thelmasmith

“Growth is only possible as a product of history. Without memory, innovation is merely novelty. History gives growth a direction. But a memory is never perfect. Every memory is a degraded or composite image of a previous moment or event. That’s what makes us aware of its quality as a past and not a present. It means that every memory is new, a partial construct different from its source, and, as such, a potential for growth itself.”  © Bruce Mau Design

I’ve finally finished reading Art is a Way of Knowing by Pat B. Allen. It was published in and copyright 1995 by Shambhala Publications. IBSN 1-57062-078-4 No doubt you can find it second hand.  The cover image is provided here under the fair use for education clause of the copyright law.

It is a book for reading but more importantly I find that it is a book that should be a book for doing.  It is in five parts.  The first three parts are  designed for you to  actually do the exercises as you read.   I found them very challenging.  That probably comes from growing up in a very non standard family.

I will be reading it a second time.  However at the end of the first reading it has prompted me to take the first edition of Women Who Run With the Wolves off the bookshelf.  I find, looking just inside the end papers that my penciled notes stop at page 152.  I think this time I ought to read the whole book.  Fifteen years is enough seasoning.  It’s time.