Strokes of Genius 5
Strokes of Genius 5

Author: Rachel Rubin Wolf

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2013-09-13

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 1440323380

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"Do not only draw what you see," encourages artist Gary Rudisill (p55), "create what you feel." In Strokes of Genius 5, that feeling is delivered through strong and inventive design. Covering a tantalizing range of styles, the work within illustrates the many ways today's best artists choreograph shape, value, line, texture and color into compositions that create drama, tell a story, and pull viewers in. Featuring unusual perspectives, tantalizing contrasts and other dynamic design elements, Strokes of Genius 5 delivers fresh inspiration for artists of every skill level and medium. • Art and inspiration from 91 contemporary masters in charcoal, pencil, pastel, colored pencil, scratch board, pen and ink, and more. • 120 masterful works--landscapes, figures, portraits, urban scenes, animals and still lifes--in a wonderful diversity of styles. • Expert tips, techniques and stories behind the designs.

Strokes of Genius
Strokes of Genius

Author: Rachel Rubin Wolf

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2007-06-01

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 1440317496

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Awe-inspiring works by contemporary masters, along with the secrets behind its creation. Drawing is the most intimate and immediate form of self-expression, fundamental to every artist's ability to communicate with a viewer. The sense of energy and expression that can be captured in mere strokes of charcoal, ink, pastel, marker or any of the other modest mediums proudly represented in this book is astounding. A glowing celebration of the art of drawing, Strokes of Genius features styles ranging from meticulous realism to imaginative flights of fancy, from lyrical sketches created in minutes to intricately layered renderings that took months to complete. Includes: • 169 stand-out examples of the finest drawing being done today, selected from hundreds of submissions from around the world. • An impressive range of styles, materials and techniques covering a wide array of subjects, including still life, the figure, animals, landscapes, portraits and more. • Comments from the artists offer firsthand insight on the creation of each artwork, diverse perspectives on drawing, and fresh ideas and techniques. An incomparable source of inspiration and delight for artists and art lovers, Strokes of Genius contains hundreds of combined years of expertise, artistic breakthroughs and, above all, remarkable drawings that leave a lasting impression.

Strokes of Genius
Strokes of Genius

Author: L. Jon Wertheim

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2009-06-01

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 0547416490

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The executive editor of Sports Illustrated offers an in-depth analysis and behind-the-scenes look at the historic 2008 match between tennis titans. In the 2008 Wimbledon men’s final, Centre Court was a stage set worthy of Shakespearean drama. Five-time champion Roger Federer was on track to take his rightful place as the most dominant player in the history of the game. He just needed to cling to his trajectory. So, in the last few moments of daylight, Centre Court witnessed a coronation. Only it wasn’t a crowning for the Swiss heir apparent but for a swashbuckling Spaniard. Twenty-two-year-old Rafael Nadal prevailed, in five sets, in what was, according to the author, “essentially a four-hour, forty-eight-minute infomercial for everything that is right about tennis—a festival of skill, accuracy, grace, strength, speed, endurance, determination, and sportsmanship.” It was also the encapsulation of a fascinating rivalry, hard fought and of historic proportions. In the tradition of John McPhee’s classic Levels of the Game, Strokes of Genius deconstructs this defining moment in sport, using that match as the backbone of a provocative, thoughtful, and entertaining look at the science, art, psychology, technology, strategy, and personality that go into a single tennis match. With vivid, intimate detail, Wertheim re-creates this epic battle in a book that is both a study of the mechanics and art of the game and the portrait of a rivalry as dramatic as that of Ali–Frazier, Palmer–Nicklaus, and McEnroe–Borg. “Deftly touches on all the defining factors of contemporary tennis.” —San Francisco Chronicle “Illuminates a kingdom changing hands. An engrossing book.” —Bud Collins

Strokes of Genius
Strokes of Genius

Author: Eric Chaline

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2017-08-15

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 1780238908

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What could be better than diving into cool water on a hot day? In this enormously enjoyable and informative history of swimming, Eric Chaline sums up this most summery of moments with one phrase: pleasure beckons at the water’s edge. Strokes of Genius traces the history of swimming from the first civilizations to its current worldwide popularity as a sport, fitness pastime, and leisure activity. Chaline explores swimming’s role in ritual, early trade and manufacturing, warfare, and medicine, before describing its transformation in the early modern period into a leisure activity and a competitive sport—the necessary precursors that have made it the most common physical pastime in the developed world. The book celebrates the physicality and sensuality of swimming—attributes that Chaline argues could have contributed to the evolution of the human species. Swimming, like other disciplines that use repetitive movements to train the body and quiet the mind, is also a means of spiritual awakening—a personal journey of discovery. Swimming has attained the status of a cultural marker, denoting eroticism, leisure, endurance, adventure, exploration, and excellence. Strokes of Genius shows that there is not a single story of human swimming, but many currents that merge, diverge, and remerge. Chaline argues that swimming will become particularly important as we look toward a warmer future in which our survival may depend on our ability to adapt to life in an aquatic world.

