Tuesday, January 01, 2008

I heart books

big pile of books

Here's another photo of that big pile of books I managed to score for myself over the holidays. Ok so the 'Making Stuff for Kids' book is in there because I wrote a bunch of it, and the colours looked good together, but look at all the other great books I now have- I love how the colours are all clashing together.

However, this isn't enough, I need yet more books! In fact I have about £90 that I have to use for art/craft/curating related books, thanks to a special grant I received, and i'm hoping that some of you could make some suggestions for books to add to my huge pile. I'm looking for books that are going to inspire me, i'm happy to read pretty tough theoretical tomes as well as pretty pretty craft books.

I would LOVE to get my hands on a copy of 'Craft in Transition' by Jorunn Veiteberg of Bergen National Academy of the Arts, Norway. I know it came out in an English language version in 2005 as well as Norwegian, but I don't know how to get hold of it. If there are any Scandinavians reading this then maybe you can help me track this down?

I'm open to your suggestions- which books inspire you, which could you not be without?

3 comments:

Gaina said...

You could try typing the ISBN number of the Norwegian book into Amazon, maybe it will come up?

I am going to by 'The Tao of Watercolour' from play.com as it seems like a good way for me to learn watercolours :).

Is there any 'recommended reading' in the back of our handbook? Ask Sophie during our tutorials, someone else in the group might be able to suggest some?

Feltbug said...

Selvedge magazine has some interesting books on their website/bookshop. I saw a fab book called unmonumental at the V&A - about sculpture - it had some wonderful photos of new work. By Hand - the use of craft in contemporary art is another fave. Any book on Kiki Smith ...
Happy New Year and Happy book hunting :)

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't be without:

Creating A Life Worth Living by Carol Lloyd

The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life by Twyla Tharp

The View from the Studio Door by Ted Orland

Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils of Artmaking
by David Bayles and Ted Orland



The Creative License by Danny Gregory might make it onto the list too but I haven't finished reading it yet.

Those are all quite wordy though, if you're after some eye candy, I like:

The Elements of Design: by Loan Oei

Hidden Beauty: Microworlds Revealed
by France Bourely

Eva Hesse: Sculpture by Elisabeth Sussman and Fred Wasserman

Art Forms in the Plant World by Karl Blossfeldt

Art Forms in Nature by Ernst Haeckel


Argh, all my books are in piles on the floor right now and I can't remember the other things that I like. Oh well.


Incidentally The Starving Artist's Way: Easy Projects for Low-Budget Living by Nava Lubelski might be the answer to your other rant. I haven't read it though, so I don't know how good it is.