Studios Books

the complete review is listed as written by Herb Siegel.

Never before has a book revealed such complete and intimate details about the birth pains of what today we know as the modern theater. Mr. Frome introduces us to the creative geniuses who experimented with writing, directing and acting. We learn of their conflicts, motivations and final breakthroughs to greatness.

We follow their lives as they hone in on their acting methods. Their egos are examined, revealing how weakness becomes strength, which in turn can sometimes topple greatness.

The Actors Studio presents an all-star cast of the best creative talent available and how they struggled to make it! From the early years of the Russian theater and into the forties and fifties when experimental theater groups competed to find the true "method acting" techniques.

As a onetime student of the highly exteemed Sandy Meisner's Neighborhood Playhouse in NYC, I prize this book as a captain his log, noting an exciting journey around the world. One day it will be a major movie or play. But it will require only the best actors to portray the lives of greats like Adler, Brando, Cliff, Dean, Garfield, Kazan, Miller, Odets, Winters, Stanislavsky, etc. These names easily fill a book and it is called "the Actors Studio".

This is a book for anyone with a serious interest or involvement in film and theater. It will make both intriguing reading and invaluable reference material for students, teachers, people in the business (or those hoping to be) and dedicated movie- and theater-goers.

Professor Frome, who teaches dramatic arts at the University of Connecticut, really knows his stuff. In his new book he shows how Stanislavsky's introduction of "Realism," followed by collectives such as the legendary Group Theater and especially the Actors Studio, exerted their massive influence on the style and quality of acting and production in America. It's a story in which two seemingly incompatible elements, conflict and synergy, transfigured the face of drama.

There are fascinating insights into the characters of such icons as Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and many others. Frome, who can be quite acerbic when he wants to be, doesn't hesitate to debunk some of the PR-inspired legends of this hugely formative era, and is pretty snitty about Lipton's TV series of the same name. Take a close look at the many photos, not one of which is a posed studio still.

Frome's five-page bibliography in small type, and his painstakingly inclusive index, bear witness to the mountain of research on which this impressive book is based.

My daughter loved the movie so I was very excited to see it in paperback. She's an avid reader for 9 years old and finished the book within 48 hours. She took it to school and was reading every free moment.

Well Done, and a must give gift for a young teen.

This is the best movie I have seen in years. It will warm your heart.
You will laugh and you will cry. Do not miss this movie!
Jo Reynolds
Ketchum, Idaho

Arborsculpture may well be the book on horticulture that gets your creative juices flowing. Author Richard Reames believes that trees hold the key to stabilizing the climate and, as he shows, this vital element of the environment can also be sculpted into a work of art.
Numerous photographs, submitted by many different photographers, illustrate the many creative ideas. Trees have been formed into outdoor furniture that is functional , such as gazebos, fences, and trellises, or odd constructs, such as trees growing with what look like antique bicycles or guns through their trunks.
Reames includes step-by-step instructions and clear explanations of the techniques of grafting, notching, and rubbing (notching is making a small notch above a dormant bud to encourage it to grow; rubbing is a form of pruning - the newly emerging bud is rubbed off by hand.) He says that once the trunk and branches are shaped, they keep their form and become stronger as the diameters increase.
In addition, Reames includes chapters on the history of arboriculture. Arborsculpture has been practiced since 1908 at least, all around the world. The huge tree sculptures of one influential arborsculptor, Axel N. Erlandson, are displayed at Bonfante Gardens in California.
The book Arborsculpture is a work of art in itself. The techniques themselves are simple and it is easy to start with a sapling. The trick is to faithfully shape the young tree for several years and to continue to prune it carefully after the framework is established. The examples presented by Reames are inspiring and you may soon find yourself outdoors creating your own arborsculpture.

Arborsculpture is the art of bending, training, grafting, trimming live trees into particular shapes. These shapes can be anything from training branches to become straight or to create fuller boundaries to making living artistic sculptures, chairs, boats, houses, or anything else the arborsculptor can dream up.

Before reading this book, I had never even heard of this amazing craft. Like most people who love playing in their garden, I trim my trees and try to help down the unwanted tree sprouts that pop up here and there. The though had never even occurred to me that I could actually manipulate the growth of my trees. As I read this book, though, I realized that arborsculpture actually has a long and vibrant history. The author describes a long tradition of tree-human connections, early pioneers in the field, and modern arborsculptors. He also details various methods and techniques as well as a good deal of hints and tips given by the author and other arborsculptors. This book also contains a multitude of photographs and illustrations that will motivate any gardener to take a second look at his or her own backyard.

This book inspired me to try some arborsculpturing of my own, and I don't plant anything! If you've not heard about this field of arborsculpture, then you must check this book out! Thorough and well-documented, lots of pictures for us non-growing folk, and the auther has a great way of explaining the intricacies. He has been all over the world researching this subject, which is obvious once you read a little of the book. No where else could you get such a wealth of info on the subject, and it's all in one place. Guaranteed to make you want to try it yourself.