Struck by Genius
Struck by Genius

Author: Jason Padgett

Publisher: HMH

Published: 2014-04-22

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 0544045645

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From head trauma to scientific wonder—a “deeply absorbing . . . fascinating” true story of acquired savant syndrome (Entertainment Weekly). Twelve years ago, Jason Padgett had never made it past pre-algebra. But a violent mugging forever altered the way his brain worked. It turned an ordinary math-averse student into an extraordinary young man with a unique gift to see the world as no one else does: water pours from the faucet in crystalline patterns, numbers call to mind distinct geometric shapes, and intricate fractal patterns emerge from the movement of tree branches, revealing the intrinsic mathematical designs hidden in the objects around us. As his ability to understand physics skyrocketed, the “accidental genius” developed the astonishing ability to draw the complex geometric shapes he saw everywhere. Overcoming huge setbacks and embracing his new mind, Padgett “gained a vision of the world that is as beautiful as it is challenging.” Along the way he fell in love, found joy in numbers, and spent plenty of time having his head examined (The New York Times Book Review). Illustrated with Jason’s stunning, mathematically precise artwork, his singular story reveals the wondrous potential of the human brain, and “an incredible phenomenon which points toward dormant potential—a little Rain Man perhaps—within us all” (Darold A. Treffert, MD, author of Islands of Genius: The Bountiful Mind of the Autistic, Acquired, and Sudden Savant). “A tale worthy of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! . . . This memoir sends a hopeful message to families touched by brain injury, autism, or neurological damage from strokes.” —Booklist “How extraordinary it is to contemplate the bizarre gifts that might lie within all of us.” —People

My Stroke of Insight
My Stroke of Insight

Author: Jill Bolte Taylor

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2008-05-12

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1101213973

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"Transformative...[Taylor's] experience...will shatter [your] own perception of the world."—ABC News The astonishing New York Times bestseller that chronicles how a brain scientist's own stroke led to enlightenment On December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven- year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. As she observed her mind deteriorate to the point that she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life-all within four hours-Taylor alternated between the euphoria of the intuitive and kinesthetic right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace, and the logical, sequential left brain, which recognized she was having a stroke and enabled her to seek help before she was completely lost. It would take her eight years to fully recover. For Taylor, her stroke was a blessing and a revelation. It taught her that by "stepping to the right" of our left brains, we can uncover feelings of well-being that are often sidelined by "brain chatter." Reaching wide audiences through her talk at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference and her appearance on Oprah's online Soul Series, Taylor provides a valuable recovery guide for those touched by brain injury and an inspiring testimony that inner peace is accessible to anyone.

Sparks of Genius
Sparks of Genius

Author: Robert Root-Bernstein

Publisher: HMH

Published: 2013-08-26

Total Pages: 410

ISBN-13: 0547525893

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Discover the cognitive tools that lead to creative thinking and problem-solving with this “well-written and easy-to-follow” guide (Library Journal). Explore the “thinking tools” of extraordinary people, from Albert Einstein and Jane Goodall to Mozart and Virginia Woolf, and learn how you can practice the same imaginative skills to become your creative best. With engaging narratives and examples, Robert and Michèle Root-Bernstein investigate cognitive tools such as observing, recognizing patterns, modeling, playing, and more. Sparks of Genius is “a clever, detailed and demanding fitness program for the creative mind” and a groundbreaking guidebook for anyone interested in imaginative thinking, lifelong learning, and transdisciplinary education (Kirkus Reviews). “How different the painter at the easel and the physicist in the laboratory! Yet the Root-Bernsteins recognize the deep-down similarity of all creative thinking, whether in art or science. They demonstrate this similarity by comparing the accounts that various pioneers and inventors have left of their own creative processes: for Picasso just as for Einstein, for Klee just as for Feynman, the creative impulse always begins in vision, in emotion, in intuition. . . . With a lavishly illustrated chapter devoted to each tool, readers quickly realize just how far the imagination can stretch.” —Booklist “A powerful book . . . Sparks of Genius presents radically different ways of approaching problems.” —American Scientist

Kingdom of Characters (Pulitzer Prize Finalist)
Kingdom of Characters (Pulitzer Prize Finalist)

Author: Jing Tsu

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2022-01-18

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0735214743

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PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST A New York Times Notable Book of 2022 What does it take to reinvent a language? After a meteoric rise, China today is one of the world’s most powerful nations. Just a century ago, it was a crumbling empire with literacy reserved for the elite few, as the world underwent a massive technological transformation that threatened to leave them behind. In Kingdom of Characters, Jing Tsu argues that China’s most daunting challenge was a linguistic one: the century-long fight to make the formidable Chinese language accessible to the modern world of global trade and digital technology. Kingdom of Characters follows the bold innovators who reinvented the Chinese language, among them an exiled reformer who risked a death sentence to advocate for Mandarin as a national language, a Chinese-Muslim poet who laid the groundwork for Chairman Mao's phonetic writing system, and a computer engineer who devised input codes for Chinese characters on the lid of a teacup from the floor of a jail cell. Without their advances, China might never have become the dominating force we know today. With larger-than-life characters and an unexpected perspective on the major events of China’s tumultuous twentieth century, Tsu reveals how language is both a technology to be perfected and a subtle, yet potent, power to be exercised and expanded.

Tiger Woods Made Me Look Like a Genius
Tiger Woods Made Me Look Like a Genius

Author: Don Crosby

Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 170

ISBN-13: 9780740704727

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An easygoing, storytelling style makes this offering from Tiger Woods's high school coach a delight. Tiger Woods Made Me Look Like a Genius weaves Don Crosby's golfing techniques into the story of coaching the champion and how Woods's own methods meshed with and enhanced Crosby's approach. Coach Don Crosby has only a 12-week season to turn ragtag teenage duffers into championship contenders. With no time to waste, he focuses on five basics that can take ten strokes off anyone's score: The Practice Range-good for two shots off your game The Short Game-the surest way to lower your score is to chip away at it Putting-imagine no three-putt greens Course Management-a course you know is two shots easier than one you don't Stats-you can't get better unless you know how you're doing Tiger Woods Made Me Look Like a Genius is a handbook of Crosby's golfing techniques and strategies, sprinkled liberally with his personal recollections and anecdotes of the good old days when he coached the young Tiger. The stories, "Crosby's True Tales," bring the mechanics of golf to life, illustrating how these five techniques work and what to expect from them, while offering an intimate look at the evolution of champion Tiger Woods. The book also features an insert with photographs and memorabilia from these special days of coaching.