fifty past and present masters is included, so that the book will do double duty as a hardworking how-to manual and a visual treasure trove of some of the finest still life art throughout history and being created today.
A candid guidebook about art-making in the midst of oppression—"a slim, necessary revelation" (Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts). Visiting the Andy Warhol Museum as a teenager, Beth Pickens realized that art was imperative for reflecting—and thus remaking—the world. As an adult, she has dedicated her life to arts nonprofits and consulting, helping marginalized artists traverse the world of MFAs, residences, and institutional funding. Writing in the aftermath of the 2016 election, Pickens reminds emerging artists that their art is more important than ever. She gives advice on fostering creativity and sustaining an innovative practice as conversations about grants, public programming, and arts funding in schools grow ever-more heated. Part political manifesto, part practical manual, this resource reminds us that art has always been a tool of resistance.
Life as Art brings the resources of contemporary aesthetics since Nietzsche to bear on the problems of how one integrates the aesthetic emphases of meaning, liberation, and creativity into one’s daily life. By linking together the aesthetic and ethical accounts of critical theorists, phenomenologists, and existentialists into a coherent view on the artful life, Life as Art shows the ways in which much of contemporary Continental theory has been concerned with alternative ways of constructing one’s own life. Seen as a unified phenomenon, life as art signifies an active attempt to create a life which bears the resistance, openness, and creativity found in artworks.
By offering practical ideas for revealing the meaning and relevance of art to humanity, this text helps art students become effective art teachers. Unlike most art pedagogy texts, Art for Life offers a holistic approach to the art curriculum, through classroom illustrations and comprehensive art content, engaging to art students today.
Inspired by artist Tamara Laporte’s popular online art classes (willowing.org), Create Your Life Book presents 18 step-by-step mixed-media drawing and painting projects that encourage self-fulfillment through the creative process. Tamara’s kind, non-judgmental voice guides your way. What is holding you back? Where do you want to go? Let go of the past! Use these expressive exercises to help you recognize your personal challenges and other obstacles, then work through them. Let go of limiting beliefs, find courage, feel gratitude, heal pain, and develop self-love as you playfully create. Each themed chapter presents four to five two-part projects. First, you will explore a common issue that hampers creativity and/or positive self-worth. The second portion is a step-by-step mixed-media art project designed to help you work through that issue. Just a few of the explorations: Let go of what no longer serves you by taking stock of what’s holding you back, then create a zentangle butterfly to symbolize you flying away from those limiting things. Embrace and love your inner quirky bird by taking an inventory of your quirky traits, then create a bird that celebrates them. Heal old wounds by writing a letter to yourself as a child, then create a house to keep your inner child safe. Adding rich variety to the messages and art inspiration, some of the project outlines have been contributed by Tamara's guest teachers: Roxanne Coble, Andrea Gomoll, Alena Hennessy, Mystele Kirkeeng, Ivy Newport, and Effy Wild, each of whom are noted mixed-media artists in their own right. The final chapter presents a simple binding method for creating a keepsake book of your Life Book projects. Steeped in inspirational images and uplifting affirmations, Create Your Life Book can help you achieve both personal and creative growth.
The Art of Life and Death explores how the world appears to people who have an acute perspective on it: those who are close to death. Based on extensive ethnographic research, Andrew Irving brings to life the lived experiences, imaginative lifeworlds, and existential concerns of persons confronting their own mortality and non-being. Encompassing twenty years of working alongside persons living with HIV/AIDS in New York, Irving documents the radical but often unspoken and unvoiced transformations in perception, knowledge, and understanding that people experience in the face of death. By bringing an "experience-near" ethnographic focus to the streams of inner dialogue, imagination, and aesthetic expression that are central to the experience of illness and everyday life, this monograph offers a theoretical, ethnographic, and methodological contribution to the anthropology of time, finitude, and the human condition. With relevance well-beyond the disciplinary boundaries of anthropology, this book ultimately highlights the challenge of capturing the inner experience of human suffering and hope that affect us all--of the trauma of the threat of death and the surprise of continued life.
Thousands of students graduate from university each year. The lucky few have the rest of their lives mapped out in perfect detail - but for most things are not nearly so simple. Armed with your hard-earned degree the possibilities and career paths lying before you are limitless, and the number of choices you suddenly have to make can seem bewildering. Life After an Art & Design Degree has been written specifically to help students currently studying, or who have recently graduated, make informed choices about their future. It will be source of invaluable advice and wisdom to graduates of creative subjects (whether you wish to directly use your degree or not), covering such topics as: Identifying a career path that interests you – from advertising to interior design Seeking out an opportunity that matches your skills and aspirations Staying motivated and pursuing your goals Networking and self-promotion Making the transition from scholar to worker The Life After University series of books are more than simple ‘career guides’. They are unique in taking a holistic approach to career advice – recognising the increasing view that, although a successful working life is vitally important, other factors can be just as essential to happiness and fulfilment. They are the indispensable handbooks for students considering their future direction.
Is art just a nice-to-have? Or is it deeper, far more integral...even necessary? Is there something from Beethoven to help us with that career setback? Is there something from Shakespeare to help us with our relationships? Is there something from Rembrandt to show us who we really are? It is these, amongt other questions that this book probes; through painting, music, literature, architecture, sculpture, photography and filmsspanning cultures - from Europe and Africa to India and Australia, and artistic periods - from the ancient to the modern. Leveraging his considerable experience as a research professional, Ivan Fernandez combines riveting insights from diverse artists of the past and the present, a dazzling variety of astonishing facts and powerful questions for us to reflect on. In language that is simple, elegant and imbued with passion, Ivan utters an urgent, sincere plea; urging us to draw actionable life lessons from art that can help us rise above ourselves. To make a masterpiece of our own lives. And as a guide on this epic voyage, he takes us on a fascinating journey inward; ploughing not merely the depths of artistic insight, but of the inscrutable human spirit itself! Fernandez talks about bliss - a term Ive often used. It was through writing about my practice, together with making my work, that I found my bliss. I wish Id had Fernandezs book back in those times when overwhelming doubt inhibited my practice. He brings enlightenment to thinking about art and why artists do what they do. This can help give an artist conviction, and therefore confidence, and a lay person a heightened appreciation of art. This most enjoyable read will bring great insight to artists and lay people alike. A truly inspiring read! - Archibald Prize-winning artist and art teacher, Cherry Hood Ivan Fernandezs cross-disciplinary approach - infusing insights from philosophy, literature, music and art - make this book a great read! - Sculptor, Vince Vozzo; member of the decade club (exhibited at Sculpture by the Sea ten times or more)
