Books about Motives from Amazon.com

In order to design a building with a sensuous connection to life, one must think in a way that goes far beyond form and construction In these essays Peter Zumthor expresses his motivation in designing buildings, which speak to our emotions and understanding in so many ways, and possess a powerful and unmistakable presence and personality.

This book, whose first edition has been out of print for years, has been expanded to include three new essays: "Does Beauty Have a Form?,” "The Magic of the Real,” and "Light in the Landscape.” It has been freshly illustrated throughout with new color photographs of Zumthor’s new home and studio in Haldenstein, taken specially for this edition by Laura Padgett, and received a new typography by Hannele Grönlund.

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Price: $24.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

For many years, Lajos Egri's highly opinionated but very enjoyable The Art of Dramatic Writing has been a well-guarded secret of playwrights, scriptwriters, and writers for television Unlike many other books on playwrighting (several of which Egri criticizes during the course of this one), the author's systematic breakdown of the essentials for creating successful realistic plays and screenplays effectively demystifies the process of creative writing. Egri, who formulated his thoughts about "a well-made play" during its heyday (the 1940s and '50s), places a premium on an exhaustive analysis of characters and discussion of their psychological motivations. The writer is exhorted to find a premise to explore and to discover which characters will most effectively demonstrate this thesis, then is shown how most effectively to place them into conflict with each other. Conflict itself is also discussed, particularly how to create scenarios in which the crisis develops at a pace that feels unforced and natural. While Egri's view of the well-made play has little space for either the spare musings of Beckett and Pinter or the conscious excesses of non-narrative and other experimental writing, it nonetheless remains an essential text for writers drawn to realistic drama, and to any writer interested in the fundamental motivations of human behavior. --John Longenbaugh.
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Themes of Contemporary Art: Visual Art after 1980 is a unique introduction to several important themes that have recurred in art over the past few decades Examining visual art from 1980 to the present, it takes an intriguing and accessible approach that motivates students and other readers to think actively about and discuss contemporary art--what it means and how it means what it does. The opening chapter provides a concise overview of the period, analyzing how four key changes (the rise of new media, a growing awareness of diversity, the influence of theory, and interactions with everyday visual culture) have resulted in an art world with dramatically expanded boundaries. Reflecting the paradigm shift from a formalist way of teaching studio art to more varied and open-ended concepts, the remaining six chapters each deal with a key theme--time, place, the body, language, identity, and spirituality. Each chapter features an introduction to the thematic topic; a brief look at historical precedents and influences; a detailed analysis of how contemporary artists have responded to and embodied aspects of the theme in specific works; and an in-depth and fascinating profile of an artist who has extensively explored aspects of the theme in his or her work.
Themes of Contemporary Art: Visual Art after 1980 shows how art can be interpreted from several different angles: techniques and materials, historical circumstances, aesthetic qualities, theoretical issues, and an artist's ideas and intentions. Writing in a lucid and engaging style, the authors skillfully reveal the multiple levels of meaning in artworks, drawing connections between contemporary art, art of the past, and everyday existence. The volume is enhanced by 87 illustrations--19 in full color--that demonstrate an immense variety of materials, subjects, and styles. These well-chosen examples will help readers learn to critically describe, interpret, and evaluate contemporary visual art. A bibliography and a timeline that situates contemporary art in the context of major events in world history, art, and popular culture are also included. An ideal core text for courses in contemporary art history, Themes of Contemporary Art: Visual Art after 1980 can also be used as a supplement in modern art, art appreciation, art criticism/theory, and studio art courses..
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Who hasn't, at one time or other, kept a journal? The impulse to record our daily lives on paper is nothing if not universal Still, only a few of us have the discipline to make it past the first few entries, and fewer still manage to create diaries whose insight and visual beauty can inspire anyone but their authors. Drawing from Life: The Journal as Art is an exploration of these exceptions books of obsessive wonder filled to their borders with drawings, sketches, watercolors, graphs, charts, lists, collages, portraits, and photographs.

Jennifer New takes readers on a spirited tour into the private worlds of journal keepers an architect, a traveler, a film director, an archeologist, a cancer patient, a songwriter, a quiltmaker, a gardener, an artist, a cyclist, and a scientist, to name just a few illustrating a broad range of journaling styles and techniques that in the end show how each of us can go about documenting our everyday lives. Excerpts from journals by such artists as Maira Kalman, Steven Holl, David Byrne, and Mike Figgis give us a peek at how creative souls observe, reflect, and explore.

For those who already keep a journal, Drawing from Life will be an inspiration. For those who have always wanted to or tried and failed it might just be the motivation needed to get past that first week..
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Pattern can be derived from many sources, if we remember to look closely. While patterns have been around forever, there’s a recent movement, a tendency among designers, to allow patterns to animate their work with colorful and exuberant complexity. "Over and Over: A Catalog of Hand-Drawn Patterns" collects groundbreaking work from fifty of today’s most talented designers who create patterns by hand and use them in their work in inventive and innovative ways. From Deanne Chenk’s patterns that adorn current fashion to those of Robin Cameron that explore her interest in art to Garret Morin’s patterns that arose from an exercise for a character called Eloie, the examples in this book are pushing the boundaries of the traditional concept of what a pattern is. The selected works are often not an end result but the beginning of something else, of something bigger and broader. While the computer is sometimes involved in the production of patterns, the hand-drawn element is always evident in the uniqueness of these works. Featuring more than 250 vibrant and exciting patterns, "Over and Over" explores this magic on every single page and will inspire designers everywhere.

"Drawing a pattern is not the easiest way of doing it, but, when the time is spent, something magical happens." – Michael Perry

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Taylor Hartman's The Color Code: A New Way to See Yourself, Your Relationships, and Life introduces a fresh method for analyzing your own personality and behavior--as well as those of people around you--and then utilizing that knowledge to improve workplace and personal relationships. The author, a psychologist and leadership coach, offers a remarkably astute system for grouping everyone into categories denoted by a color: red (power wielders), blue (do-gooders), white (peace keepers), and yellow (fun lovers). He then explains how to ensure that all possible alliances between them function at optimum effectiveness..
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What if the constraints and limitations of architecture became the catalyst for design invention? The award-winning young architecture firm Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis calls their answers to this question 'opportunistic architecture.' It is a design philosophy that transforms the typically restrictive conditions of architectural practice—small budgets, awkward spaces, strict zoning—into generators of architectural innovation. Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis presents a diverse selection of built and speculative projects ranging from small installations to larger institutional buildings. Built projects are accompanied by thought-provoking texts, beautiful drawings and photographs. An appendix distills their design philosophy into five tactics, a readymade code for students and practitioners looking for design ideas for the real world. Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis is an architecture partnership established in New York City in 1997 by Marc Tsurumaki, Paul Lewis, and David J. Lewis. Paul Lewis is Assistant Professor at Princeton University. Marc Tsurumaki is Adjunct Professor at Columbia University. David J. Lewis is Associate Professor at Parsons The New School for Design.

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