A tender exploration of art and dementia that prioritizes storytelling over advice.
Neurologist Potts draws from his late father’s immersion in watercolor painting after an Alzheimer’s diagnosis to explore art’s role in dementia care.
The book’s first section describes Bringing Art to Life, a service-learning program Potts founded and directs that pairs high school and undergraduate students with people experiencing dementia or other cognitive disorders. In the program, the students—who often have family members with dementia and/or are preparing for healthcare careers—engage in art therapy and storytelling with their partners. The second section focuses on the stories of program participants. Readers meet subjects like Mr. Donny, a 76-year-old with dementia. Despite being unable to drive, work, remember most of his family members’ names, or use the bathroom unassisted, Donny thrust himself wholeheartedly into shoebox art and pumpkin painting. Potts shares his original poetry, inspired by BATL participants and his father’s experience with Alzheimer’s disease, in the third section: “There’s a Face that’s not forgotten. / There’s a Person in the pain. / There’s a Hand stretched out from Heaven. / There’s a Heart that knows your name.” The fourth section includes 31 lessons from the BATL program, like, “It is much better to be kind than to be right.” In the fifth and final section of the book, Potts reflects on how BATL has been transformative for himself and others by bringing art into their lives and “showing each other back to [themselves].” Potts’ writing is emotionally resonant, deeply humanizing, and celebrates the dignity and creativity of all people. The engaging anecdotes and personal reflections will help readers gain a new perspective on dementia. Potts’ participant descriptions are vivid: “He looked like something that had been rooted for decades in a West Alabama river bottom, like a Tombigbee tupelo or a Sipsey bald cypress.” He also writes vulnerably about feeling “panicked helplessness, fear, resentment, depression, self-pity, and shame” following his father’s diagnosis. However, those looking for concrete caregiving tips may find the book lacking practical guidance.
A tender exploration of art and dementia that prioritizes storytelling over advice.Pub Date: July 21, 2022
ISBN: 9781666795912
Page Count: 172
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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