Embroidered Collage

The Amazon reviews on this book are a very mixed bag, from people who passionately declare how useless it is to those who found it extremely helpful.  I put off purchasing it for some time, but then I was able to get a good deal.  I wanted to read it, to at least see this perspective, as a considerable amount of my work is abstract.

The best part was the quotes from artists about their abstract work, both sprinkled throughout the text and attached directly to images of the artwork.  Other images had descriptive captions.  Many of them made me think a little differently.  Some history and rationale behind choices was discussed, such as in showing how one artist's work looks abstract but is actually a realistic rendering of crack in paving squares.

Many of the technique sections seemed out of place somehow.  Other books do them better and they only occasionally directly referred to how to use them for abstract versus other painting.  I can see how they might be useful if you come from a traditioal painting background, but as a mixed media artist I'd been exposed to almost all of it previously.

I think the book was a worthwhile purchase for me.  I'll read it again and think over some of the aspects and perhaps apply them to samples or completed work.  But it's definitely one that may or may not appeal to any given artist and it's hard to recommend one way or the other.