Home :: Books :: Arts & Photography  

Arts & Photography

Audio CDs
Audiocassettes
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
Transfigurations

Transfigurations

List Price: $49.95
Your Price: $32.97
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Grey is Great!
Review: Alex Grey is the eternally gentle soul. You can get some of this too simply by buing this book! Alex has been able to synthesise, using his extraordianary scholarly abilites and superhuman broadness of mind, vast and seemingly disparate aspects of reality. He then renders these visions in oil paints, bronzes and performance art in such a way as to make the deepest aspects of the wisdom traditions apparent to the "least here and now" person. Believe me, he paints what Ken Wilber can only talk about.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Grey is Great!
Review: Alex Grey is the eternally gentle soul. You can get some of this too simply by buing this book! Alex has been able to synthesise, using his extraordianary scholarly abilites and superhuman broadness of mind, vast and seemingly disparate aspects of reality. He then renders these visions in oil paints, bronzes and performance art in such a way as to make the deepest aspects of the wisdom traditions apparent to the "least here and now" person. Believe me, he paints what Ken Wilber can only talk about.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Transormative Art
Review: Grey's art touches one deeply. Approach it with an open mind and it will change you. A transfiguration is a change that glorifies. This metamorphasis of the artist can be seen in the marked difference of his disturbing early work to his later edifying depictions of omnipresent spirit. The beautiful intricacy of Grey's paintings pull you in, transform you, and leaving you contemplating the complexities of the self and the universe.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Grey grows up
Review: I have possessed a slightly beaten-up copy of Alex Grey's first book, Sacred Mirrors, since it was released, and I waited anxiously for Transfigurations to come out. Let me warn everyone: it is a book with a different message and focus than Mirrors. However, it is a message than many of us need to hear. This book focuses more on Grey's development as an artist, with an informative opening section on Grey's artwork through the years. It really gives meaning to his art to see the fruits of his confrontations with his "dark side" early on, and to see what those insights have contributed to the art he produces today. These pieces seem more personal than those in Mirrors, with Grey depicting families, birth, and his young daughter in his trademark hyper-realistic, transparent-skin style. He also includes some of his poems, which accompany a multi-part piece on the journey of the soul. Grey's earlier pieces tended to depict kisses, sex, or deities--universal themes we can all relate to. This book finds him paiting "headaches" or "despair" with the same insight he devotes to more upbeat subjects. Overall this is a great book, illustrating how Grey has grown as an artist over the years. If you are searching for just another "trip-book" on the order of his first publication, this may not be what you're looking for. But for me, it was an enriching view of what Grey's art is becoming as he, like many of us, tries to reconcile a transcendental and psychedelic worldview with a comforting and stable family life.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Grey grows up
Review: I have possessed a slightly beaten-up copy of Alex Grey's first book, Sacred Mirrors, since it was released, and I waited anxiously for Transfigurations to come out. Let me warn everyone: it is a book with a different message and focus than Mirrors. However, it is a message than many of us need to hear. This book focuses more on Grey's development as an artist, with an informative opening section on Grey's artwork through the years. It really gives meaning to his art to see the fruits of his confrontations with his "dark side" early on, and to see what those insights have contributed to the art he produces today. These pieces seem more personal than those in Mirrors, with Grey depicting families, birth, and his young daughter in his trademark hyper-realistic, transparent-skin style. He also includes some of his poems, which accompany a multi-part piece on the journey of the soul. Grey's earlier pieces tended to depict kisses, sex, or deities--universal themes we can all relate to. This book finds him paiting "headaches" or "despair" with the same insight he devotes to more upbeat subjects. Overall this is a great book, illustrating how Grey has grown as an artist over the years. If you are searching for just another "trip-book" on the order of his first publication, this may not be what you're looking for. But for me, it was an enriching view of what Grey's art is becoming as he, like many of us, tries to reconcile a transcendental and psychedelic worldview with a comforting and stable family life.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Spiritual Happiness
Review: If you liked sacred mirrors this book is the next step up. Opening to the first part of the book shows Alexs' earlier works and performances which seem strange compared to recent works. However it takes you through his lifes works and shows a very logical progression for the artist. His art progresses from a dark macabre form to a magnificant, spirtual art with bright exuberant colors. With the turn of every page I felt myself slowly filling with spiritual happiness until the end of the book when I felt overcome with spiritual energy and immediately upon closing the book I went into a meditative state and had the most wonderful experience. A must have for any Alex Grey fan or any believer in the sacred purposes of art.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Spiritual Happiness
Review: If you liked sacred mirrors this book is the next step up. Opening to the first part of the book shows Alexs' earlier works and performances which seem strange compared to recent works. However it takes you through his lifes works and shows a very logical progression for the artist. His art progresses from a dark macabre form to a magnificant, spirtual art with bright exuberant colors. With the turn of every page I felt myself slowly filling with spiritual happiness until the end of the book when I felt overcome with spiritual energy and immediately upon closing the book I went into a meditative state and had the most wonderful experience. A must have for any Alex Grey fan or any believer in the sacred purposes of art.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Spectacular Work and Insights!
Review: This book details not only Grey's most recent work, but provides excellent critical and biographical material that illuminates his brilliant career from its dark, troubled beginnings to the personal transformation that brought the numinous images of his inspirations to reality. I had no idea of the extent to which he engaged in performance art, most of it the results of a very tortured psyche that finally found healing in his relationship with his wife, muse, and colleague Allyson. This became the bases for even greater forms of expression that are documented chronologically. I have watched his career with interest since encountering the first of his Sacred Mirrors series 18 years ago. No other modern artist with the exception of H.R. Giger has so consistently captured this reviewer's imagination and I look forward to what he will produce in the years to come. Additionally, this book should be read as a companion piece to his autobiographical essay The Mission of Art.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Amazing
Review: this guy blows my mind. As soon as you start flipping the pages you know you're in for a ride. I literally opened the Amazon.com box in which it came and found myself unintentionally going through this book on my living room carpet for about 40 minutes, just astounded at the sheer beauty and magnificent presence Mr. Grey's artwork has.
I highly recommend you buy Sacred Mirrors as well. Both definitely belong in your book collection.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Art and Spirit for all of Mankind.
Review: This well printed, well bound, book contains stunningly beautiful and provocative spiritual imagery that resonates with the truth within us. But anyone who has seen Mr. Grey's work before has come to expect this from him.

The real treat is that the pages contain an incredible amount of intensely interesting background information (and tons of photos!) on Alex's early works, as well as insightful commentaries by Albert Hoffmann, Stephen Larsen, Donald Kuspit, and Ken Wilber.

I have to say... I bought my copy at a higher price directly from Alex Grey's website (...). It showed up a few days after ordering, smelling of freshly printed ink, nicely wrapped and (best of all!) signed by Alex Grey.

While it is true that Alex Grey's most recent book celebrates the Journey within all of us, it also offers the reader the opportunity to be subtly transformed by the power of the imagery and lyrical writing contained within - something that we can all benefit from during these disturbing days and into the uncertain ones to come.

For this reader, the most exciting aspect of this book is the announcement of Alex Grey's plan to build a Chapel to house the Sacred Mirrors.

I have no doubt that this Chapel will be one of the wonders of our age.

May God Bless Alex, Allyson, and Zena Grey and give them all the strength, luck, and power to support each other into the distant years to come.

- G.F.


<< 1 2 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates