The Paper Garden is, in my opinion, the whole package. It’s a riveting story about a woman who, against all odds, created an art form that has never been matched; it’s a contemporary coming-of-age story about another fascinating woman; and it’s told with language and photos that so lovely it’s hard to believe they’re real. Reading The Paper Garden now, while I’m in my twenties, makes me wonder if I’m working toward something (it makes me hope I am) and I can only imagine how I’ll feel when I reread it in twenty years, or in forty years. In her search for a role model, Peacock found the ultimate woman to look up to, and in sharing her discovery, has shown herself to be quite a uniquely talented woman as well.

Finish reading over here…

Not strictly books-related, but I’ve been thinking about diversifying a little anyway. Plus, this is some pretty cool stuff.

nationalpost:

Heather Graham: Coming into focus
Look. Take a step back. Lean in. This is the dance artist Heather Graham watches people do at her shows, waiting until the moment when — there. Everything comes together for them and they can see the face rising out of the painting, like a ghostly polaroid or a woman projected on the canvas.

The subjects of Graham’s large-scale paintings aren’t always clear at first, but with movement and patience, each canvas of dark smudges becomes a face looking back at the viewer.

“If you stand there long enough, it all comes into focus,” Graham says of her work, on display now at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington in Ontario. “It’s almost like [the painting] pulls you in, because you have to kind of just stay there and say, ‘I know what this is. It’s a ghost.’”

This is how I would like to spend the next week. Instead, I will read on the bus on the way to work. Reading is reading, though, right? Right?

tatteredcover:

OH Summer! This painting says it all.

thomerama:

Kathy Osborn