THE ARTFUL SPIRIT: Crafty Hobbies to Gift Wrap … Your Life! - Review - book review

Arts & Activities, Dec, 2000 by Jerome J. Hausman

THE ARTFUL SPIRIT: Crafty Hobbies to Gift Wrap ... Your Life (1999, $22.95), by Nancy Swan Drew. Ten Speed Press: Celestial Arts, P.O. Box 7123, Berkeley, CA 94707.

Often, teachers are seeking a means to encourage a more spontaneous journaling on the part of their students. The Artful Spirit is a most unusual book. It is not a textbook; nor does it follow a conventional format. The author intends it to be a "guide book for adults who long to play and be creative." It can also be a useful resource book for secondary school art students.

The chapter headings give some idea of the shifting kaleidoscopic content of the book: "Your Automobile Journal"; "Pet Gallery and Gifts of Fondness"; "Homemade Cards"; "Found Objects"; "A Sweet and Zesty Photo-Storybook"; "A Family Collage"; "Aunt Pearl: You, My Darling, Have The Power To Make Beauty, Truth and Love Visible."

This is not a book for teachers under pressure to have their students learn "the language of art," with regard to materials, techniques or the history of art, including artist's names, works of art or periods of artistic production. Yet, it is a book about essential attitudes toward ideas and processes. As the author put it: "Art is building something from nothing that works like a dream ... Art is a primeval melody ... a universally understood language of joy, hope and sorrow, as necessary as shelter, food and clothing."-J.J.H. For information about this publication, circle No. 379 on the Reader Service Card.