Books I’m Loving Now

I love to read.  Of course I do, I’m a teacher.
Here are some of the books I’m loving now!

I can’t say enough good things about Lynda Barry’s collages and drawings.  They are just so fun and chock- full of inspiration.  She came to Madison recently to do some artist-in-residency programming and I am kicking myself now that I did not get tickets to her lecture.  Apparently, she brought Matt Groening with her to speak!!!  He is the creator of the Simpsons.

When Wanderers Cease to Roam is a delightful book full of lovely, airy watercolor sketches and drawings.

Street Sketchbook Journeys is fantastic if you are into edgy, urban, graffiti art.  I could see photocopying some of the pages for use with older kids at school.  I wouldn’t leave the book out for full perusal, but bits and pieces would be inspiring.

Next up, is The Pulse by Seth Apter.  Seth is a really great guy who has participated in many mixed media collaborative projects and has a very active blog.  Seth is also a psychiatrist, which is a fascinating combination of careers.  I think art and psychology go hand-in-hand.  One of his projects is going to be in the Featuring Magazine which I am working on.

Seth had a call for artists and had a list of questions to answer and prompts to create artwork for.  There is a wide array of answers to the questions in the book.  One of my quotes is in the book and my blog is listed in the back, which is pretty cool.  I’m not going to lie, I’m bummed my artwork wasn’t selected, but I suppose there was only so much room in the book…  keep trying, right?  Anyways, the book turned out lovely and it was fun to see everyone’s responses to the questions. 

And finally, another book I am loving now is Jesus for President.  There are photographs and art scattered throughout the book which makes for a meaningful and interesting read.  If you are a Christian (or want to learn more about who Jesus was) and interested in how politics fits in with his teachings, this is a very interesting book.  How do we live in the modern times when war is ever-present?  What about social justice issues?  The first half of the book is about the history of Jesus and the church and the second half of the book leads into the present day.  I’m not through with it yet, but I’m reading it slowly, savoring and trying to understand each chapter.