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Rating: 
Summary: A safe, stimulating guide to reaching one's creative soul
Review: Having attended Aviva's workshops, I am excited to find the same safe approach to reaching deep into my soul presented in her book. The directions are clear with wonderful illustrations. Aviva is able to convey a sense of working at one's own pace and comfort level while opening up to possibilities. I continue to paint and collage with abandon breaking through barriers of old shoulds and oughts. Thank you, thank you.
Rating: 
Summary: interesting, but not realistic for most people
Review: I enjoyed the author's enthusiasm for the idea of painting from the source, which I understand to be a form of spontaneous painting without a preconcieved notion. However, it is difficult for the average person without an art studio to follow the instructions for the large scale work that the author intends is good for the soul. I am sure the author's workshops that are mentioned quite frequently throughout the book are stimulating and are wonderful environments in which to do this work. But I found myself wishing I purchased a book with more practical strategies for how one can engage in painting for one's soul.Also, there are color prints in the center of this book; I frankly found them frightening and not particularly inspirational. Art is not only about the ugly and less aesthetic, it is about tapping the beauty of the soul as well and bringing that forth through paint or whatever medium one chooses.
Rating:
Summary: interesting, but not realistic for most people
Review: I really liked this book and had a great time during my first afternoon painting session. I look forward to a lifetime of painting! I never would have had the courage to just start painting like this. Go ahead, buy it, read it, and start painting too!
Rating:
Summary: Practical Advice for "Painter's Block"
Review: If you're a "blocked" painter or having trouble getting started, this is for you. What you need is this book, about $50 to spend on materials and a space to paint. You can event paint on a piece of paper stuck to a door (I did). Ms. Gold presents a comprehensive approach, it's hard to pick and choose the bits you like, but if you give yourself over to it, it will work. This is "unblocking by doing" what you read, not 'unblocking by reading'.
Rating:
Summary: Practical Advice for "Painter's Block"
Review: If you're a "blocked" painter or having trouble getting started, this is for you. What you need is this book, about $50 to spend on materials and a space to paint. You can event paint on a piece of paper stuck to a door (I did). Ms. Gold presents a comprehensive approach, it's hard to pick and choose the bits you like, but if you give yourself over to it, it will work. This is "unblocking by doing" what you read, not 'unblocking by reading'.
Rating: 
Summary: A lot of good-will, but.....
Review: This is a well-written book about painting with some good tips about experimenting and overcoming blocks...BUT, The author takes 163 pages to write what she could have said in just 60 pages or less. There is a great deal of repetition and stretching of the same concept under different titles. The only redeeming point here being that the author is a good writer, so one does not emerge annoyed over reading the same things over and over again. While the book is obviously written with sensitivity and good will, it does tend to oversimplify the process of overcoming blocks. Some examples are the tips given to inhibited participants, such as the suggestion to "make sounds" before the painting, bark, howl, scream, slither all over...such techniques are supposed to help exorcise the most insidious of demons and put everything back in place at the soul-front... I think that the book exaggerates its claims by quite a stretch. The promise of a process of "inner liberation" in which all you have to do is find and press the right button belongs to fairy tales. Besides, the premise (from the author's choice of examples) is that, if you dig deep enough in the image-well inside you, you'll find snakes, bugs, excrements, and the like, and that all those who were painting blue seas and flowers are putting on a mask etc..etc... The fact is, different people are going to find different images if they "dig inwards", some might actually long for colors like bright blues or even pink or WANT to paint rainbows without being told that that is proof they are still "resisting"...the impression suggested by the author's choice of stories is that, disturbing images are proof of having arrived at the right inner territory and anything placid looking is a cover-up...this is a very narrow perspective to a subject that, being that of awakening creative powers, should have been open-ended enough to allow for all possible discoveries at the end of the road...the experience of the brand of images the author and some of her workshop participants found cannot become the example of what qualifies as "touching the source"... While I have no problem with images of tormented psyches, I just believe that different people have all sorts of ways of seeing and of expressing what they see, and that any book about painting should allow for that, and should not-while claiming it seeks to show the path to paint from within- decree that a certain line of images are proof of being there, while another as proof of being still way behind on the road to enlightenment...Once upon a time in the past, there were those ancient regimes of the "East block" in Europe, in which their painters were told to paint scenes and use only those colors that depicted "revolutionary optimism"...ironically, the "prescription to freedom" in this book brings that story to mind...The thing is, NO specific brand of images should be defined as sign of being on the path of inner-truth or that of self-deception, least of all, in the name of artistic freedom of expression! Being "open" to what lies inside the source, means being also open that it may not always be gut-wrenching scenes,it means being open to surprise in ALL its colors...repeating over and over how certain types of images are signposts to the path to inner light can work like subliminal messages that make people move in the directions suggested to them, but, in this case, they won't necessarily be towards THEIR own source.... To be fair, there are some tips worth exploring and my advice is to pick and choose, and...well... if it would put you at ease to bark and roll in paint, well, why not? (But If THAT would do to exorcise your demons, I'd be most envious indeed....)
