The Art Spirit
by Robert Henri

From Amazon.com Product Description: In this book are the essential beliefs and theories of a great teacher and American artist, Robert Henri. While it embodies the entire system of his teaching, with much technical advice and critical comment for the student, it also contains inspiration for those to whom the happiness to be found through all the arts is important. No other American painter attracted such a large, intensely personal group of followers as Henri, whose death in 1929 brought to an end a life that has been completely devoted to art. He was an inspired artist and teacher who believed that everyone is vitally concerned in the happiness and wisdom to be found through the arts.

Discourses on Art : New edition
(Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art)
by Sir Joshua Reynolds

From Amazon.com Product Description: This standard edition of the "Discourses on art" delivered by Sir Joshua Reynolds is now reissued in a new format and with revised illustrations. It has long been recognized as an important text for the study of 18th-century English painting.

Senses of the Soul: Art and the Visual in Christian Worship
(Art for Faith's Sake)
by WIlliam A. Dyrness

From the Back Cover: Senses of the soul explores the way art and visual elements are incorporated into Christian worship. It incorporates research conducted in Los Angeles congregations. Through extensive interviews in a sample of Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox congregations it looks into the way visual elements actually become part of the experience of worship. By looking at attitudes and experiences of beauty, art, and memories it suggests that believers appropriate images and aesthetic encounters in terms of imaginative structures that have been formed through worship practices over time.

Visual Literacy - Image, Mind and Reality
by Paul Messaris

Post-industrial humankind is inundated daily with visual images. Televisions transmit their blue haze into dark living rooms; advertisements and billboards bombard us at every turn; movies evoke tears, outrage, or hilarity; and the visual arts elicit strong emotional or intellectual responses. At almost every moment, several visual images are warring for our attention in order to make a claim, sell a product, or call us to action. Faced with visual overload, how do we interpret these images? What is happening when a picture moves us? What process takes place in our minds as we respond to such visual devices as close-ups, camera angles, and flashbacks? This book provides a foundation for answering these questions. Encouraging his readers to become “visually literate,” Paul Messaris takes them on a journey through four major conceptual levels of understanding: imparting visual literacy as a prerequisite for comprehending visual media; creating awareness of the general cognitive consequences of visual literacy; making us alert to visual manipulation; and promoting aesthetic appreciation of the images we see. Taken together, these approaches provide a comprehensive view of how visual images are produced and interpreted, and of what their potential social consequences may be. (Amazon.com)

A Whole New Mind
by Daniel Pink

Pink, best-selling author of Free Agent Nation (2001) and also former chief speechwriter for former vice-president Al Gore, has crafted a profound read packed with an abundance of references to books, seminars, Web sites, and such to guide your adjustment to expanding your right brain if you plan to survive and prosper in the Western world. According to Pink, the keys to success are in developing and cultivating six senses: design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning. Pink compares this upcoming "Conceptual Age" to past periods of intense change, such as the Industrial Revolution and the Renaissance, as a way of emphasizing its importance. Ed Dwyer (From Booklist, -Amazon.com)

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last
Career Guide You'll Ever Need
by Daniel Pink

"What a ride! This story had me laughing out loud, nodding my head, and cheering all at the same time. It delivers a message I wish I had heard years ago when trying to figure out my "career". The surprising thing, is that the six essential lessons experienced in Johnny Bunko are still very powerful and very relevant to me-even after almost 20 years in the workforce. You can't help, after putting down the book, re-examining your life choices regardless of your age or life stage. " (review from Kenny Lauer at Amazon.com)

The Artist's Way
by Julia Cameron

With the basic principle that creative expression is the natural direction of life, Julia Cameron and Mark Bryan lead you through a comprehensive twelve-week program to recover your creativity from a variety of blocks, including limiting beliefs, fear, self-sabotage, jealousy, guilt, addictions, and other inhibiting forces, replacing them with artistic confidence and productivity. (Amazon.com)

Art in Service of the Sacred
by Catherine Capikian

Art in Service of the Sacred encourages congregations to take seriously the role of visual art in worship and in the broader life of the church. This rich resource explores the dynamics between art, artist, and the church. It proclaims the power of art when used as art, reclaims the presence of religious symbols in worship, asserts the importance of the aesthetic dimensions of ecclesial space, and recovers the role of visual art to engage our senses and imaginations as we seek to encounter God in our lives. (Amazon.com)

Windows into the Soul - Art as Spiritual Expression
by Michael Sullivan

Windows into the Soul is a practical, hands-on resource for those who want to explore prayer and contemplation for themselves, approaching the process not as an artist but as a spiritual seeker. Readers will find projects in various media, including clay, charcoal, and acrylic, including not only technical directions, but a gentle guide to the spiritual gold to be mined from the experience. (Amazon.com)

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