A Fantastic State of Ruin Author, David Zurick, Hosts Book Signing and Lecture Events

Schedule of Events:

10/17/2018:
Chautauqua Special event
Eastern Kentucky Univ. Richmond, KY 40475 USA

10/29/2018:
Royal Geographical Society
Monday Night Lecture Series:
The painted towns of Rajasthan, illustrated lecture and book signing
1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AR, UK

11/01/2018:
The Shekhawati Project, Public Lecture: The painted towns of Shekhawati Illustrated talk and book signing
8 Impasse Truillot, 75011, Paris, France

11/08/2018:
Asia Institute with World Affairs Council
Crane House: Public Lecture and book signing
1244 S. Third St., Louisville, KY 40203

Visit Author's Website Here for More Information

Weddings, Butterflies & the Sweetest Dreams is Featured in Hong Kong Tatler Weddings Issue 18

A Fantastic State of Ruin Book Trailer

https://youtu.be/cMjnu9MWQ1c

A Fantastic State of Ruin By David Zurick Featured on Edge of Humanity

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Art, Architecture & The History Behind The Fading Havelis In Shekhawati

By Edge of Humanity Magazine, September 10, 2018

A Fantastic State of Ruin: The Painted Towns of Rajasthan

Scattered within the rural Shekhawati hinterland of Rajasthan in northwest India are pockets of a bygone urbanity…towns filled with mansions built by wealthy Marwari merchants, painted over in some of the world’s most beautiful frescoes and wall murals. These places often seem like abandoned settlements. Their extraordinary havelis, once filled with the sounds of large joint families, now lie mainly locked and boarded up, with the descendants living far away in distant lands.

An architectural patronage in Shekhawati emerged in the early 1800s wherein the Marwari merchants sent money from distant business outposts for the construction of havelis (houses with introverted courtyards), chhatris (memorial cenotaphs), mandirs (temples) johras (stepwells), dharamshalas (community resting houses) and kuis (wells) in their home towns. The structures incorporated elements of Rajput and Mughal architecture. The courtyards, doorways, and exterior walls were lavishly ornamented with wall paintings depicting varied motifs ranging from floral and animal themes, to folk art, religious themes, images of British kings and queens, military men and memsahibs, to novelties such as motor cars, trains, gramophones and clocks whereas inner rooms and private chambers often would hold erotic images discreetly hidden away. The wall frescoes give a unique glimpse into the life and aspirations of an entire community – from their religious beliefs, folklore and day to day life, to the wonder of faraway lands that beckoned with promise of riches and trade.

While some historic structures have found a new lease on life as homestays and heritage hotels, many others face abandonment, dereliction and eventual collapse. Family subdivisions lead to multiple ownership patterns, with family members spread across an international diaspora, and, as a result, the buildings too often are relegated to a lone watchman or are locked away or abandoned altogether.

Abha Narain Lambah, conservation architect (from “Introduction” to A Fantastic State of Ruin: The Painted Towns of Rajasthan)

Trip Fiction Recommends Find and Seek New York

From: http://www.tripfiction.com/find-and-seek-new-york/

We were delighted to be introduced to ORO Editions, a company dedicated to publishing world-class bespoke architecture, art & design books, and multimedia publications that celebrate creativity and a unique design spirit.

If you are heading to New York for a bit of sightseeing with children, say under 12, this would be a delightful addition to the family suitcase.

Beautiful architectural renditions of some of the famous – and not so famous landmarks – adorn the pages of this hardback. With each there is a stanzas of 2 and 4 lines giving a brief overview with a little rhyme or two thrown in.

Take the High Line which you discover stretches over 20 blocks, hop onto “Intrepid”, the aircraft carrier open for visitors. Amble past The New York Public Library where you should…

Visit the carousel and outdoor reading room,

Borrow a book, but make sure to return it soon.

