Brandon Graham (born 1976) was widely acclaimed for his book "King City," with "Publishers Weekly" calling Graham "one of the most inventive action cartoonists working." "Walrus," his first art book, serves as a handbook to his visual and verbal world, a punning, humorous and sexy metropolis comprised of machines, logos, women and bumbling men, all cast in an alternate sci-fi universe.

    Minutes to Midnight is the ambitious photographic record of that adventure, in which Parke presents a proud but uneasy nation struggling to craft its identity from different cultures and traditions. Minutes to Midnight merges traditional documentary techniques and imagination to create a dark visual narrative portraying Australia with a mix of nostalgia, romanticism and brooding realism. This is not a record of the physical landscape but of an emotional one. It is a story of human anxiety and intensity which, although told from Australia, represents a universal human condition in the world today.

    This inspiring book shows you how to record your experiences, using sketchbooks, journals and photography, to create personal narratives that can form a starting point for more finished stitched-textile pieces. Acclaimed textile artist and teacher Cas Holmes, whose work is often inspired by her life and the journeys she makes, helps you find inspiration through your own life and explains how to record what you see in sketchbooks and journals, which can often become beautiful objects in themselves. She explains how you can use photography, both as documentation and as inspiration, and sometimes incorporate it into the work itself, along with found objects and ephemera. Throughout the book are useful techniques that can be harnessed to add extra interest to your work, such as methods for making layered collages, how to 'sketch' with stitch, and advice on design and colour. If you want to create beautiful, unique work inspired by your life and travels, this is the perfect book for you.

    What followed was a whirlwind childhood spent among art and artists in the heyday of Abstract Expressionism. Gabrielle grew up in a home full of the most celebrated artists of the day: Rothko, de Kooning, Tinguely, Giacometti, and Christo, among others.Poignant and candid, Unstill Life is a daughter’s memoir of the art world and a larger-than-life father known to the world as Mr. Modern Art. Selz offers a unique window into the glamour and destruction of the times: the gallery openings, wild parties and affairs that defined one of the most celebrated periods in American art history. Like the art he loved, Selz’s father was vibrant and freewheeling, but his enthusiasm for both women and art took its toll on family life. When her father left MoMA and his family to direct his own museum in California, marrying four more times, Selz’s mother, the writer Thalia Selz, moved with her children into the utopian artist community Westbeth. Her parents continued a tumultuous affair that would last forty years.Weaving her family narrative into the larger story of twentieth-century art and culture, Selz paints an unforgettable portrait of a charismatic man, the generation of modern artists he championed and the daughter whose life he shaped.

    Work in the spirit of the laws of attraction to visualize the life of your dreams. Follow the journey of twelve artists, each who will set a personal dream or intention. Witness the process that each artist takes, as they create a mixed-media piece that sows the seeds of their intention. Step-by-step techniques for a variety of mixed-media processes accompany each piece of finished art. Read about how their lives changed as a result and learn how to set intentions of your own using the bonus tear-out "dream-prompt" cards.

    I'm here to take care of it and to love it, for we are only temporary custodians of beauty."--Elizabeth TaylorShe has mesmerized movie audiences since her debut in National Velvet at the age of twelve, dazzled both men and women with her luminous beauty and iconic presence, displayed shrewd business acumen by creating a line of fragrances with unparalleled success, and her AIDS activism has been a call to arms for people around the world. She is Hollywood's greatest living star and a living legendElizabeth Taylor.One of her greatest passions is jewelry, and over the years she has amassed one of the world's foremost collections. By the time she was in her thirties, Elizabeth Taylor already owned an outstanding set of Burmese rubies and diamonds from Cartier, a fantastic emerald and diamond suite from Bulgari, and the 33.19-carat Krupp diamond, a gift from Richard Burton. That ring was later eclipsed by a subsequent gift from Burton, when he bought a staggering 69.42-carat pear-shaped diamond. Newly named the Taylor-Burton Diamond, it catapulted Elizabeth Taylor into that rarefied pantheon of great jewelry collectors.In this revealing book, Elizabeth Taylor offers a personal guided tour of her collection. She takes us into her confidence, sharing personal anecdotes, witty asides, and intimate reminiscences about her life, her loves, and her collection. Whether talking about the famous La Peregrina pearl, which was briefly abducted by a household pet, or chatting about a childhood gift to her mother, Elizabeth Taylor shows herself to be the most seductive of storytellers: direct, irreverent, and charming.Complementing the stories are 125 stunning new photographs of her most remarkable pieces, specially commissioned for this book, and more than 150 rarely seen images (many from Elizabeth Taylor's personal collection) of the star wearing her jewelry over the course of almost sixty years. We see her as a young ingenue of fifteen wearing what would be the first of many charm bracelets, and again, equally dazzling, as a mature woman, wearing the famous Duchess of Windsor diamond brooch, which she purchased to benefit AIDS research.Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair with Jewelry marks the first time this beautiful jewelry will be seen together as a collection. Lavishly produced and illustrated, the book has an introduction by the world-renowned authority on jewelry, François Curiel, of Christie's. It is for those who are enchanted by this most incandescent and enduring star, for those who cherish and dream of jewelry, and most importantly, for those who believe in the true meaning of love. This book is a fabulous display of unbelievable glamour, assembled over a lifetime, by one of the most extraordinary women in the world.

