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Museum souvenir books

Whenever I visit a museum my souvenir is to buy a book about the exhibit. So, Last Spring when I was in Italy with a Humanities class studying Renaissance Art I was teased because of course, every Museum I bought a Book, and my book bag must have weighted 40 pounds by the end of the day. It was a whirlwind of a trip spending 3 days each in Rome, Florence and Venice. We saw everything we could possible see with the help of a guide that traveled with us and a city guide in each city teaching us. It was overwhelming and euphoric. When I returned home it was so wonderful to have the books and return to the scene with insight and extra information to absorb. Some of the books included:

The Uffizi by Scala Publishers, which had beautiful photos and explanations of nearly every piece I saw, the Capitoline Museums www.electaweb.it

Vatican City by Orazio Petrosillo, this book discusses the sculptures, paintings and frescos in the Vatican complex, museums, and gardens by Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Caravaggio, and many others including Michelangelo's Pieta, Sistine Chapel ceiling and Alter piece

Botticelli by Barbara Deimling

Leonardo da Vinci The Mind of the Renaissance by Alessandro Vezzosi.

While in Atlanta last year, I visited the High Museum when they were exhibiting Van Gogh to Mondrian. I bought that book which is excellent, but I also bought a book, Theo, The Other Van Gogh. This book told the story of Theo and his relationship with his brother Vincent. It gave insight on Vincent's work and family life and why the brothers were so close. I enjoyed reading this novel of their lives. At one point when Theo married Jo, he explained to her in part about Vincent, "Indeed, one of the main problems is that, whether sick or well, his life is so barren in terms of what he gets from outside. But if you knew him, you would appreciate twice as much how hard it is to solve the problem of what must and what can be done."

Antonio Lopez-Garcia and more

I finally "scored" a monograph on the painter, Antonio Lopez-Garcia. It's the only book available on the artist - arguably, one of the greatest of our time - today. The definitive volume on his work was printed by Rizzoli, but it's been out of print (and largely unavailable) for some time. I wouldn't recommend the text necessarily, which strikes me as a re-hash of other writings about him. Yet Lopez's magnificently muddled cityscapes and unflinching interiors are there, as well as his confident forays into figurative draftsmanship and sculpture. For those who have wondered about his artistic antecedents, there are a handful of his early surrealist images and portraiture. They give us tantalizing hints of the artist Lopez would become.

I don't think any serious painter should be without at least a nodding acquaintance with this powerful, but reclusive, talent. Lopez-Garcia has always been an outspoken champion of representational painting, refusing on one highly publicized occasion to exhibit at the Prado unless the museum agreed to make an equal commitment to realism in its exhibition schedule. (A certain artistic bigotry had flourished - and probably still flourishes there - as it does most everyplace else.) Here is a man who is not afraid to speak out when the opportunity arises. We need more of him - both as artist and human being.

Another book I would like to recommend is one I worked on a bit, as editorial advisor, Bill Murphy's Nothing But a Burning Light, and is available by contacting Bill himself. The book is a highly subjective compilation of the work Bill has done as a draftsman, etcher, and painter over the past twenty-five years and, in my opinion, rivals - and even surpasses - monographs of well-established artists (the recent Rackstraw Downes volume comes to mind) who are risk-free. Bill's own observations accompany many of the images, though the book is broken up into sections that highlight individual phases of his work. Bill is an image-maker whose own antecedents stretch back to Rembrandt and Seghers and must include the aforementioned Lopez-Garcia as well as Edwin Dickinson, Thomas Eakins, and Jerome Witkin. At his best, Bill is unsentimentally attached to the great industrial landscape that surrounds him, as well as to the people who've made a significant impact on his life and career. He has reflected his private passions, for both art and life, in a way that will, in my opinion, assure him a permanent place among our nation's most important artists.

The Teaching Company

The Teaching Company will be happy to send you their latest tapes and videos brochures. The videos I want to draw attention to are: A History of European Art taught by Professor William Kloss and Great Artist of the Italian Renaissance taught by Professor Kloss. I have read about numerous artists and the different periods of art history in many books, but these are the most accurate for putting the artists and the periods together and also gives maybe a bit of history of countries involved. I am currently watching the lectures of Part II of the History of European Art. This phase of learning includes Jan van Eyk, Masaccio, Piero della Francesca, Sandro Botticelli, Giovannyi Belleini, Leonardo, Raphael,Durer, and Michelangelo. Also, many others during this period. The art shown during the video is amazing and very beautiful. The Artists of the Italian Renaissance is also wonderful and has overlapping but unique works of some from the History of European Art.

Vernon Howard

I strongly recommend any book or tape by Vernon Howard who writes and speaks simply and clearly about the most profoundly important subjects. A sample from one of his talks: "Here's an exercise for you to practice right now. Look inside yourself and notice how insecure and unhappy you are. The day can come when you'll be able to go through your day with a quietness, with a conquest, with a reality, with a confidence, with a knowledge, that nothing, nothing anywhere, any place, of any nature can ever take away. It will be permanent, you will know, really know, a spiritual knowing, not an intellectual one, you will know that you have made it because you allowed God to make it for you."

Free e-book

The Longest Road: Finding Peace With the Past is a free e-book available on my website. It's an excellent book and would benefit a lot of people who are suffering from severe trauma, anxiety and depression as a result of overwhelming adversity in their lives. The book deals with family of origin issues, the un-grieved death of a parent, absentee father, birthright, reunification, alienation, abandonment, mental illness, therapy, the inner journey and, ultimately, healing of the spirit. A short description follows:

This true story is a powerfully and evocatively written dark and suspenseful psychological drama. It is about a young woman, who after a troubled childhood, finds herself pregnant and alone. She devotes her life to caring for and raising her child. As her son grows, he becomes more and more abusive towards her and their conflicts escalate. Desperate to resolve their explosive relationship, she searches out his birth father, believing that that will heal her son's pain. In a shocking twist of events, both father and son turn against her and she is forced into psychiatric care. Torn between her love for her son and her own survival, she must find the courage to leave her son's life in order to save her own.