- Table View
- List View
Art From Intuition
by Dean NimmerPractical self-help for artists who want to free their creativity. Art from Intuition offers artists everywhere a unique system for freeing their own creative intuition, the sixth sense that directs an artist's drive and work. By letting go of the self-criticism, doubt, and insecurity that discourage artmaking, artists will be able to soar to new heights of creativity. More than 60 practical exercises take the reader from the most basic intuitive art to more sophisticated techniques. Each exercise, supported by step-by-step instructions, is accessible to artists at every level, and the exercises can be done in any order. After each chapter, readers are encouraged to follow up by evaluating their drawings or paintings to see how they reflect their own personal goals. Works of art by students and contemporary artists exemplify how exciting and how productive a freer, more intuitive approach to making art can be.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Old Man Goya
by Julia BlackburnIn 1792, when he was forty-seven, the Spanish painter Francisco de Goya contracted a serious illness that left him stone deaf. In this extraordinary book, Julia Blackburn follows Goya through the remaining thirty-five years of his life. It was a time of political turmoil, of war, violence, and confusion, and Goya transformed what he saw around him into visionary paintings, drawings, and etchings. These were also years of tenderness for Goya, of intimate relationships with the Duchess of Alba and with Leocadia, his mistress, who accompanied him to the end. Blackburn's singular distinction as a biographer is her uncanny ability to create a kaleidoscope of biography, memoir, history, and meditation--to think herself into another world. In Goya she has found the perfect subject. Visiting the towns Goya frequented, reading the revelatory letters that he wrote for years to a boyhood friend, investigating the subjects he portrayed, Julia Blackburn writes about the elderly painter with the intimacy of an old friend, seeing through his eyes and sharing the silence in his head.With unprecedented immediacy and illumination, Old Man Goya gives us an unparalleled portrait of the artist.
Silent Stars
by Jeanine BasingerFrom one of America's most renowned film scholars: a revelatory, perceptive, and highly readable look at the greatest silent film stars -- not those few who are fully appreciated and understood, like Chaplin, Keaton, Gish, and Garbo, but those who have been misperceived, unfairly dismissed, or forgotten. Here is Valentino, "the Sheik," who was hardly the effeminate lounge lizard he's been branded as; Mary Pickford, who couldn't have been further from the adorable little creature with golden ringlets that was her film persona; Marion Davies, unfairly pilloried in Citizen Kane; the original "Phantom" and "Hunchback," Lon Chaney; the beautiful Talmadge sisters, Norma and Constance. Here are the great divas, Pola Negri and Gloria Swanson; the great flappers, Colleen Moore and Clara Bow; the great cowboys, William S. Hart and Tom Mix; and the great lover, John Gilbert. Here, too, is the quintessential slapstick comedienne, Mabel Normand, with her Keystone Kops; the quintessential all-American hero, Douglas Fairbanks; and, of course, the quintessential all-American dog, Rin-Tin-Tin.This is the first book to anatomize the major silent players, reconstruct their careers, and give us a sense of what those films, those stars, and that Hollywood were all about. An absolutely essential text for anyone seriously interested in movies, and, with more than three hundred photographs, as much a treat to look at as it is to read.
A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder
by Michael PollanAt a turning point in his life, writer Michael Pollan found himself dreaming of a small wood-frame hut in the woods near his house--a place to work, but also a "shelter for daydreams." Weaving the practical with the philosophical, this book presents a captivating personal inquiry into the art of architecture, the craft of building, and the meaning of modern work. Line drawings throughout. Size C. 320 pp. National ads & publicity. 35,000 print.
Raised on Radio
by Gerald NachmanFor everybody "raised on radio"--and that's everybody brought up in the thirties, forties, and early fifties--this is the ultimate book, combining nostalgia, history, judgment, and fun, as it reminds us of just how wonderful (and sometimes just how silly) this vanished medium was. Of course, radio still exists--but not the radio of The Lone Ranger and One Man's Family, of Our Gal Sunday and Life Can Be Beautiful, of The Goldbergs and Amos 'n' Andy, of Easy Aces, Vic and Sade, and Bob and Ray, of The Shadow and The Green Hornet, of Bing Crosby, Kate Smith, and Baby Snooks, of the great comics, announcers, sound-effects men, sponsors, and tycoons.In the late 1920s radio exploded almost overnight into being America's dominant entertainment, just as television would do twenty-five years later. Gerald Nachman, himself a product of the radio years--as a boy he did his homework to the sound of Jack Benny and Our Miss Brooks--takes us back to the heyday of radio, bringing to life the great performers and shows, as well as the not-so-great and not-great-at-all. Nachman analyzes the many genres that radio deployed or invented, from the soap opera to the sitcom to the quiz show, zooming in to study closely key performers like Benny, Bob Hope, and Fred Allen, while pulling back to an overview that manages to be both comprehensive and seductively specific.Here is a book that is generous, instructive, and sinfully readable--and that brings an era alive as it salutes an extraordinary American phenomenon.From the Hardcover edition.
