Books about Observation from Amazon.com

"This is a book about making art. Ordinary art. Ordinary art means something like: all art not made by Mozart. After all, art is rarely made by Mozart-like people; essentially-statistically speaking-there aren't any people like that. Geniuses get made once-a-century or so, yet good art gets made all the time, so to equate the making of art with the workings of genius removes this intimately human activity to a strangely unreachable and unknowable place. For all practical purposes making art can be examined in great detail without ever getting entangled in the very remote problems of genius."
--from the Introduction

Art & Fear explores the way art gets made, the reasons it often doesn't get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way. The book's co-authors, David Bayles and Ted Orland, are themselves both working artists, grappling daily with the problems of making art in the real world. Their insights and observations, drawn from personal experience, provide an incisive view into the world of art as it is expeienced by artmakers themselves.

This is not your typical self-help book. This is a book written by artists, for artists -- it's about what it feels like when artists sit down at their easel or keyboard, in their studio or performance space, trying to do the work they need to do. First published in 1994, Art & Fear quickly became an underground classic. Word-of-mouth response alone-now enhanced by internet posting-has placed it among the best-selling books on artmaking and creativity nationally.

Art & Fear has attracted a remarkably diverse audience, ranging from beginning to accomplished artists in every medium, and including an exceptional concentration among students and teachers. The original Capra Press edition of Art & Fear sold 80,000 copies.

An excerpt:

Today, more than it was however many years ago, art is hard because you have to keep after it so consistently. On so many different fronts. For so little external reward. Artists become veteran artists only by making peace not just with themselves, but with a huge range of issues. You have to find your work...

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Price: $7.20 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Country music superstar Trace Adkins isn’t exactly known for holding back what’s on his mind. And if the millions of albums he’s sold are any indication, when Trace talks, people listen. Now, in A Personal Stand, Trace Adkins delivers his maverick manifesto on politics, personal responsibility, fame, parenting, being true to yourself, hard work, and the way things oughta be.

In his inimitable pull-no-punches style, Trace gives us the state of the union as he sees it, from the lessons of his boyhood in small-town Louisiana to what he’s learned headlining concerts around the world. Trace has worked oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, been shot in the heart, been inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, and braved perhaps the greatest challenge of all: being the father of five daughters. And shaped by these experiences, he’s sounding off.

• I’m incredibly frustrated with the state of American politics. If there were a viable third party, I’d seriously consider joining it.
• If anybody wonders who the good guys are and who the bad guys are in this world, just look at the way we teach our children as opposed to the way the fundamentalist Muslims teach their children.
• Organized labor now exists for the sake of organized labor, and not for the workers it once protected.
• I believe the easiest way to solve the illegal immigration enforcement problem is to go after the employers who hire illegal aliens.
• As a society, we’re unwilling to sacrifice our luxuries and our conveniences in order to conserve. We won’t change until we’re forced to.
• The war on terror is like herpes. People can live with it, but it’ll flare up from time to time.

Brash, ballsy, persuasive, and controversial, A Personal Stand isn’t just the story of Trace Adkins’s life; it’s the story of what life can teach all of us..
Price: $13.48 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Change the entire school culture with this collaborative method of supervision

For years, the classic supervision model has frustrated both principals and teachers by fostering superior-subordinate relationships, focusing on teacher conformity rather than growth, or producing checklist data that is irrelevant to the curriculum. The Three-Minute Classroom Walk-Throughoffers a practical, time-saving alternative that impacts student achievement by cultivating self-reliant teachers who are continuously improving their practice.

Easy to understand and adopt, this method will answer the questions most important to principals:

• Is the work of my teachers aligned with the district curriculum?
• Are my teachers using research-based "best practices"?
• Are they choosing the instructional strategies that will promote student achievement?

Also known as the Downey Walk-through, the method presented in The Three-Minute Classroom Walk-Through has been developed over a 40-year period, tested and refined in actual teaching environments, and taught internationally.

Also see:
The Three-Minute Classroom Walk-Through (Multimedia Kit)

(20070619).
Price: $24.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Author: Julianne Wurm. 240 pages. Paperback.
Price: $12.35 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Can't get enough of the faerie world? Well, Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, the brave souls that helped Mallory, Simon, and Jared Grace bring their amazing adventures to a worldwide audience, are here to help you find yours!

Presenting The Spiderwick Chronicles Notebook for Fantastical Observations. This handy interactive storybook features seventeen mini-adventures collected from faerie watchers around the globe as well as plenty of pages for readers to add their own stories, maps, charts, notes, lists, diagrams, and drawings. So get ready to embark on your own faerie adventure -- all you need is an observant eye and an open mind. Just keep your wits about you. After all... their world is closer than you think.....
Price: $3.98 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Published by the world-famous National Audubon Society, this guide explores the fabulous mysteries above, from planets in our solar system to the constellations in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres, stars, galaxies (including the Milky Way), nebulae, astronomical bodies, objects, phenomena, and comets. -- Night Sky provides a concise guided tour of the heavens with 410 illustrations including 48 monthly sky charts of the northern sky and 88 constellation charts, each offering a detailed map of individual constellations. -- Essays on the universe, the solar system, and constellations introduce the reader to the wonders of the sky. Softcover, 714 pages..
Price: $9.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]

African Friends and Money Matters grew out of frustrations that Westerners experience when they travel and work in Africa. Africans have just as many frustrations relating to the Westerners in their midst. Each uses and manages money and other resources in very different ways, and these differences create many misunderstandings and frictions.

The author deals with everyday life in Africa. He first introduces the very different goals of African and Western economic systems and then presents ninety observations of African behaviors related to money matters. Explanatory comments are given that show how each one works out in real life. He illustrates his and others' experiences with anecdotes from across the continent. Drawings by two African artists add further clarity to the text as they capture Africans and Westerners in authentic situations. The result is that the reader is able to make sense of customs that at first seem incomprehensible.

This book will be of interest to Westerners living, working, or traveling in sub-Saharan Africa: business, government, diplomatic, and NGO personnel, religious workers, journalists, development sociologists, and tourists. The audience also includes professors and students in African studies. Africans will also be interested for what it reveals about Western culture and many of the significant ways Westerners react to Africa.

Table of Contents

Use of Resources
Friendship
The Role of Solidarity
Society and People of Means
Loans and Debts
Business Matters
Toward a Conclusion
References
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Price: $24.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The Night Sky Planisphere - Large 40°-50°.
Price: $11.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]