dimanche, novembre 01, 2009

30 Books in 30 Days

what is this what is this what is this what is this what is this what is this what is this what is this what is this what is this what is this what is this what is this what is this what is this what is this

It's November fisrt...day after All Hallows EVE...the day of the New York Marathon...the begining of Daylight savings time...two months left to redeem 2009 from the doldrums to which it may or may not hav sunk...I have decided to start getting up early and doing things...for example (I sort of borrowed and adapted this from Brian Lehrer's 30 issues in 30 days leading up to the mayoral elections.)I plan to review one book per day in November starting with this really fantastic book I have been carrying around and reading in the subways all fall...this book that I almost can't bear to return to the libray and I may have to go out and actually purchase.

"To know what you want to draw, you have to begin drawing."



Thirty Books in Thirty Days Part One: Writing About Writing About Art

This book is actually called A Short Guide to Writing About Art (Sylvan Barnet, Pearson-Longman, 8th ed. 2005) . As you may know there are several books with similiar titles. This one is the best-loaded with quotes by famous artists that (bely?) reveal the nature of Art with a capital A, useful writing advice and many well-timed and well-chosen illustrated writing samples. ASGTWAA is broken into 12 chapters with rather boring titles (Writing about Art, Analysis, Writing a Comparison, Writing An Entry in an Exhibition Catalog, Some Critical Approaches)followed by more interesting subheadings (economy, wordy beginnings, the sound of sense, the sense of sound)

Examples used tell the great story of Art. Some examples used in chapter 1, What Is Art? include Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty, Womanhouse, Mark Wallinger's photograph of a horse named: A Real Work of Art, an essay on art criticism by Auden, and a sample essay about Whistler (both artist and critic)and his painting of his mother turned into a U.S. postage stamp.

I opened it to the page on Unity as the one train was delayed this morning to be reassured of the simplicity of the fact that five hundred words is more or less five well developed paragraphs. To summarize the writing process:

think...jot...draft... revise...revise...edit...have someone proof read/edit...revise...print...read...revise...(repeat read and revise until deadline)

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