FunnelCake: On the iPhone by David Hume Kennerly

Face it, most of our iPhone pictures are routine - selfies on a mountaintop, pictures of the cat, or, even more boring, pics of that weird-shaped metal piece we need to replace at the hardware store. It makes sense. After all, the iPhone is pretty limited, isn't it? No optical zoom, no interchangeable lenses, a flash with a limited range, fewer megapixels than that fancy DSLR your neighbor carries around, and the lens probably has your fingerprints on it. You can gussie up the photos with a filter if you're feeling retro, but that doesn't change the limitations of the camera, does it? Sure, your iPhone has the advantage of being with you most of the time, and that's great, but what can you do with it?

It turns out that it's quite possible to take amazing photographs on the iPhone, and David Hume Kennerly is here to prove it. A life-long photographer, Kennerly has gone from tooling around with a Brownie Hawkeye as a child, to working as a pro with a Canon 5D Mark III, earning a Pulitzer Prize in Journalism along the way. He has photographed presidents, produced Emmy award-winning documentaries, and traveled the world in search of the perfect photograph. So, with a resume like that, why would he bother with the iPhone?

SANTA MONICA -- JULY 1: Kara Sadlik on the rings at the beach, Nash Metropolitin, dog at Caffe Luxe, Santa Monica, California, July 1, 2013 (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/GettyImages)

It began with a challenge that Kennerly set for himself: to go back to his roots and take one good photograph a day, beyond the assignments, beyond the paid gigs, just a simple camera and good composition. He wanted a camera that was simple and easy to use, something light to carry and always available, a stripped-down camera where the only thing that mattered was the subject. What else to choose but the iPhone?

The result of his search for the perfect daily image is his book, On the iPhone: Secrets and Tips from a Pulitzer Prize-winning Photographer (Goff Books, 2014).

On the iPhone is not so much a book to read cover-to-cover, as it is a book to be delved into at leisure, skimmed and perused. You won't find how-tos on aperture or depth-of-field, which would be mostly irrelevant for the casual iPhone photographer anyways, but instead there are Kennerly's fabulous photographs.

Each chapter begins with a brief writeup on the chapter topic, which range from "Buildings: A Love Story" to "Street Photography" to pictures taken from airplanes. At 200 pages, the book provides a generous selection of photos, with captions accompanying them, explaining the how and why of each.

The photos are refreshing in that they are generally not about the special effects available on the iPhone, effects that are often used to cover up for an otherwise mediocre pictures. Instead, the photos are about composition, movement, and telling a story.

With some photographers' work, you can tell in an instant who the photographer was because they have such a distinctive style. That doesn't seem to be the case for David Kennerly; there is no single photo you can point to and say, "That's a Kennerly iPhone photo". His work is so wide-ranging and varied, going wherever a good picture is to be found, that each page in the book is a revelation.

NEW YORK -- DEC 5: PDJ. Central Park snails, Lewis Carroll monument, Alice in Wonderland sculpture, New York, New York, December 5, 2013. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly)

On the iPhone ends with "Sixty Tips for Better Pics", a collection of thoughts on how to get the most out of your iPhone photography. This section feels a little like an unnecessary add-on to the rest of the book. The tips are in fact quite useful, but might have been better interspersed in the rest of the book, possibly associated with specific photographs to demonstrate their utility. However, that's a minor quibble in a fine book of photos. Funnelcake says: check it out.

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A LIFE IN BOOKS Wins Three More Awards!