Still Life Painting Atelier
by Michael FrielThe equivalent of a foundation course in traditional oil painting for beginning to intermediate level artists, this in-depth book uses the still life as a practical way to master oil techniques. The still life is a practical, forgiving genre as it does not require the likeness of a portrait or the accurate proportions of the figure and, unlike the landscape, it doesn't change with the weather. Instead, it gives aspiring artists ample time to study and the opportunity to look closer. It can be used as a purely formal subject for drawing and painting techniques, or a platform for emotional expression using personal symbolism and imagery. However, though the still life is used throughout as a teaching tool, this is first and foremost a book about oil painting. It begins with simple compositions that build to more complex arrangements. Starting with essential information on how to best set up your studio--including lighting, equipment, materials (paints, solvents, brushes, mediums), and preparing your canvas and paper for oil painting--Still Life Painting Atelier then offers concrete lessons in a logical progressive sequence, with step-by-step illustrations, finished paintings, diagrams and tips. Chapters cover: * How to address composition through thumbnail sketches and line drawings * Using underpainting to study the characteristics of light and shade * The basics of color theory and color mixing * How to use a variety of brushes to create sharp and soft edges * Techniques that are helpful when painting metal and glass * How to apply glazing and scumbling to bring luminosity and texture
The Hollywood Studios: House Style In The Golden Age Of The Movies
by Ethan MorddenHollywood in the years between 1929 and 1948 was a town of moviemaking empires. The great studios were estates of talent: sprawling, dense, diverse. It was the Golden Age of the Movies, and each studio made its distinctive contribution. But how did the studios, "growing up" in the same time and place, develop so differently? What combinations of talents and temperaments gave them their signature styles? These are the questions Ethan Mordden answers, with breezy erudition and irrepressible enthusiasm, in this fascinating and wonderfully readable book. Mordden illuminates how the style of each studio was primarily dictated by the personality, philosophy, and attitudes of its presiding mogul-and how all these factors affected the work and careers of individual actors, directors, writers, and technicians, and the success of the studio in general.
Our Own Snug Fireside: Images of the New England Home, 1760-1860
by Jane NylanderThis charming book portrays domestic life in New England during the century between the American Revolution and the Civil War. Drawing on diaries, letters, wills, newspapers, and other sources, Jane C. Nylander provides intimate details about preparing dinner, spinning and weaving textiles, washing and ironing laundry, planning a social outing, and exchanging food and services. Probing behind the many myths that have grown up about this era, Nylander reveals the complex reality of everyday life in old New England.
The Work Of Craft
by Carla NeedlemanThe Work of Craft is a profound meditation on the relationship between craft and craftsman. Focusing in turn on pottery, weaving, and woodcarving, and grounding her insights in her own experiences as a potter, Carla Needleman shows that the basic material every craftsman works with is himself or herself. The stuff between one's hands-the clay, the wood, the wool-responds to the quality of one's inner state. The product of one's work is not just an object but a way of being. Thus, the exploration of a craft is--like this book--an exploration of the processes of life itself.
All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Watching Star Trek
by Dave MarinaccioHow to win at poker. The power of a business's mission statement. If you can dial a telephone, you can do anything. These are the lessons to be learned from "Star Trek." First a hit television show, and then a pop culture phenomenon, "Star Trek" is now the basis for inspiration and guidance in our daily lives. ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED FROM WATCHING STAR TREK is an anthology of valuable lessons that can be found within the episodes of "Star Trek." Discover why its dangerous to wear a plain red shirt, why Captain Kirk was such a superb leader, and why you should always help people in need.
