Sketches Of Life

Brenda Johnson has found herself irresistibly led to record her experiences, relationships, meditations, prayers -- and her disappointments -- in words that are musical, reflective, and undercut with irony. She brings curiosity, candor, and unfailing sympathy to a life lived with deep appreciation. A most rewarding read! ---Quincy Howe, Ph.D. Professor of Classics, Comparative Religion A sacred sister who has intensely lived the life she "sings about" in her poet-Spirit song, Brenda Johnson has penned wisdom-word poems. They are layered with love and joy blending together as a literary legacy which promotes soul growth and mental elevation; quite apropos to her spiritual discipline as a long-time yogi and artistic adorer of the Divine. ---Linda Cousins-Newton: Director, Ancestral Promotions “For many of us, denial of many levels, allow us to experience only the margins of living, lulled into thinking, if we must, that our daily existence is some sort of rehearsal. In these pages of poems, we see the evolution of this but most importantly the growth that comes when we accept that our life experiences is far from a rehearsal, it’s actually the main event.” ---Chester Higgins: Author, photographic artist: NY Times It certainly reflects many similar experiences among those of us who have been blessed to live a full life. However, you have a gift of being able to explain it in such a powerful voice while using just a few well placed words and thoughts. I wish I could think that clearly. ---Carolyn S. Blout: Executive Director, About Time Magazine

George Kennan's private diaries provide a portrait of his life and times and the key cities and countries he served in as ambassador.

"Sketches from the Life of Paul" is a spiritual book by Ellen G White that features the life of the Apostle Paul. It portrays the passionate spirit of Apostle Paul after accepting Christ and working in the line of the gospel. This book covers the unwavering service of Paul with faithfulness to the cause in his ministry without any abominable beliefs or mentalities.

All I want is to be heard! I am utilizing my voice to tell the story of my life in hopes that I will inspire other people. This is a thrilling story of childhood trauma filled with abuse and neglect. I cried out for help but nobody seemed to hear me. When I became a parent I was struggling to create a life for my children while still fighting battles with mental and physical health, substance abuse, and criminal involvement. I still have many battles but I believe I found my voice in writing and doing poetry and now it's time to share with the world.

Full of never-before-seen illustrations, Life Sketches is an inspiring and elegant portrait of Robert Bateman’s life as an artist and of his belief that “Nature is an infinite source of reason, imagination, and invention.” From one of Canada’s most beloved painters comes an intimate, visually stunning memoir of the artist at work. Internationally acclaimed artist Robert Bateman has brought the natural world to vivid life with his unique perspective. His vast body of work—spanning species as large as the buffalo and as small as the mouse—has touched millions of hearts and minds, awakening a reverence for wildlife of all kinds. Bateman is perhaps best known for his gorgeous depictions of birds in flight and in repose, images that stir in the viewer a deep appreciation of colour, form and spirit. Life Sketches is a moving journey in both words and images that, for the first time, allows Bateman’s fans full access into his creative process, detailing his singular artistic vision and the inspiration behind his iconic art. What emerges is a portrait of a young boy enchanted by the natural world around him and called to record it in his sketches and paintings. Bitten by wanderlust, Bateman travelled the world and documented his real life experiences in journals, sketches, and paintings. In Life Sketches, he recounts the evolution of his style from abstraction to realism and the events that have shaped his art into a vocation over many decades. And through it all, Bateman shows how his keen sensibilities extend beyond art, to a passion for conservation and relentless advocacy for the natural world that underpins an incredible artistic legacy. Join Robert Bateman on this personal guided tour through his life and art.

In 1952 and 1953 as he wandered around America, Jack Kerouac jotted down spontaneous prose poems, or "sketches" as he called them, on small notebooks that he kept in his shirt pockets. The poems recount his travels—New York, North Carolina, Lowell (Massachusetts, Kerouac’s birthplace), San Francisco, Denver, Kansas, Mexico—observations, and meditations on art and life. The poems are often strung together so that over the course of several of them, a little story—or travelogue—appears, complete in itself. Published for the first time, Book of Sketches offers a luminous, intimate, and transcendental glimpse of one of the most original voices of the twentieth century at a key time in his literary and spiritual development.

This absorbing biography, often conveyed through Peter Selz’s own words, traces the journey of a Jewish-German immigrant from Hitler’s Munich to the United States and on to an important career as a pioneer historian of modern art. Paul J. Karlstrom illuminates key historical and cultural events of the twentieth-century as he describes Selz’s extraordinary career—from Chicago’s Institute of Design (New Bauhaus), to New York’s Museum of Modern Art during the transformative 1960s, and as founding director of the University Art Museum at UC Berkeley. Karlstrom sheds light on the controversial viewpoints that at times isolated Selz from his colleagues but nonetheless affirmed his conviction that significant art was always an expression of deep human experience. The book also links Selz’s long life story—featuring close relationships with such major art figures as Mark Rothko, Dore Ashton, Willem de Kooning, Sam Francis, and Christo—with his personal commitment to political engagement.