Customer Reviews

Spirit Taking Form

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As the Executive Director of Women's Studio Center I find this book to be a great boon to artists and those thinking about becoming an artist. It has elements of "The Artists Way" with more substance and some biographical details.
Nancy Azara was the Director of the New York Feminist Art Institute, a wonderful women's art organization that closed in 1990. She taught a class "Visual Diaries" which included elements of consciousness raising and art or creating an "artists book". I think her ideas and exercises come from this class.
It's a wonderful creative motivator !

This book helps me find a place where I can look at things quietly.

I particularly like Nancy's personal writing style, in which she invites the reader into the artmaking process in a deceptively simple way. She uses the conflicts and complexities of her own existence to create art which is complete within the context of a real life.

This book gave me an insight into the creative process that I had never experienced before. It was just as Gloria Steinem said "...how to meditate our way into our imaginations & to give our thoughts & feelings visible form" this book gave me a new found way to discovering my self and the artwork I produce. Thank you so much Nancy, I really appreciate what your book has done for me and hope that others find it as rejuvenating to the soul as I did.

This book gave me an insight into the creative process that I had never experienced before. It was just as Gloria Steinem said "...how to meditate our way into our imaginations & to give our thoughts & feelings visible form" this book gave me a new found way to discovering my self and the artwork I produce. Thank you so much Nancy, I really appreciate what your book has done for me and hope that others find it as rejuvenating to the soul as I do.

Filled with artistic endeavors and meditations to get creative juices flowing. Healing in that it affirms that all creative process is worthy...not just the technical modems of art instructors, designers etc. The symbols that come forth during our artistic expressions, even the simplest ones, are coming from the deepest parts of our soul...the author hopes that we'll "come to view our inner selves as if watching a film", to see our own personal images and to be able to transform them into art we can appreciate. Worth a read, a study, there are lots of reflective stories that I found very inspiring, quotes from other students, artists...I found the exercises very propelling and I am all for moving forward, even small increments make progress...

This is a wonderful book that serves as a guild for all of us who wish to make a further connection between our art-making and our spiritual practice.