The Ice Palace That Melted Away
by Bill StumpfWith The Ice Palace That Melted Away, Bill Stumpf, the designer of the first ergonomic chair, addresses the symbiotic relationship between design and the way we live, the often deadening effect of technology, and his hopes for a more humane future. As a designer associated with Herman Miller, Inc., for more than twenty years, Stumpf has been thinking about the profoundly positive or negative effect design can have on our culture. He is both an idealist and a pragmatist, and his wry, anecdotal style gently reveals his shrewd observations about American customs and values. Stumpf is convinced that good design can create the right atmosphere to inspire learning, rehabilitate criminals, and generally lift our spirits. Since technology has succeeded in distancing us from the real experiences of life and such former pleasures as travel, in this facinating book he proposes a playful redesign of the Boeing 747 and a jaunty carriage-like taxicab to put us back in touch with travel as it once was. But it is an event such as the construction of the ephemeral ice palace in St. Paul, Minnesota, during the winter carnival--a source of joy and pride to adults and children alike--that encapsulates the idea of play, which Stumpf feels is essential to all our lives.This provocative book asks whether we might want to do something about our ever-declining levels of "comfort, hidden goodness, play, personal worth, and helping others" to make our future society a truly civilized one.(Black-and-white illustrations throughout.)From the Hardcover edition.
Prepare for Saints: Gertrude Stein, Virgil Thomson, and the Mainstreaming of American Modernism
by Steven WatsonPerhaps the oddest and most influential collaboration in the history of American modernism was hatched in 1926, when a young Virgil Thomson knocked on Gertrude Stein's door in Paris. Eight years later, their opera Four Saints in Three Acts became a sensation--the longest-running opera in Broadway history to date and the most widely reported cultural event of its time. Four Saints was proclaimed the birth of a new art form, a cellophane fantasy, "cubism on stage." It swept the public imagination, inspiring new art and new language, and defied every convention of what an opera should be. Everything about it was revolution-ary: Stein's abstract text and Thomson's homespun music, the all-black cast, the costumes, and the com-bustible sets. Moving from the Wadsworth Atheneum to Broadway, Four Saints was the first popular modernist production. It brought modernism, with all its flamboyant outrage against convention, into the mainstream. This is the story of how that opera came to be. It involves artists, writers, musicians, salon hostesses, and an underwear manufacturer with an appetite for publicity. The opera's success depended on a handful of Harvard-trained men who shaped America's first museums of modern art. The elaborately intertwined lives of the collaborators provide a window onto the pioneering generation that defined modern taste in America in the 1920s and 1930s. A brilliant cultural historian with a talent for bringing the past to life, Steven Watson spent ten years researching and writing this book, interviewing many of the collaborators and performers. Prepare for Saints is the first book to describe this pivotal moment in American cultural history. It does so with a spirit and irreverence worthy of its subject.NOTE: This edition does not include photographs.
Christmas in My Heart, A Fourth Treasury: Stories To Share The Spirit Of The Season
by Joe WheelerAn illustrated hardcover gift edition of the inspirational classic that has brought peace to millions. For ober a decade, readers have drawn new hpe and spiritual strength from this simple tale of a humble man with the power to transform his neighbors' lives.
Christmas in My Heart, A Third Treasury: Further Tales of Holiday Joy
by Joe WheelerJoe Wheeler's bestselling Christmas in My Heart series brings joy to readers by reawakening the true spirit of the season within themselves. His two previous collections make gifts that send a cherished message of love and help families establish a cozy holiday tradition of reading these stories together. In Christmas in My Heart: A Third Treasury, Wheeler offers more warm, tender, and beautiful stories, such as the tale of a young girl who dreams of getting a doll for Christmas or the story of the little orphan who radiates the love of holidays. No family will want to miss out on these lovely stories.
