the emperor's new clothes!!

While Monet is my favorite Impressionist artist, I have little affection for most of the work he did in the last years of his life. However, "Monet: Late Paintings of Giverny from the Musee Marmottan" is about more than the work the artist did during the first part of the 20th-century. What is fascinating about this book is how it talks about Claude Monet as a skilled landscape designer who turned his garden at Giverny into a living canvas which served as the subject for almost all of his later work.

The text of this book consists primarily of four essays: (1) "The Musee Marmottan and Claude Monet," by Arnaud d'Hauterives, the museum's curator, that briefly discusses the history of the Monet collection found there; (2) Lyn Federle Orr's "Monet: An Introduction" provides what is really an overview of Monet's body of work; (3) Paul Hayes Tucker's "Passion and Patriotism in Monet's Late Work" discusses how the artist started focusing on particular elements and enlarging them in his paintings. This essay is illustrated with not only reproductions of Monet's paintings but photographs of Monet's garden from that period; (4) "Monet as a Garden Artist" by Elizabeth Murray focuses on the strong parallels between Monet as a painter and a gardener. The essay includes a detailed diagram of both the Flower Garden and the Water Garden at Monet's home in Giverny, as well as an axial view of the two. What I like most about this book is that I learned more about the garden and its relationship to the famous paintings of the water lilies, the Japanese bridge, and the other familiar sights.

This book ends with the Exhibition of 22 paintings displayed at the Musee Marmottan, from two "Water Lilies (Nympheas)" paintings from 1903 to a painting of "The Roses (Les Roses) from 1925-1926. Almost all of these paintings reflect the darker style of his last years. However, I think with this book you will come for the paintings, but stay for the garden. Of course, now I have a strong desire to go there and see these things for myself. For a visit there, albeit a slightly fictional one, check out "Linnea in Monet's Garden," a children's book that adult will certainly enjoy by Christina Bjork and Lena Anderson.

I am a a big fan of Cultivating Sacred Spaces by Elizabeth Murray, so I was interested in her other books. Her calendars are lovely, but this book gave me the best gift of all....blueprints for cultivating my own sacred space! The graphics are wonderful and the text easy to follow. I read this bbok i the middle of winter and had the urge to use the snow plow so I could begin making an outdoor living space. You can't go wrong with this bbok. It is even a great wish book for apartment dwellers. BUY THIS BOOK!

This a book dealing with nothing more than a technique and has nothing to do with art. Her Polaroid manipulations are awful, demeaning the entire creative process. It tries to be a how to book and it is. But, like I said, her work falls tremendously short of good.

This is a book of manipulated Polaroid SX70 images. The author in three succinct pages describes why and how she manipulates the photos and encourages us to try the process to "awaken the creative spirit." She presents 61 manipulated--often also painted--images in five subject categories (Seascapes, Gardens, Architecture and Exteriors, Still Lifes and Interiors, and People). There's a section of notes on the pictures and, in six short pages, a remarkable amount of information to help one get started in SX70 manipulation.

There were a few disconcerting points, the photo, Solace Beside the Waterlily Garden, described as on the back cover was not found anywhere in this edition, a reference to Cibachrome (now Ilfochrome) prints being made from internegatives rather than positive transparencies, and I found it awkward flipping back and forth between notes and pictures. More important, however, Ms Murray does an extraordinary job of sharing her passion and technique in few words and, primarily, in images that may well inspire you to try the process. It's got me trying to remember where I put that old SX70 camera.