Rating: 
Summary: the promise of so much creative fun in the comimg year
Review: This new book is exactly what I needed! I'm a budding artist with lots of "real" artist friends. One small group of us meets monthly to talk about art, think about travel journals or do art projects, but we're always looking for art and journal ideas that will appeal to our widely varying interests and levels of expertise. This book could be our guide for way more than a year! It's perfect for us... and it's not that we haven't tried others. We're all buying Art Escapes before our next gathering...I particularly like that we can do the activities both on our own or with others in the group. Dory Kanter is the quintessential teacher. Her approach is friendly and informal, while, at the same time, professional and steeped in expertise. The instructions are SO clear that you don't have to stare at the page for an hour before "getting it"; trust me, I am a retired curriculum writer and I know clear from unclear! Although you could pick up the book and start almost anywhere, there is a logical sequence that really is, as the title says, giving me "artistic confidence." For example, the first chapter has concrete, practical, and, of course, artistic ideas about organizing supplies...already I've saved many minutes of dithering as I pack for a weekend trip during which I want to play with my art. Being such a new book, I haven't yet done all the exercises, but after reading every word and doing some of the activities, it's the first book like this that I know I really will do, and not just say I'll do. It certainly won't be a shelf-sitter, and don't we all have tons of those?! One really terrific exercise is called Creative Doodling...I even got my husband to do this one with me, and he's an accountant who says he'll "never do art"! I just quietly slipped it in with our morning coffee/read the paper/what's-on-your-day conversation and he loved it...didn't even know he was doing art...what a sweet way to start the day! P.S. he said he might give the book to his sister for Christmas! Thank you, Art Escapes, for bringing cheer, inspiration, and the promise of so much creative fun in the coming year.
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