Janet Catherine Berlo

Each chapter is a broad overview of these five regions of North American Native Art: The Southwest, The East, The West, The North and The Northwest Coast, followed by a chapter on Modern Native Art. The authors explore the differences of intention between native art and European/Western art. I am always fascinated to see primitive's art and the way that they made everything they used with design and beauty, with intention and praise. Somewhere along the way, we modern peoples have lost that. We are content to mass produce ugly items and we have lost our ability to find beauty in everyday tasks. That's my takeaway from this book, not the authors'.

I picked this up from the library intending only to look at the photographs and read their captions, but then I would dip in and out of the text, and every time I dipped in I ended up reading quite a bit. I focused on the bits which explained how the various tribes used/made/perceived art and learned quite a lot. Had I more time and concentration, I would have enjoyed reading this more carefully.… (más)

"Shapeshifting celebrates Native American ideas that have crossed time and space to be continuously refreshed with new concepts and expressions. Experience this vitality through sculpture, paintings, ceramics, textiles, photographs, videos and monumental installations drawn from collections in the United States, Canada and Europe. Rarely seen historic pieces, shown alongside some of the finest contemporary works, demonstrate the diversity and continuity of Native American art and culture from 200 B.C.E. to the present."-- from publisher's web site… (más)

This is a very, very readable set of mini-essays addressing, simultaneously, life lessons and different quilt patterns. The author, an academic specializing in Native American Indian women and arts, recounts in vividly personal prose the story of how quilting helped guide her out of a bout with depression in the early 90s. I sometimes find memoirs by academics too self-conscious and stiff, difficult to warm to, but Berlo's warmth, honesty and humor are wonderful; I was hooked from the moment early on when she shares that writing about having "writer's block" brought her to the serendipitous realization that Writer's Block sounded like a quilting pattern. Short chapters featuring descriptions of quilting patterns, designs, and cultural history are interspersed with stories about the author's sisters, friends and colleagues; recipes and references to other creative arts and activities are included too, seamlessly. Very entertaining, even to a non-quilter. Berlo's book makes me want to take up the hobby, as well as to invite her over for tea. A really pleasurable read.… (más)