    But I don't think I've seen a better resource for the lay user than this one. T. Ormiston-smith. Mother Nature's medicine cabinet. In ancient times, the plant kingdom provided our earliest ancestors with the natural healing powers derived from nature. Extracts and essences from plants and flowers were prized for their medicinal, spiritual, aromatic, and therapeutic value, including beauty benefits. Aromatic plants, essences, and oils have traditionally been used during religious ceremonies and observances, beauty care and perfumes, food enhancement, and preservation. Aromatic plants were the basis for herbal and botanical medicines and remedies for thousands of years - they still are. In fact, they’re the root of today’s modern pharmaceuticals. And as lifestyles rapidly changed to meet everyday challenges, and technology progressed in leaps and bounds, herbal knowledge soon fell by the wayside. During the past century, as the side effects of many chemically based drugs come to light - not to mention the exuberant costs, natural healing has come full circle and has gradually found its way back into our homes. The Western World is standing up and taking notice. People are educating themselves about the wonderful uses and benefits of using essential oils, herbs, and spices. Mother nature's medicine cabinet is back, invoking endless remedies and in some cases, cures - without the side effects. Granted. Natural healing may not replace the family doctor or chemically manufactured drugs entirely, but it certainly is a healthy alternative to consider when thinking about your health, beauty, wellbeing, and fitness regime. Bonus: Includes Medicinal Herbs and their uses. Discover the many benefits to diffusing essential oils to achieve optimal health and well-being in your home and workplace. Diffusing essential oils can help you study better, sleep better, enhance your moods and put you in the mood... Essential oils and pregnancy. Essential oils and children. There is also a section about essential oils for pets – which ones to use and which ones to avoid.

    And there have been so many technical advances, too. Now poly-diva Donna Kato presents an all-new look at one of crafters' all-time favorite mediums. The Art Of Polymer Clay Surface Effects begins with the essentials of polymer clay, including its working properties, plus tools, curing, safety recommendations, and color blending (with full information on the now-indispensable Skinner Blend). Photo-packed chapters focus on exciting projects—beads, bracelets, pins, pendants, and boxes–and showcase new techniques, including image transfers, surface treatments such as stencils, stamps, paints, and inks, sculpting, inclusions, special effects, and finishing. Finished pieces by some of the biggest names in polymer clay, including Kathleen Dustin, Pier Voulkos, and Nan Roche, plus Donna Kato herself, offer ideas and inspiration.

    Beloved artist and teacher Claudia Nice leads you on an inspired journey through the great outdoors. With paints in hand, she shares with you her best techniques for creating landscapes that come alive with richness, depth and textured detail.Read this guide and start painting right away. As you follow engaging, step-by-step demonstrations and exercises, you'll learn to recreate the textural elements of a range of terrains and landscapes. Chapters include:Creative clouds and skiesMajestic mountains, hills and mesasTexturing trees, trunks and foliageRugged rocks and gritty gravelTransparent textures for rivers, falls and lakesFlowers of the fieldIn a special section, Claudia covers basic texturing techniques with mini demos using lines, dots, bruising, scribbling, spattering, blotting, printing, stamping and more. From paints and pens to sponges, leaves and facial tissue, you'll explore all kinds of fun and inventive ways to create amazing textures.And to help you put it all together, Claudia includes her masterful advice for creating compositions using reference photos, field sketches and your own creative license. Each demonstration features a large image of the completed landscape, so you can see exactly how Claudia's methods work - from start to finish.

    It's an insightful artistic philosophy that boils down the many technical principles of composition into a single master rule that's easy to remember and apply: Never make any two intervals the same.You can make every painting more interesting, dynamic and technically sound by varying intervals of distance, length and space, as well as intervals of value and color. The rule also applies to balance, shape and the location of your painting's focal point.Greg Albert illustrates these lessons with eye-opening examples from both beginning and professional artists, including Frank Webb, Tony Couch, Kevin Macpherson, Charles Reid, Tony Van Hasselt and more.You'll discover that the ONE RULE is the only rule of composition you need to immediately improve your work - the moment your brush touches the canvas.

    Instructs in the folding of paper into such three-dimensional forms as square, triangular, and hexagonal boxes and their lids.

