Books for anyone interested in any art and finding your way

• Cameron, Julia. The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1992.

• Henri, Robert, and Margery Ryerson. The Art Spirit. J.B. Lippincott Company, 1939.

Book(s) on color theory that are fascinating and informative. While some of Goethe’s work has been since proven wrong scientifically, it’s still an amazing piece of work from the 1800s and it will have you looking at things differently. It had me casting shadows with certain colored lights on differently colored items to see what color shadows emerged.

• Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Goethes’ Theory of Colours. Translated by Charles Lock Eastlake, Routledge, 1840.

• Itten, Johannes. The Elements of Color: A treatise on the Color System of Johannes Itten, Based on His Book The Art of Color. Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1970.

Book(s) about color in culture around the world and pigments

• Finlay, Victoria. Color: A Natural History of the Palette. Ballantine Books, 2003.

Books on artists. A lot of artist books are very long and are very overwhelming to me to the point that I barely skim them and can’t seem to read enough to learn anything but these books are short and I was able to read from cover to cover, each in a day and so I learned a lot, was inspired and encouraged to read more. The Finley book shows the influence that Japanese prints had on Van Gogh that wasn’t mentioned in the Martini book. And don’t tell the soccer player in me that Messi isn’t an artist. Just watch him play some time.

• Deveney, Sean. Messi: Life Lessons from a Legend. St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 2024.

• Finley, Gerald E. Van Gogh. Tudor Publishing Company, 1966.

• Martini, Alberto. Van Gogh: Avenel Art Library. Avenel Books, 1978.