art expansion
I have been looking around at art supplies all over the place because ... er, whatever. Anyway, I have come to look for books on sumi-e, Japanese ink pictures, which really have Chinese origins. I found a few books, but I really wanted to look at them. It may or may not be silly, but I want to see what sort of things the person telling me paints because if I don't like the aesthetic, I will find it hard not to question the teachings leading to that aesthetic.
I wrote down the couple that looked most promising and headed out to Vromans to see what they were like and what other books would be around them. I think there were about a dozen watercolor books and nothing on sumi-e. There were some Chinese calligraphy books, but they didn't go on from there. Of course this gets me to missing Chaucers while standing in what Publisher Weekly says is the best book store of the country. Last year, anyway. Chaucers has books displayed to just above eye level, two shelves above that aren't enough to keep all the overstock so there's a line of books along the floor making the narrow aisles narrower so that passing other customers must be negotiated. They may not have anywhere near as much floor space, but they had shelves of watercolor books when I looked years ago. Or maybe the years have colored my memory.
I checked the online inventory for Borders and they claimed to actually have one of my books I wanted to look at. As I looked, I found that they really did have it and another book by the same author and nothing else on sumi-e. The watercolor book selection was also fairly sparse, but it was separated from the other painting mediums. Now I'm out of bookstores unless I go to the many used bookstores.
Meanwhile, I seem to be making a new wish list for art supplies on Amazon although most of it isn't for stuff on Amazon. I guess I'm helping Amazon figure out what they should be carrying but aren't.
I wrote down the couple that looked most promising and headed out to Vromans to see what they were like and what other books would be around them. I think there were about a dozen watercolor books and nothing on sumi-e. There were some Chinese calligraphy books, but they didn't go on from there. Of course this gets me to missing Chaucers while standing in what Publisher Weekly says is the best book store of the country. Last year, anyway. Chaucers has books displayed to just above eye level, two shelves above that aren't enough to keep all the overstock so there's a line of books along the floor making the narrow aisles narrower so that passing other customers must be negotiated. They may not have anywhere near as much floor space, but they had shelves of watercolor books when I looked years ago. Or maybe the years have colored my memory.
I checked the online inventory for Borders and they claimed to actually have one of my books I wanted to look at. As I looked, I found that they really did have it and another book by the same author and nothing else on sumi-e. The watercolor book selection was also fairly sparse, but it was separated from the other painting mediums. Now I'm out of bookstores unless I go to the many used bookstores.
Meanwhile, I seem to be making a new wish list for art supplies on Amazon although most of it isn't for stuff on Amazon. I guess I'm helping Amazon figure out what they should be carrying but aren't.