The 2015 International Book Award - Best New Fiction

http://www.internationalbookawards.com/2015pressrelease.html

The 2015 International Book Award - Best Cover Design, Fiction

http://www.internationalbookawards.com/2015awardannouncement.html

The 2015 Paris Book Festival - WILD CARD Award

http://parisbookfestival.com/winners2015.html

(FINALIST) 2015 International Book Award - Best Interior Design

http://www.internationalbookawards.com/2015awardannouncement.html

In total, that's nine awards, plus two finalists for "A LIFE IN BOOKS"

WINNER 2015 International Book Award - Best New Fiction

WINNER 2015 International Book Award - Best Cover Design, Fiction

WINNER 2015 Paris Book Festival - Wild Card Award

WINNER 2014 IPPY Outstanding Book of the Year Award for Most Original Concept (Independent Publisher)

WINNER 2014 Best New Fiction - USA Best Book Awards

WINNER Next Generation Indie Book Award

WINNER National Indie Book Award

WINNER CBAA Exhibition Prize College Book Art Association

WINNER PRINT Magazine Regional Design Award

FINALIST International Book Award - Best Interior Design

FINALIST Best Cover Design, Fiction - USA Best Book Awards

A LIFE IN BOOKS: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley is an illuminated novel by acclaimed author/artist Warren Lehrer. The 4 color novel includes 101 books within it, all written by Lehrer’s protagonist—Bleu Mobley—a controversial author who finds himself in prison looking back on his life and career. Mobley’s autobiography/apologia is paired with a review of all 101 of his books, each represented by its first-edition cover design and catalog copy, and more than a third of his books are excerpted. The resulting retrospective contrasts the published writings (which read like short stories) with the confessional memoir, forming a most unusual portrait of a well-intentioned, obsessively inventive (if ethically challenged) visionary. A LIFE IN BOOKS explores the creative process of a writer/artist, as it reflects upon a half century of American/global events, and grapples with the future of the book as a medium, and the lines that separate and blur truth, myth, and fiction.

Sand and Golf: How Terrain Shapes the Game Reviewed by The Aposition

One not insignificant reason I love links golf is that I can often leave my wedge in the bag, and just use the putter even when well off the green. George Waters covers all the other reasons in “Sand and Golf: How Terrain Shapes the Game” (Goff Books, $40).

The book has actually been out for awhile—it won the 2013 Golf Architecture Book of the Year award from GolfClubAtlas.com—but just came across my desk, luckily enough. We’re talking coffee table book here, with pages that are a foot wide to accommodate all the luscious course photos on every spread.

Waters is a golf course architect based out of San Francisco, as well as an accomplished writer and photographer as evidenced here. He worked for Tom Doak for years and Doak contributes a Foreword.

The text ranges over the evolution of a sandy course (though not all sandy courses are necessarily links), its native plants, the general features. Waters discusses how architects consider the wind in their routing plans, inherent strategies that arise, how playable the rough should be. Entire chapters are devoted to bunkers, approach and recovery areas, and greens.

But the photography is the real star here, with many of the usual suspects in their green or sandy glory—the Old Course, North Berwick, Sand Hills, Royal Dornoch, Royal County Down, National Golf Links, Shinnecock, Pacific Dunes, Rosapenna, Pinehurst No. 2.

It’s all very arousing and therefore frustrating when contemplating a still wintry vista out one’s windows. But it builds up a nice head of steam for spring, and all that fine golf to be played. And, yeah, all that wedge practice, too.

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Mona Lisa Reimagined Featured on 3X3 Magazine

No painting in history has been reproduced as often as Mona Lisa, and yet never before has there been published a book such as MONA LISA REIMAGINED, a captivating anthology of hundreds of pieces of art that have been inspired by this priceless world treasure.

Over 8 million people from all over the world flock to the Louvre every year for the opportunity to gaze upon the beguiling Renaissance masterpiece, La Gioconda, more popularly known as "Mona Lisa."

For over 500 years, civilizations have exhaustively attempted to examine all facets of the famous artwork's creation, influence, mythology, heritage, and mystique. But perhaps one of the most fascinating aspects of Mona Lisa's enduring legacy is the frequency with which this painting has been reinterpreted, parodied, appropriated, and imitated by other artists. No painting in history has been reproduced as often as Mona Lisa, and yet never before has there been published a book such as MONA LISA REIMAGINED, a captivating anthology of hundreds of pieces of art that have been inspired by this priceless world treasure. Featuring both established and emerging artists from over 50 different countries, this book is destined to become an essential addition to every bookshelf, coffee table, and library.