Christmas in My Heart A Second Treasury: More Heartwarming Tales of Holiday Joy
by Joe WheelerAccording to the New York Times Book Review, there are a few secrets to a good Christmas story:It should have a meaning.It should include a dying child.It should make readers cry.Any promise is possible.It should be short enough to read in one sitting.Most important, it should tell a story.If these are what make a Christmas story good, Christmas in My Heart, A Second Treasury will bring you nonstop Christmas joy. From cover to cover, all fourteen of these stories represent the best in holiday memories. And in reading them, you are creating memories for years to come.Amid the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping, decorating, concerts, and parties, it is sometimes easy to forget what makes this time of year so special. Nothing brings the real reason for Christmas into focus better than reading beloved stories that touch our hearts. And no one brings us those stories better than Joe Wheeler, whose Christmas in My Heart won the favor of loyal readers from coast to coast.In Christmas in My Heart, A Second Treasury, Wheeler works his magic once again, bringing the joy of Christmas alive for even those Scrooges among us. Its traditional and contemporary stories set this apart as a collector's item in the making--one destined to stand the test of time. Whether we are laughing with Miss Enderby in "Jolly Miss Enderby," crying with Dr. Loomis in "The Tiny Foot," or feeling the warm glow of happiness in "Christmas Is for Families," all of these wonderful stories bring us true peace.Whether you buy it because Joe Wheeler is so well known, or because the individual stories in this edition touch your heart, Christmas in My Heart, A Second Treasury is the best gift you can give anyone this Christmas, even yourself.
The Archaeology of New York State
by William A. RitchieThe most complete account of ancient man in the New York area ever published in one volume, this book traces a rich, 8000-year story of human prehistory. Beginning with the first known inhabitants, Paleo-Indian hunters who lived approximately 7000 B.C., the author gives a detailed chronological account of the complex of cultural units that have existed in the area, culminating in the Iroquois tribes encountered by the European colonists at the dawn of the seventeenth century. All of the major archaeological sites in the region are described in detail and representative artifacts from all the major cultural units are illustrated in over 100 plates and drawings. The entire account is informed by the most recently obtained radio-carbon dates. In addition to giving much new, previously unpublished information, the author has synthesized all earlier published material and from this he has drawn as many inferences as the material affords regarding the nature of these early inhabitants, where they came from, and how they lived. Each cultural unit is systematically described: its discovery and naming; its ecological and chronological setting; the physical characteristics of the related people; economy; housing and settlement pattern; dress and ornament; technology; transportation; trade relationships; warfare; esthetic and recreational activities; social and political organization; mortuary customs; and religio-magical and ceremonial customs.
Island Possessed
by Katherine DunhamJust as surely as Haiti is "possessed" by the gods and spirits of vaudun (voodoo), the island "possessed" Katherine Dunham when she first went there in 1936 to study dance and ritual. In this book, Dunham reveals how her anthropological research, her work in dance, and her fascination for the people and cults of Haiti worked their spell, catapulting her into experiences that she was often lucky to survive. Here Dunham tells how the island came to be possessed by the demons of voodoo and other cults imported from various parts of Africa, as well as by the deep class divisions, particularly between blacks and mulattos, and the political hatred still very much in evidence today. Full of the flare and suspense of immersion in a strange and enchanting culture,Island Possessedis also a pioneering work in the anthropology of dance and a fascinating document on Haitian politics and voodoo.
Monster
by John Gregory DunneMonster is John Gregory Dunne's mordant account of the eight years it took to get the 1996 Robert Redford/Michelle Pfeiffer film Up Close & Personal made. A bestselling novelist, Dunne has a cold eye, perfect pitch for the absurdities of Hollywood, and sharp elbows for the film industry's savage infighting. 192 pp. Author tour & national ads. 25,000 print.
The Studio
by John Gregory DunneIn 1967, John Gregory Dunne asked for unlimited access to the inner workings of Twentieth Century Fox. Miraculously, he got it. For one year Dunne went everywhere there was to go and talked to everyone worth talking to within the studio. He tracked every step of the creation of pictures like "Dr. Dolittle," "Planet of the Apes," and "The Boston Strangler." The result is a work of reportage that, thirty years later, may still be our most minutely observed and therefore most uproariously funny portrait of the motion picture business.Whether he is recounting a showdown between Fox's studio head and two suave shark-like agents, watching a producer's girlfriend steal a silver plate from a restaurant, or shielding his eyes against the glare of a Hollywood premiere where the guests include a chimp in a white tie and tails, Dunne captures his subject in all its showmanship, savvy, vulgarity, and hype. Not since F. Scott Fitzgerald and Nathanael West has anyone done Hollywood better."Reads as racily as a novel...(Dunne) has a novelist's ear for speech and eye for revealing detail...Anyone who has tiptoed along those corridors of power is bound to say that Dunne's impressionism rings true."--Los Angeles Times
Who the Devil Made It: Conversations with Legendary Film Directors
by Peter BogdanovichIn this fascinating chronicle of Hollywood and the grand art of making movies, Peter Bogdanovich--director, screenwriter, actor, and critic--interviews sixteen legendary directors of the first hundred years of film: Robert Aldrich George Cukor Allan Dwan Howard Hawks Alfred Hitchcock Chuck Jones Fritz Lang Joseph H. Lewis Sidney Lumet Leo McCartey Otto Preminger Don Siegel Josef von Sternberg Frank Tashlin Edgar G. Ulmer Raoul Walsh
Building The Dream
by Gwendolyn WrightFor Gwendolyn Wright, the houses of America are the diaries of the American people. They create a fascinating chronicle of the way we have lived, and a reflection of every political, economic, or social issue we have been concerned with. Why did plantation owners build uniform cabins for their slaves? Why were all the walls in nineteenth-century tenements painted white? Why did the parlor suddenly disappear from middle-class houses at the turn of the century? How did the federal highway system change the way millions of Americans raised their families?Building the Dream introduces the parade of people, policies, and ideologies that have shaped the course of our daily lives by shaping the rooms we have grown up in. In the row houses of colonial Philadelphia, the luxury apartments of New York City, the prefab houses of Levittown, and the public-housing towers of Chicago, Wright discovers revealing clues to our past and a new way of looking at such contemporary issues as integration, sustainable energy, the needs of the elderly, and how we define "family."
