Making Pearls: Living the Creative Life

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Summary: More of Carbonetti's gorgeous work--advice for creativity
Review: This is not a painting how-to book. Making Pearls is Vermont artist Jeanne Carbonetti's attempt to verbalize her creative exercises she uses and teaches for her free style of watercolor.

If you are a fan of Carbonetti's paintings, there are many photos of her work in this book to drool and marvel over. There is one useful exercise--making a "creation cycle" using the seven colors based on the India Chakras. Her theory is that we are always within the cycle of creation and need to recognize where we are in the cycle to be in rhythm with the flow. If you can't take one of her workshops, using this book can lead you through the exercise.

Why "Making Pearls" as a title? This is a metaphor for taking irritations of daily life and making something beautiful from them, just as the oyster takes a grain of sand and creates a pearl.