Join the bestselling author of Wild Mind and Writing Down the Bones as she explores a new realm of creativity—the world of color—and offers us an intimate view of how everyday life is transformed into art. In twelve high-spirited chapters, Natalie introduces us to her family, her artist friends, her New Mexico home, her painting trips to Europe—always focusing on the questions faced by any creative person, whatever their medium. Why, for example, does an artist choose some subjects and not others? ("I was crazy about the wrong-color sky and the heart-sinking beckoning of headlights on old cars," she acknowledges.) How does a painter draw nourishment from another painter's work? ("I didn't want fancy art theories. I wanted a direct connection with the painting before me.") When is it time to move into a new form? ("I had to go to an empty white canvas and find out what was within me.") More than 60 four-color reproductions of Natalie's distinctive and joyous paintings appear throughout. The result is a feast for the eyes and a celebration of the creative spirit in action.
Author
Natalie Goldberg lived in Brooklyn until she was six, when her family moved out to Farmingdale, Long Island, where her father owned the bar the Aero Tavern. From a young age, Goldberg was mad for books and reading, and especially loved Carson McCullers' The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, which she read in ninth grade. She thinks that single book led her eventually to put pen to paper when she was twenty-four years old. She received a BA in English literature from George Washington University and an MA in humanities from St. John's University. Goldberg has painted for as long as she has written, and her paintings can be seen in Living Color: A Writer Paints Her World and Top of My Lungs: Poems and Paintings. They can also be viewed at the Ernesto Mayans Gallery on Canyon Road in Sante Fe. A dedicated teacher, Goldberg has taught writing and literature for the last thirty-five years. She also leads national workshops and retreats, and her schedule can be accessed via her website: nataliegoldberg.com In 2006, she completed with the filmmaker Mary Feidt a one-hour documentary, Tangled Up in Bob, about Bob Dylan's childhood on the Iron Range in Northern Minnesota. The film can be obtained on Amazon or the website tangledupinbob.com. Goldberg has been a serious Zen practitioner since 1974 and studied with Katagiri Roshi from 1978 to 1984.