I am very pleased with these cards - sketches, posters & scenes from movies. I will have fun sending these. And, 100! What a price for 100 cards!

When I bought this, I was expecting them as the description states, coiled and in a box. When they arrived, to my suprise, they are not coil bound at all, but each postcard is loose and kept inside the box. This was great, as I was planning on putting some of these in frames around the house anyways.

The price....let me tell you, they are worth it. If you work it out, thats about 17¢ each, where most generic postcards go for $1 or more. The artwork covers all the features and shorts from Pixar to date, including their upcoming feature Cars.

After showing these to my animation collegues, they agree, this is one purchase you cannot be without if you are a lover of Pixar's work.

This was a great set of postcards, real high quality paper stock. My intention was to use them to mail to my nephew away at school, but once my kids saw the cards, they all took some for their walls to hang. With 100 cards there is plenty to go around. My favorite is the old man from the toy story shorts...

This has been a great source of inspiration and solid, practical advice for me. I'm opening my own studio/gallery soon and found Rudd's book to be a constant source of ideas on how to renovate the cheap, but run-down space we found. Although we weren't able to purchase the space as he recommended (I wish we could) it has been a very helpful book.
It's not just the practical advice, but the encouragement to take your own work more seriously that really made this book valuable to me. When he described how more work could be done in a good studio, I knew then that I had to get my work out of the garage and into a better space. Now, after a lot of elbow grease and plenty of cheap white [local store] paint (as Rudd recommended), I'll have a space much more suited to the work I want to do, plus a gallery to show it.

Multi-media artist Eric Rudd has written two books for
artists who feel compelled to produce not just good art, but great art that has potential for recognition on a grand scale in museums and perhaps a legacy in art history. Rudd pulls no punches in his entertaining account of his successes and failures both as an artist and developer of loft art studios from Washington, D.C. to North Adams, Massachussetts. His ideas aren't for the faint-hearted or the Sunday painter but rather for the artist with a strong belief in the greatness of the work and a willingness to take risks to create a space where this can happen. "The Art Studio/Loft Manual for Ambitious Artists and Creators" provides the practical information needed to make it happen, from how to acquire the real estate to how to renovate the space. The accounts of Rudd's achievements, particularly in his present location in North Adams, are inspiring.

Mr. Rudd...

Thank you for writing such helpful books for artists. It is a great thing you've done to improve the conditions for so many who need space to create and live with fewer restrictions.

Cheers.

Every art studio needs a guide to essential drawing and painting materials and how to use them, making AN ARTIST'S HANDBOOK a key acquisition not just for college-level art libraries and individual artists, but for general-interest holdings where patrons would understand the historical and modern techniques the artist needs to master in all media, from sketches to oil and acrylic paints. It's the only in-depth 'materials and techniques' guide oriented to modern art students and should be considered a staple acquisition.

An Artist's Handbook: Materials and Techniques by Margaret Krug is an inspiring and extremely user-friendly reference for both students and teachers of art. The abundant examples of beautifully reproduced artwork, all in color, keep pace with the wide range of drawing and painting techniques Krug describes. The author's vision is expansive; though examples by historical and contemporary masters are in plentiful supply, I was delighted by the inclusion of a concise and lively watercolor by seven-year-old Helen Henry done in 1914 that would not be out of place in a gallery today. For her rich array of offerings, Krug provides historical background and information on materials as well as step-by-step instructions and suggested exercises for getting started.

The various elements of the book - the great reproductions, Pamelia Markwood's wonderful photographs that illustrate the technical processes with clarity and precision, the book's thoughtful structure, and Krug's easily understood instructions - work together to give one the sense of being personally guided by a very gifted and knowledgeable teacher and practitioner of art. The book also helpfully includes a list of further recommended reading, a glossary of terms, an index and safety guidelines. I highly recommend it.

Laurie, Doerner, Wehlte, Hiler, Kay... and now Krug. Not a law firm, but a list of writers about art materials and techniques, who actually have something useful and important to say: art materials don't just mysteriously show up at the store in little tubes, you can make them yourself, as artists have done for centuries, until this part of the creative process was hijacked by manufacturers concerned with shelf life and merchandising. Margaret's coverage of casein, distemper, and encaustic are worthy of particular note; these techniques are rarely explored in print, and the recipes and demonstrations for distemper (painting with glue, like Dieric Bouts or Bonnard) and distemper as underpainting for encaustic (like the Fayum paintings of Egypt) are both scholarly and artistically exciting. Fabulous! Get this book, and get painting!

The Asian female as long been extolled as the perfect beauty in the world, a mixture of elegance, purity of line, and mystery of appearance. The popularity of the book and film 'Memoirs of a Geisha' is but one example of this appreciation. And now photographer Norm Yip opens the other side of the physical panorama to place the Asian male on the art platform.