Author Erik Maell is an illustrator and graphic designer whose clients include Lucasfilm Ltd., Universal Studios, The Walt Disney Company, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Topps Trading Card Company, and Victoria's Secret Beauty Corporation. He lives in Columbus, OH.

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Back to the Start Reviewed in Print Council of Australia’s December 2015 Issue

Back to the Start

November 25, 2015

Back to the Start – Belinda Fox

Essays by Kate Bryan, Glenn Barkley, Stephen Naylor and Michael Kempson. Goff Books, 2015. ISBN: 9781939621276

Reviewed by Kate Gorringe-Smith.

This is a seductive book that presents the work of Belinda Fox lovingly and lavishly. It is large in format (29 x 23.5 cm) and richly illustrated with full and double-page photographs, and even a foldout, of Fox’s evocative and sensual prints, paintings, ceramics and sculptures. Four essays comprise the text of the book, detailing the history and context of Fox’s practice from various themed perspectives.

Kate Bryan, writer and London Art15 Fair Director, tackles ‘Painting/Process’; Glenn Barkley, curator, writer and artist, contributes to the section ‘Paper/Past’; Professor Stephen Naylor of James Cook University, who knew Fox in the 1990s and has become reacquainted with her since her move to Singapore in 2012, provides the third essay, ‘Travel/Nature’; and Michael Kempson of Cicada Press explores ‘Collaborations/Connections’. The section names are given in addition to titles chosen by the authors themselves (for instance Bryan’s essay is actually titled ‘Pilgrimage’), but they provide an apt structure for the areas the authors examine.

What all four authors emphasise – apart from a mutual high regard, fondness and respect for Fox and her work – is how central Fox’s background in printmaking has been to everything that has followed. The discipline, the mark-making, the technical prowess and curiosity, the collegiate nature of sharing a studio: every aspect of learning the art and craft of printmaking is stressed as being critical to Fox’s growth as an artist.

As a printmaker, Fox’s heritage is impeccable: after studying at Melbourne’s VCA, Fox became master printer at Port Jackson Press where she helped luminaries such as John Olsen realise the idiosyncrasies of their more-familiar media in print. She has done residencies at numerous international print studios, and her awards include both the Silk Cut Award for Linocut Prints (2004) and the Burnie Print Prize (2007).

Apart from examining Fox’s printmaking roots, the essays construct a detailed biographical and academic framework through which to view her work. Bryan, for example, places Fox’s art within the tradition of Romanticism. Whereas Naylor examines it through the historic lens of landscape painting, discussing both European and Asian traditions of depicting place. All four writers also acknowledge how deeply Fox’s extensive travels and residencies throughout Asia have affected her, both philosophically and artistically.

Michael Kempson describes how Fox’s creative collaborations have helped her to grow artistically. His section contains, in a series of questions and answers, the only lengthy passages where we hear the artist’s own voice.

It is Barkley who articulates the crux of this book, why it was written, and why Fox is particularly fascinating, beyond her artistic skills and her enviable trajectory:

I think Fox represents a new model of a successful Australian artist – living in Singapore with a strong client base in Sydney and Melbourne whilst developing extensive networks in Asia. Whilst writing this essay I have thought about whether there is anything particularly Australian about her work. Its Australian specific qualities are indeed hard to find, but maybe this is symptomatic of the new model of a global Australian artist. Fox’s career trajectory could inspire others, as she is not hamstrung on the clarion call to Europe and America as a gauge for success but rather is building her reputation from the ground up and out to the region she has paid homage to throughout her career; the new powerhouse of international art – Asia.

This book is Fox’s envoy into galleries and regions of Asia she is yet to conquer. Maybe she will also be the envoy for many more talented, brave and visionary Australian artists to follow her path, and pave new ones, into Asia.

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