Book Reviews - Artsy Stuff

How was your Christmas, bloggy friends? All is well here. It snowed yesterday. A lot. How lovely! I'm still trying to catch up on my book reviews for the year, so here's four more all relating to something "artsy."

1. Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, & Culture by Makoto Fujimura - Source: Recognized the author and picked up off a sales rake for $1.50! What a find! Rating: 5 of 5 STARS

Paperback: 176 pages, Publisher: NavPress (February 1, 2009), ISBN-10: 1600063012

Fujimura was named "Daniel of the Year" by World Magazine in December, 2005. (Great magazine, by the way.) He's a contemporary artist with a home and studio near Ground Zero. Matt and I visited New York with some friends in March of 2006 and found our way to his exhibit. Unfortunately, we caught the tail end of it and all of his paintings were being packed away for shipment to the next exhibit. But the studio was kind enough to let us browse some of the pieces. They were beautiful - as is this book of meditations. Not always a easy read, often focused on the post-911 artistic world of NYC, but always linking his art with his faith, Fujimura fills this slim volume with beautiful pictures made of both words and ink. Highly recommend this one. He also has an autobiography, River Grace, but it looks like it's out of publication right now.

2. Drawing Lab - by Carla Sonheim - Source: Ordered it randomly from Amazon and then found an online group to work through it with; Rating: 5 of 5 STARS

Paperback: 144 pages, Publisher: Quarry Books (July 1, 2010), ISBN-10: 1592536131

5 STARS is probably not enough for this book. It's simply marvelous and I learned so much working through it this year with the Artists of the Round Table group. I follow Carla's blog now and am planning to try her next Silliness Workshop beginning January 5th. Drawing Lab has made me a huge fan and admirer of her work. If you have any interest in art or developing your skills, buy this book, grab a couple of friends, and work through it together.


3. Lettering & Type - by Willen & Strals - Source: picked up at Barnes & Noble; Rating: 3 of 5 STARS

Paperback: 144 pages, Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; 1 edition (September 23, 2009), ISBN-10: 156898765X

This probably isn't a totally fair rating of the book. I think it just turned out to be a bit more technical for me than I wanted. I was looking for something more on hand lettering than type. This book seemed to be more focused on the "Type" portion than "Lettering." Still an interesting read.



4. Everyday Matters by Danny Gregory; Source: Read about it on Internet; Rating: 3 of 5 STARS

Paperback: 120 pages, Publisher: Hyperion (January 9, 2007), ISBN-10: 1401307957

After reading so much about this book, I was a little disappointed in it. It's Gregory's drawing journal of how he coped after his wife survived being ran over by a subway train in New York. His drawings are charming and the idea of a drawing journal for healing is interesting, but the book left me with an overall depressed feeling.