This book of beautifully sculpted male nudes from Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and Malaysia is not only an artistically successful presentation of a photographer's gifts, it is also an example of just how fine photography books can be made. The quality of the reproductions is near perfect with both black and white and richly full color images on the finest of paper. The models are not only beautiful; they also appear to be in complete communication with Yip's concepts. The result is a group of forty sensuous, erotically charged photographs that stand with the finest of portfolios of the male nude. Norm Yip is a refreshing new talent who here shares his work from 1999 to 2004. Let's hope there is more! Recommended. Grady Harp, December 05

Very frankly, it is my very first time, as a Hong Kong local, to see such a publication related to Asian male, in a natural, sensual, tasteful, and artistic way. Every photograph seems to be meant to deliver a message, or in other words, to 'speak' through the posture of the model, the body, and the facial expression. Personally, it is nothing else but 'Art of the Art'.

I have seen and heard more than a few Asian American men express feelings of self-doubt and low self-esteem about themselves and their physical attributes. As an Asian-American who grew up in Asia more than in America, I suspect that the portrayal of the Asian male by mass media has a lot to do with this lack of confidence. Intentionally or not, Norm Yip's book takes one big step in the opposite direction. By depicting the Asian male as powerful and free with this collection of moving and tasteful images, he empowers us all. But Yip's images transcend issues of politics and do not scream out for undue attention--and that is where the true value of his book lies. "The Asian Male" quietly and forcefully addresses not only issues of beauty, but also of the brain.

This is a lovely book which shows beautiful colour illustrations of the human body and its various parts. For a layman like myself, it is great to know how I am constructed! I already had many hours of pleasure studying the pictures and working out where things are in me, and I expect many more. My friends are also all fascinated by these lovely pictures.

Well written and illustrated book for those in the medical field. I bought this book when I was taking Anatomy & Physiology along with my Myology class. It helped me to see and understand areas of the body that my text book didn't really focused on. This book makes a great gift for anyone just starting out in the medical field.

Barron's Educational Series,Inc. contacted me to translate the Atlas from Spanish to English. I am a Biologist specialized in Immunology and working in the research field and teaching graduate and undergraduate students for about twenty years. Translating the Atlas was an interesting and challenging project, not as straightforward as I thought it would be in the beggining! After all, it's just a translation, right? Wrong! Putting somebody else's work into another language is a great responsibility. I checked and recheked my work to make sure everything was correct and in the right place. I really appreciate the translator's job much better now than before I translated the Atlas. The part that demanded most of my organizational skills was the Index. After translating all of it (about 12 printed pages, tiny letters, six columns per page), the index had to be ordered alphabetically again!! The computer helped me to sort the words alphabetically, but the checking was up to me. The Atlas has wonderful color drawings and detail. It is easy to use and not overwhelming.Some parts not only describe a particular organ or tissue, but also briefly explain how it works (for example, besides eye anatomy, the visual path is shown in page 62. Main defects of sight and their correction is shown on page 63. How the fetus progressively changes and grows during pregnancy is on page 87). Translating the Atlas was a great experience for me. I hope you enjoy it and learn from it as well.

Ana Maria Soler-Rodriguez, PhD

I quite enjoyed this book and actually read it twice and a couple of times to my granddaughter and my niece - and would love to read more from Mr. Lawruk
Frances Graham, Langley, B.C. Canada

A delightful story and twist at the end. Enjoyable reading to children and for older children to read themselves. very descriptive making the reader feel totally connected with "Bark".

I was very impressed with this book. The moral message within is a strong and positive one for children of all ages. It's a great book for young children and should be incorporated into required education for all!

This is such a good book. Its funny how pooh gets rabbit so frustrated when his singing keeps waking rabbit up in the morning. So, when pooh stops walking past his house in the morning, rabbit realizes he misses the silly old tune, when some unexpected visitors drop in for a visit. Sometimes it seems that the littlest things annoy people. But it sometimes takes a different point of view to get over it and realizes how great it can be. I would recommend this book to kids who have brothers and sister because it teaches them how to deal with sibling rivalry. Especially for ages 4-7.

This truly is a great book. Itýs about how pooh gets rabbit mad by singing and waking him up in the morning. But when Pooh stops Rabbit miss it. After all that hard work to get him t stoop too. I recommend this book because it teaches you how much you miss something until after its gone. For ages2-6.

An excellent First Reader Book!! This story is about Pooh being his merrily self. He takes a walk each morning singing a silly tune, when he wakes up Rabbit. Rabbit gets so mad. Then the one day Pooh decides not to walk by, Rabbit misses his morning encounters with Pooh. This is a very cute story with catchy words. It is also very funny!! My two-year old son laughs histerically everytime we read this book. He loves it and takes it everywhere we go. In the back of the book is a picture and word matching game with objects in the story. There is also a word letter recognition activity. A great educational book with lots of humor and fun!