Some Thoughts On My New Book
As you may know, I have a new book due out soon called "Persuing the Ineffable". (Yes yes, we know the spelling of 'persuit' is different than expected. Please give the book a read to see why.) When I finally had the first copy of "This Sublime Dance" - my first art book - in my hands, I knew immediately that a second book would follow.
Skimming through the pages of that first book, you could witness the 18-year journey of the artist (I think the earliest work in there was from me at age 16). What would another ten years bring? I am so much more efficient now, so much more patient and careful. But I am also freer in my expression and more connected to a deeper sense of spontaneity. I've made more paintings and fine drawings in the subsequent 9 years than in the entirety of the time span of "This Sublime Dance".
“Persuing the Ineffable” – The New Book of Michael Divine’s Art
Persuing the Ineffable is the new book of Michael Divine’s breath-taking artwork made in the 10 years following his first book, This Sublime Dance. This full color, cloth-bound, foil-stamped, hardcover book is beautifully crafted with full color, heavy weight, glossy pages, and a gold embossed dust jacket.
Order Your Copy HERE
The book is a limited of 750 and each copy is signed and numbered on a bound page. The 226 page book features over 200 paintings and drawings with multiple fold out pages and giant full page details as well as contributing essays from Bill Moses and Violet Divine.
Maus
There's been a lot of talk lately about this graphic novel, Maus. Maybe you've heard about it. I bought my first copy of it back in 1991 or something when it was first collected as a graphic novel.
Anyhow, at the time, it was different than other graphic novels because there wasn't much in the way of the way of non-superhero fare (and I read plenty of those). It opened my eyes to the medium and.how stories could be told.
The Art of Discovery
I started cataloging our art books today. Very exciting, I know. We have quite a library of books all together - between the art book collection, the dozens of philosophy books and the many volumes in between it spans more than a few centuries of knowledge and inspiration. What boggles my mind, when I look at the couple hundred books of paintings and drawings, is the lifetimes they represent. Hours, days, weeks, years of the lives of men and women who dedicated themselves to the creative urge. And each book - each artist - is a facet of a jewel that allows the light of inspiration to pass through it in a particular manner creating shapes, motifs, themes and designs, entire stories, entire lifetimes.
The books on the shelves are organized into several sections. One shelf holds the rather modern day visionary artist types - Robert Venosa, Mati Klarwein, Alex Grey, Gil Bruvel, etc - then a shelf of illustrators - Arthur Rackham, Kay Nielsen, Harry Clarke, Dr. Seuss, and more - then art history - historical movements like Art Nouveau, Surrealism, etc - and then, of course, many shelves of just artists - Vincent Van Gogh, Max Ernst, Michelangelo, Salvador Dali, Frantisek Kupka, Hieronymus Bosch, Gustav Klimt, and more more more.