Rating:
Summary: A lot of good-will, but.....
Review: This is a well-written book about painting with some good tips about experimenting and overcoming blocks...BUT, The author takes 163 pages to write what she could have said in just 60 pages or less. There is a great deal of repetition and stretching of the same concept under different titles. The only redeeming point here being that the author is a good writer, so one does not emerge annoyed over reading the same things over and over again. While the book is obviously written with sensitivity and good will, it does tend to oversimplify the process of overcoming blocks. Some examples are the tips given to inhibited participants, such as the suggestion to "make sounds" before the painting, bark, howl, scream, slither all over...such techniques are supposed to help exorcise the most insidious of demons and put everything back in place at the soul-front... I think that the book exaggerates its claims by quite a stretch. The promise of a process of "inner liberation" in which all you have to do is find and press the right button belongs to fairy tales. Besides, the premise (from the author's choice of examples) is that, if you dig deep enough in the image-well inside you, you'll find snakes, bugs, excrements, and the like, and that all those who were painting blue seas and flowers are putting on a mask etc..etc... The fact is, different people are going to find different images if they "dig inwards", some might actually long for colors like bright blues or even pink or WANT to paint rainbows without being told that that is proof they are still "resisting"...the impression suggested by the author's choice of stories is that, disturbing images are proof of having arrived at the right inner territory and anything placid looking is a cover-up...this is a very narrow perspective to a subject that, being that of awakening creative powers, should have been open-ended enough to allow for all possible discoveries at the end of the road...the experience of the brand of images the author and some of her workshop participants found cannot become the example of what qualifies as "touching the source"... While I have no problem with images of tormented psyches, I just believe that different people have all sorts of ways of seeing and of expressing what they see, and that any book about painting should allow for that, and should not-while claiming it seeks to show the path to paint from within- decree that a certain line of images are proof of being there, while another as proof of being still way behind on the road to enlightenment...Once upon a time in the past, there were those ancient regimes of the "East block" in Europe, in which their painters were told to paint scenes and use only those colors that depicted "revolutionary optimism"...ironically, the "prescription to freedom" in this book brings that story to mind...The thing is, NO specific brand of images should be defined as sign of being on the path of inner-truth or that of self-deception, least of all, in the name of artistic freedom of expression! Being "open" to what lies inside the source, means being also open that it may not always be gut-wrenching scenes,it means being open to surprise in ALL its colors...repeating over and over how certain types of images are signposts to the path to inner light can work like subliminal messages that make people move in the directions suggested to them, but, in this case, they won't necessarily be towards THEIR own source.... To be fair, there are some tips worth exploring and my advice is to pick and choose, and...well... if it would put you at ease to bark and roll in paint, well, why not? (But If THAT would do to exorcise your demons, I'd be most envious indeed....)
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