MassArtEd.org

Dan Serig's new book!
Visual Metaphor and the Contemporary Artist:
Ways of Thinking and Making

In this book, Dan investigates the practices and exhibition of contemporary artists to understand how they create meaning. This in-depth look at one aspect of artists' work will be of interest to people seeking an example of alternative approaches to empirical research that includes studio practices, as well as those interested in the intersection of cognition and art.

Jennifer Hall, Professor in the Art Education Department, is included in a new publication, Blaze: Discourse on Art, Women, and Feminism.

Co-editited by Karen E. Frostig and Kathy A. Halamka, the book features fourteen detailed and well-documented feminist histories that narrate a number of pertinent strands of activism regarding feminist art, scholarship, and organizational development while exploring current crossroads.

In the cover photo Judith is seen returning by ship from Europe in 1966, with a Master's in International Studies, ready to begin her career.  She was soon to find out how limited her options were as a woman and in the coming years became a pioneer feminist.
Judith's other books include Nine Women: Portraits from the American Radical Tradition, which has been in print for thirty years, and Native American History.

photo: Kim Indresano

See Judith's website

In recent years she has also been pursuing  a writing  career and has had short stories published in Ms. Magazine, where she won the 2005 Fiction Contest; The Boston Review; and other publications.  Her second book The Book of Cool:  What Is It?  Who Decides It? And Why Do We Care So Much? was published in June 2009.  It's a sociological investigation of the social label "cool."  Marianne details the history of cool and its current manifestations. She charts  the evolution of cool from the sidewalks to the marketplace, separating who creates cool from who merely markets it. 

Photo by Bill Brett, Boston Globe

This book, based on Dean Nimmer's thirty-five years of teaching and practice as an artist, includes unique methods he has developed to help students and artists free their creative intuition by letting go of self-criticism, doubt, and insecurity that discourage artmaking.  Dean has used the practical excercises in his book with students of all ages, from novices to professional artists, not only in the United States but in Ireland and China.  The book will be of interest to K-12 as well as college-level art educators.

See Dean Nimmer's blog about Art from Intuition, including ordering information:  http://artfromintuition.wordpress.com/ On the blog you can also follow a link to hear Dean Nimmer being interviewed by Dick Gordon on National Public Radio about his experience teaching intuition painting in Beijing.