Long May She Wave: A Graphic History of the American Flag
by Kit Hinrichs Delphine Hirasuna Gerard C. WertkinFrom one of the world's leading graphic designers comes a stunning tribute to America's most enduring icon-the Stars and Stripes.The Revolutionary Congress resolved in 1777 that "the flag of the United States be 13 stripes, alternate red and white, that the Union be 13 white stars in a blue field representing a new constellation." Since that time, the American flag has been raised high in wartime triumph and peacetime celebration; burned in fervent protest; sewn lovingly onto quilts, caps, pillows, and bags; appropriated by the commercial sphere to sell goods as varied as cigars, and designer clothing, and rock-and-roll albums; and faithfully honored every 4th of July to celebrate America's independence. This collection of more than 3,000 Stars and Stripes artifacts ranges from Civil War-era banners and Native American braided moccasins to an early 20th-century "friendship" kimono and original flag art by several of the world's leading designers. In its deluxe format with over 500 illustrations, LONG MAY SHE WAVE gives wide berth to the flag in all its manifestations, and the result is a stunning visual history of America'¬?s most treasured symbol.Full-color throughout, with over 500 illustrations in a deluxe 11 x 14-inch volume-LONG MAY SHE WAVE is the perfect gift for folk-art appreciators, history buffs, and collectors.Features the 3,000-piece exhibit that was displayed at the American Institute of Graphic Arts and the San Jose Museum of Art in 2000. From toy soldiers to collectable spoons, cigar blankets to historic flags-the breadth of the collection is unrivaled.For a list of appearances by this author, check out our Calendar of Events.
100 American Flags: A Unique Collection of Old Glory Memorabilia
by Kit Hinrichs Delphine Hirasuna Terry HeffernanThe American flag has been raised high in wartime triumph and peacetime celebration; sewn lovingly onto quilts, caps, pillows, and bags; appropriated by popular culture; and faithfully honored every Fourth of July. This vibrant collection of 100 Stars and Stripes artifacts ranges from Civil War-era banners and Native American braided moccasins to an early 20th-century "friendship" kimono and original flag art by several of the world's leading designers. Destined to captivate folk-art aficionados, history buffs, and collectors, 100 AMERICAN FLAGS provides a stunning visual history of America's most treasured symbol. A timely, patriotic full-color book presenting 100 American flag artifacts from one of the world's most eminent collectors, designer Kit Hinrichs. Selected images from LONG MAY SHE WAVE in an affordable, collectible edition. Election year and wartime keepsake, displaying nonpartisan national pride. From the Hardcover edition.
The Shock of the New
by Robert HughesA beautifully illustrated hundred-year history of modern art, from cubism to pop and avant-guard. More than 250 color photos.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Hot Air: All Talk, All the Time
by Howard KurtzAmerica is awash in talk. Loud talk, angry talk, conspiratorial talk that has changed the nature of journalism and politics, producing a high-decibel revolution in the way we communicate. In this fascinating, maddening, behind-the-scenes look at America's powerful talk shows, the author of Media Circus examines their excesses, conflicts, and impact, and explains how they are changing our culture.