Four years ago while on vacation, I passed by one of those pottery painting places.  It was something I had never done before, and two close friends agreed to go inside with me.  We decided to each paint a platter and give all three to a friend to hang on their dining room wall.  My two friends painted abstract designs: swirls and dots and shapes and colors.  I painted a lake and a tree with mountains in the background.  My friends convinced me that I was pretty good at painting, so I made a trip to a craft store when I returned home.  I purchased some canvases, acrylic paint, and brushes, and a new hobby was born.

I only painted one 11 x14 painting that year, taking almost 6 months to meticulously add layers and layers of color and detail to it.  The following year I painted 4 paintings which  became birthday and Christmas gifts for family.  A coworker then commissioned me to do two paintings for her kitchen.  The next year I achieved eight various sized paintings which again became gifts for others.  Several hang in both my mother and sister’s homes today.  Over the past four years, painting became a very relaxing hobby for me in between my writing, and offered me a great sense of accomplishment.  So, when artist Gil Jawetz emailed me directly asking if I would be interested in reviewing a book of his art, I immediately said yes without even looking at the Lulu preview first.  And I can proudly say, I was not disappointed!

His book, Human(e) Beings, is a collections of paintings from three shows.  The first section is called “Blues”, and depicts themes of New Orleans musicians and jazz halls.  Although Jawetz paints with oil, his style is not too heavily detailed and does leave a lot of depiction up to the eyes of the viewer.  For instance, there is one painting called Preservation Hall which shows a small band made up of a piano player, a few brass players, and a percussionist in a small wooden room with a white light hanging over head.  The wooden planks making up the walls are just quick brush strokes of brown and tan.  The musicians’ legs and chairs fade away to silhouette, completely leaving it up to the eyes to know what shapes are there outside the light.  And yet, Jawetz’s attention to detail such as the shine of the light on their faces, or the drummer looking right at you, even a window in the background with a twinkle of light provide just enough substance to the painting to make you stop and commit it to memory.  I have.

The same goes for another painting of blues favorite Lead Belly.  Jawetz has not painted him with any instrument although the man could play about seven different ones from piano to guitar to accordion.  It is a simple bust painting of black and white for his tux, and yet the heavy shading and highlighting in the face are enough to show the life lines of this man and tell his story.  You don’t need to see the arm of a twelve string to know this man played the blues.

The second section is called “Big Dogs,” and presents 15 paintings of man’s best friend.  Each is a close up perspective from the dog’s point of view, and if you are an animal lover then every single one of these will bring a smile to your face.  Gil again focuses his detail on giving the dogs’ face superb attention.  The backgrounds are usually just a swirl of colors from green and blue to represent grass and sky, to just a whirl wind of tints of blue to depict night.  Gil used photographs of beloved pets for inspiration and the lively personalities of dogs definitely shines through.  My favorite in this section is of four dogs and a bird.  You can see this painting for yourself on Gil’s website.

The last section of the book, “Human(e) Beings,” brings humans and pets together.  None of these are traditional portraits of a person with a dog or cat posing for a photo.  From a lady in a red evening gown sleeping on a white mattress with a white dog lying next to her, to a dog and a tennis ball and only the leg of his owner showing, there is a nice balance of angles from both the human and the animal eye.  One painting is done completely in shades of white and blue and is of a lady and her dog lying on the sofa watching TV.  The television is not even in the painting, but the glow of the TV set on their faces is enough for the person looking at the painting to know exactly what is being depicted.

With the holidays fast approaching, I highly recommend this collection as a gift for the art enthusiast or animal lover.  If you are like me and appreciate brilliant art or photography, then Human(e) Beings would also make a nice coffee table book for your collection.  Visit Gil on the web to see more of his work or to contact him about commissioned pieces of work.

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We did keyword searches for things like “apple pie” and “red, white, and blue.”  We read preview after preview, and finally narrowed the search down to 3 Lulu books which we believe best represent the type of book we were looking for.  So, here they are in no particular order. An American celebration of POD books…

Open America
by Kristin Abraham
Copyright: © 2007
$34.99 Paperback
$5.00 Ebook

In 2005 artist Abraham and her musician husband set out across the country determined to visit all 50 states, attempting to unite the country through art, a journey they called The Nomadic Project.  They worked out of their car and Abraham created a painting in each state to capture its essence and beauty.

This book is a collection of all 50 paintings accented with entries from her travel journal.  If you love a good coffee table book or you are a travel enthusiast, this book offers some nice insight to our beautiful country.  There are local backroads here you’ll want to see for yourself one day!

6333 Miles – A Strange Journey Through Small Town America
by Nico Ammann and Rebecca Barkin
Copyright: © 2008
$34.90 Hardcover
$9.90 E-Book
ISBN: 9780615206899

Yep, this is another travel story, but instead of all 50 states we are treated to the backroads of only 5 small towns across the southern US starting in Jerome, Arizona, going down to Luckenbach, Texas; then crossing over to New Orleans, up to Clarksdale, Mississippi, and ending in the outer banks of North Carolina.  This is a haunting travel log reminiscent of great southern lit geniuses such as Truman Capote and Flannery O’Connor, accompanied by odd angle photographs of the local sites and local folk.

I think I was drawn to this book, not just because of the brilliant cover depicting the familiar blinking arrow sign (often missing letters in the true south, if teenagers haven’t rearranged the letters to spell bad words), but because there is a part of me in this book.  Being from Tennessee, I know these places.  I know these people, and I know this dirt roads.  Just as the back cover suggests….bikers, bibles, and bad decisions.  With a touch of murder mystery, some downhome fried cooking, and those strange front porch banjo playing strangers who you are afraid to ask for directions, this book is a brilliant rebel flag waving farce.

4th of July Recipes
by Timm Miller
Copyright: © 2008
$6.95 E-Book

Besides sparklers and bottle rockets, the 4th of July for me as a kid meant barbecue and watermelon.  It wouldn’t be an American holiday without the food, right?  That’s why I’ve chosen Timm Miller’s 4th of July Recipes as my third “America” highlight.

There’s a nice history of Independence Day for an introduction, followed by Red, White, and Blue Pie, baby back ribs, macaroni salad, and much more, and that’s just in the preview.

Your picnic table will be overflowing with yummy treats and hot eats from this book.  Many of our holidays follow traditions.  Each of our families have their own when it comes to certain events, and many of those holidays and traditions would not be complete without certain comfort foods.  Miller does an excellent job of helping you to try new simple recipes, and maybe create some new traditions of you own.  Check out his bookstore for more of those cool 3D covers too!

So that’s it!  Yeah, these three books focus mainly on travel and food, but it doesn’t get more American than that, does it?

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