Sunday, December 28, 2008

A Rave Review

At one point during university I had a part time job in a bookstore. Abby Hoffman’s Steal This Book was popular at the time, and believe me, people did (steal the book, I mean). I remembered this on Friday when I was well into my Boxing Day Read-A-Thon with Susan Tuttle’s Exhibition 36: Mixed Media Demonstrations + Explorations. I thought to myself that it really should be subtitled: Buy This Book. Why? Because you’ll love the art and you’ll be inspired by the writing too.
For example, Terry Garrett—one of Tuttle’s featured artists—shares four mixed media pieces based on his “guardians,” the keeper and protectors of his ideas for art-making, and then he explains how he came to make each one.

This story behind the visual story has always fascinated me, and Tuttle and her team of artists are as articulate about their process as they are talented. It’s hard to distill the effect this book had on me in a paragraph or two, but it made me want to go more deeply into my art, and really, what more can you ask for? So my opinion is: you should buy this book and immerse yourself in the experience too.

4 comments:

Dale said...

i have been hearing rave reviews about this book. I should be looking into picking this up sometime.

tgarrett said...

Thanks for your kind words Susan! I found the book to be very interesting and as you said I love learning about people's thoughts about making Art- In her speaker section-Ted Orland has a good piece and his book- View from the Studio Door is incredible. Another book is one of my best picks for 2008 is Collage Journeys by Jane Davies- I fired me us so much I started painting paper again! Happy New Year- Terry

Susan Tuttle said...

Wow -- thank you so much Susan! You have warmed my heart today.

Happy New Year!

Susan
xo

Lisa PN said...

Susan,
I was looking at this book just today and you have inspired me to get it! It's been a book buying sort of weeks and now i have a big stack for the next few weeks before i go off to the Banff Centre to work on a new show, where i won't be reading anything other than my grandfathers diaries, and books about the Spanish Civil War. Very different from these brilliant inspiring books but interesting as well!

Hope you are enjoying the days!

best,
Lisa