Dearest Friends,

Below is a list of my favorite books on the power of art; next to creating art, reading about art is one of my favorite activities!  I do hope that these books give you some insight into the healing, meaning and mysteries of art making and viewing...or at least a deep reverence for them.  This can be one of the greatest gifts in life...an endless adventure of searching, unravelling and discovering the beauty of life through art.

AESTHETICS
The Romantic Manifesto, Ayn Rand
Beauty, Roger Scruton

HEALING THROUGH ART
Art Heals, Shaun McNiff
Attunement in Expressive Arts Therapy (Toward an Understanding of Embodied Empathy), Mitchell Kossak

CREATIVE POTENTIAL
Becoming, Kelly Mellos (Me!)
Creating Minds, Howard Gardner
Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert
Creativity (Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention), Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Creative Authenticity, Ian Roberts
The Courage to Create, Rollo May

THE POWER OF ART
Playing for Their Lives: The Global El Sistema Movement for Social Change Through Music, Tricia Tunstall and Eric Booth
Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl

ART AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
The Arts and Human Development, Howard Gardner
Arts and the Creation of Mind, Elliott Eisner

MASTER ARTISTS
Discourses on Art, Sir Joshua Reynold

UNDERSTANDING ARTISTS (Tee hee)
The Art Spirit, Robert Henri
Hawthorne on Painting, Hawthorne
The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron

AWAKENING THROUGH ART
Art and Mindfulness, Enrique Martinez Celaya
Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet, Matthew Fox