A multifaceted and heartfelt exploration of creative life.
MacIver, a working artist and the founder of the Vermont-based Heron Dance Art Studio, offers an illustrated guide to applying personal insight to artistic pursuits.
The author organizes his book around the idea that “creating art is wonderful, but not nearly as wonderful as creating a life of beauty.” It’s a self-help work that explores how such notions of creativity relate to the examination of one’s own life. Amid vivid watercolor images by the author on every page—usually depicting aspects of nature, such as a forest or a flock of birds in flight—MacIver dispenses ideas in small doses. Advice includes taking the time necessary to construct a thoughtful work, and a recommendation to keep a journal, in which one should “talk to your Muse as if it is a person.” Perseverance is a key element: “One distinguishing characteristic of great artists is their willingness to experiment and fail.” Other pages are devoted to illustrations alone, such as one awash with hues of blue and purple inspired by the author’s time on the north shore of Lake Superior. It’s clear from the get-go that MacIver has put a great deal of passion, research, and effort into the work. The material never feels half-hearted, whether it’s selected anecdotes about creative artists such as Bob Dylan and Billie Holiday, questions such as “What do you want to get out of this strange, precious gift of life?,” or an image of a solitary white owl. Quotations, such as one from poet Tess Gallagher (“You can’t go deep until you slow down”) also support the text. Several of the book’s insights have great potency, as in observations on the importance of allowing a creative vision to evolve. On the other hand, some tips are rather obvious, such as that one should have a financial reserve (or at least a day job) that allows on to pursue one’s artistic activities, and the notion that “it takes courage to offer beauty and love to the world.” Still, the devotion required to construct such a work is inspirational in itself.
A multifaceted and heartfelt exploration of creative life.Pub Date: July 31, 2024
ISBN: 9781933937946
Page Count: 190
Publisher: Heron Dance Press
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
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