     Donna Tartt's Pulitzer Prize-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling novel, The Goldfinch, introduced millions of readers to a painting that becomes a lifelong obsession. Painted in 1654 by Carel Fabritius, the work is of a small bird, chained to its perch. This mysterious portrait, a masterpiece of the Dutch Golden Age, has been lost and found, adored and abandoned, for nearly four centuries. Now more famous than ever, this painting is the subject of its own book—a look behind the scenes at its creation and the tumultuous life of its creator. This gripping, true story of adventure, romance, and artistic fervor has never before been told and will enthrall readers of the now famous novel. Set against the vibrant backdrop of Holland in the seventeenth century, when it was the economic capital of the world, the book is populated by a glittering crowd of the wealthy and young, high society with appetites for success and excess. Holland was the center of the art world as well, boasting both Rembrandt, (Fabritius' mentor), and Vermeer (his rival). And there is Carel Fabritius himself—handsome, talented, hell-bent on greatness, but unable to escape tragedy. Yet through The Goldfinch, he achieves immortality. Deborah Davis is the author of the best-selling Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X, Party of the Century: The Fabulous Story of Truman Capote and His Black and White Ball, Gilded: How Newport Became the Richest Resort in America, and the prize-winning Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner that Shocked a Nation. Cover design by Adil Dara

    This art form has been developed by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. What I love most about this art form is that all the patterns are based on simple lines, circles and shapes. Anyone can do it. The beauty of Zentangle lies in the way these patterns evolve from their simple building blocks. Different patterns are put together to create small ‘tiles’ or square drawings. Zentangle art has been used by artists from all over the globe and from all art fields. They have incorporated Zentangle art into everything from mixed media, paper crafting, scrap booking to home décor projects. A simple search on Google images will reveal the vast world of Zentangle art! Zentangle art has also been used by kids all over the world to have fun and make paper toys. With this book Zentangle art can now be used by you to rest, relax, create and make art! This book is perfect for the beginner as well as the experienced tangler. We will go through the list of tools needed, basic tangles created by Rick and Maria, Zentangle Inspired Projects, creating new tangles and lots of worksheets for you to play with and have fun. So left brained or right brained, artist or scientist, child or adult join us in this wonderful journey as we discover and create awesome doodles and tangles. This book will take you from the tools needed to start your Zentangle art experience to creating some beautiful Zentangle Inspired Art pieces that will range from mixed media to home décor crafts. Let’s take a brief look at all we will cover in this book. We will discuss paper, pencils, tiles and log books to store patterns. Once we have all the basics in place we will move on to basic tangle patterns. These tangle patterns have either all been developed by the founders of Zentangle, Rick and Maria or are part of the list of official tangles. They are a great place to start your tangling adventure. Tangles can also be enhanced in several different ways. We will talk about four of these methods and share some examples. Next up we will add some color to the black and white world of Zentangle Art and stir things up a bit. We will go through several different ways in which color can be incorporated in your tangled art. Then we come to the art creation section of the book! In Chapter 5 I will share lots of worksheets for exercises and projects you can do yourself whenever you want. The worksheets come as an easy download and you can print as many as you want to use for yourself or share with family and friends when you introduce them to tangling. These worksheets come as a separate pdf which is available for FREE download for all readers. In Chapter 6 I will outline and give instructions for several applications of Zentangle art in the popular art and craft forms today. We will talk about mixed media art dolls, home décor items, book making, art journaling, card making, paper quilts, Artist Trading Cards and paper crafting. To finish up I will share with you a few of the tangles I have come up with and will show you how to create your own!

    Collected here for the first time is an anthology of pieces artist Tracey Emin wrote for The Independent newspaper in London-a weekly column that ran to great acclaim between 2005 and 2009-that touch on everything from the themes behind her work to her process, inspirations, and her alternately humorous and profound observations of daily life. Moving from diatribes on contemporary art and culture to confessional pieces chronicling her travels abroad and reflecting on her private life in London, the columns bring together elements of essay and diary that present a unique perspective on life and the work of the queen of the Young British Artists. Edited and introduced by the artist, and illustrated with forty reproductions of photographs that recall the original format of the columns, Tracey Emin: My Life in a Column makes a giant of the art world at once more familiar and more profound.

    But what it lacks in years, it makes up for in its range of use. Acrylics appeared on the market for artists in the late 1940s as a quick-drying alternative to oil paint. In its early manifestations, it dried so quickly that more than a few brushes stuck immediately to the canvas!Although acrylic has been around for more than fifty years, incredible advances continue to be made in the research and development of acrylic polymers and pigments. These advancements are attributable not only to the efforts of a few dedicated chemists, but also to the work of an entire community devoted to acrylic. There are a lot of brilliant minds taking these minute molecules very seriously.