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Painting the Landscape of Your Soul

Name: Painting the Landscape of Your Soul
Author: Damini Celebre
ISBN: 978-0-9906778-0-2

A JOURNEY OF SELF-DISCOVERY

by Damini Celebre ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2014

Readers looking to strengthen the relationship between the self and the outside world will find this book useful and...

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A step-by-step guide to uncovering one’s inner artist and, in the process, healing one’s psychic wounds.

When one is a child, one has access to the unlimited power of creativity, and one can express oneself in art and writing and song without judgment. But when downbeat inner and outer voices get loud enough, argues debut author Celebre, one can end up abandoning the self inside and its profound connections to the world. There is, however, a cure: as practicing shaman Sandra Ingerman writes in her foreword, “Using the creative process as the foundation for self-discovery, you will learn to override limiting beliefs of your mind, connect to unlimited possibilities, establish a deep sense of trust with your intuition, and then learn to listen and follow your intuitive voice.” Celebre guides readers along this path by dividing her book into four sections: “Roots and Bones,” “Let Your Creative Soul Fly,” “Creative Alchemy,” and “Spreading the Joy,” each designed to help the reader further uncover the artist within. In the first section, for example, the author suggests starting with a “body scan” in order to ground the mind in the physical, and recognize when a feeling or thought is true and right. Throughout the book, Celebre offers exercises to “reclaim” one’s connection to oneself and the universe, as well as brief asides on the history of intuitive painting and her own creative journey. Although readers may think they know what the words “body,” “mind,” and “spirit” mean, Celebre gives helpful definitions that illuminate her philosophy (“Body,” she says, encompasses the “Chakra, meridians, and nerve plexus” as well as the expected “organs, bones, muscles, cells”). Quotes from figures as diverse as Rumi, René Descartes, and Ellen DeGeneres are strewn throughout the text, which demonstrate the universality of the author’s message of self-discovery.

Readers looking to strengthen the relationship between the self and the outside world will find this book useful and liberating.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-9906778-0-2

Page Count: 318

Publisher: Brushheart Press

Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2015

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.