Rating: 
Summary: INSPIRATION!!!
Review: Collage for the Soul presents a wide array of handsome artwork and is complete with text on definition, process and technique. Holly Harrison and Paula Grasdal have assembled a stellar line-up of artists who generously share their personal expressions on canvas, in boxes, in book form, with fabric, and beyond. From simple to sophisticated, these pages will stimulate your thinking process on how to approach collage. The clear close-ups of the compositions, next to the materials listing and basic instructions, enables and encourages you to translate into your own individual creation. As a collage artist, I know that my focus and interests change and evolve so this book will be a constant resource of inspiration and information. Not to be missed!
Rating:
Summary: INSPIRATION!!!
Review: Collage for the Soul presents a wide array of handsome artwork and is complete with text on definition, process and technique. Holly Harrison and Paula Grasdal have assembled a stellar line-up of artists who generously share their personal expressions on canvas, in boxes, in book form, with fabric, and beyond. From simple to sophisticated, these pages will stimulate your thinking process on how to approach collage. The clear close-ups of the compositions, next to the materials listing and basic instructions, enables and encourages you to translate into your own individual creation. As a collage artist, I know that my focus and interests change and evolve so this book will be a constant resource of inspiration and information. Not to be missed!
Rating: 
Summary: Get another book
Review: I was really excited to get this book and explore the world of collage. I am a mixed media artist so I am familiar with materials. The pictures are gorgeous, but I found the instructions vague and lacking in detail. There is the collage picture and opposite is the materials list with bulleted instructions. One page per picture. One page for instructions (this is the area that needed more detail) And that is it.Look at the house shaped box collage called "Crossings". The material list is there but the written instructions don't match the list. I expect to learn in the instructions how the 3 3/4" x 48" birch plywood is cut and used. Forget that. . .there is only vague information about how the box comes together. The pictures are inspiring and showcases great collage artwork. I celebrate that but hey the meat is in the instructions and sharing the techniques with others. If you are looking to learn about collage get another book.
Rating:
Summary: Lackluster
Review: I was thoroughly disappointed in this book. Based on reviewer comments I hastened to buy it, and then found it uninspiring. It presented nothing new, not an iota of soul and seemed like a simple compendium of collage work with some scattered instructions that may not be sufficiently clear.
Rating:
Summary: Superb! A "must" for collage artists
Review: I'm a mixed media book artist and instructor and this book is just simply SUPERB, definetly one I would recommend to fellow artists and to my students. It is one of the best 'collections' of mixed media collage art out there. The instructions are excellent and easy to follow. I love the 'gallery' section of the book though some (a very small handful) have been seen in the magazine "Somerset Studio" and on various online websites before. It is a wonderful collection of artwork that will inspire you to sit down and just 'make something'.
If you're a beginner I would recommend Nita Leland titles for beginning (and advanced) collage students. Collage for the Soul is eye candy for artists! I'm looking forward to more books like this one.
Rating:
Summary: Lackluster
Review: If you are a collage artist, you will want to purchase this book. It is not a "how to" book but a wonderful resource of images and artists you might not find anywhere else. Many different styles of collage are represented and I find something new and inspiring everytime I look at it! There are many women creating in the collage world today and not enough resources to find them...get this book and see new images and artists! The collages are shown in beautiful, full page reproductions so that you can study the details. Highly recommend!
Rating:
Summary: Collage for the Soul
Review: If you are a collage artist, you will want to purchase this book. It is not a "how to" book but a wonderful resource of images and artists you might not find anywhere else. Many different styles of collage are represented and I find something new and inspiring everytime I look at it! There are many women creating in the collage world today and not enough resources to find them...get this book and see new images and artists! The collages are shown in beautiful, full page reproductions so that you can study the details. Highly recommend!
Rating:
Summary: Collage for the Soul
Review: If you are a collage artist, you will want to purchase this book. It is not a "how to" book but a wonderful resource of images and artists you might not find anywhere else. Many different styles of collage are represented and I find something new and inspiring everytime I look at it! There are many women creating in the collage world today and not enough resources to find them...get this book and see new images and artists! The collages are shown in beautiful, full page reproductions so that you can study the details. Highly recommend!
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing!
Review: If you are buying every book on this subject, this could be among them. However, if making a choice, this should not be a priority. The projects are not inspiring, a challenge considering the fine artists composing them. They show some interesting techniques, but who wants to use them considering what we're offered as goals? I would recommend "True Colors", by Harrison," Altered Books Workshop", by Brazelton, and "Making Memory Books and Journals by Hand", (a marvelous compilation of 42 projects put together by Thunder Bay Press) as being FAR more worthwhile.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth buying, but slightly anemic.
Review: If you can afford to pick this up and just want to have all the collage/assemblage/book altering things you can get, by all means go ahead and nab this one, because it is lovely. There's a little Bagby, some Bagley, with dashes of Michel and Perrella and Riesch, so of course the eye candy is there, but I selfishly wanted a little "more" from this one. Some of the other featured art, while certainly very pleasant to look at, just isn't striking enough, IMO, to stand up on its own against the stronger pieces, let alone to have its own step-by-step instructions provided. One thing that makes me feel a certain lacking is how abbreviated the authors' text seems. Mind you, it's not that what commentary is provided isn't engaging, but it doesn't go as deep as its potential. It's like having a dinner companion bring up something you find intensely interesting, and dropping an intriguing tidbit of their own opinions on the subject, but then realizing others were listening and biting her tongue. I was left with no doubt in my mind that the authors have so much more to offer than this, but that they were somehow short on time and had to break this project off just shy of reaching its full development. Definitely worth owning, but don't break Mr. Piggy to buy this one new.
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