Coffee Table Love

A beautifully illustrated study of mosaic art in Greco-Roman Egypt

The art of the mosaic was developed by the Greeks, notably within the royal court of Macedonia, and was initially unknown to the Egyptians. Macedonian mosaicists then established busy workshops in the capital, Alexandria, and in the new towns of Greek Egypt. Under the stimulus of commissions from the Ptolemaic court, these workshops soon showed that they were capable of innovation. Beginning with pebbles, they then used tesserae of different sizes, and adopted new materials (glass, faience, paint) in order to transpose onto the floor images from grand paintings, which was the major art form of the time and was characterized by the vivid use of color.

Alexandrian mosaicists were at the forefront of creativity during the Hellenistic period and their influence spread around the Mediterranean. After the Roman conquest of Egypt they adapted to the tastes of their new sponsors and to changes in architecture and were able to retain an important place within this art as it developed across the entire empire, in Rome and from east to west.

The Mosaics of Alexandria provides the first overview of the mosaics and pavements of Egypt that were created between the end of the fourth century BC and the sixth century AD. It presents a selection of some seventy mosaics and pavements from Alexandria and Greco-Roman Egypt. Generally little known and more often than not unpublished, these works are illustrated here in full color, some for the first time. The aim is to better understand the artistic and artisanal production of a type of decoration that played an important role within the living environment of the ancients.

A stunning photographic compilation of Egypt’s abandoned palaces and grand buildings

Between 1860 and 1940, Cairo and other large cities in Egypt witnessed a major construction boom that gave birth to extraordinary palaces and lavish buildings. These incorporated a mix of architectural styles, such as Beaux-Arts and Art Deco, with local design influences and materials. Today, many lie empty and neglected, rapidly succumbing to time, a real-estate frenzy, and an ongoing population crisis.

In 2006 Russian-born photographer Xenia Nikolskaya began the process of documenting these structures. She gained exceptional access to them, taking photographs at some thirty locations, including Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor, Minya, Esna, and Port Said. These photographs were documented in the first edition of Dust: Egypt’s Forgotten Architecture, which soon after its release in 2012 became a rare collector’s item.

This revised and expanded edition includes photographs from the first edition together with extra unseen images and new photographs taken by Nikolskaya between 2013 and 2021. It also includes previously unpublished essays by Heba Farid, co-owner of the Cairo-based photo gallery Tintera, and architect and urban planner Omar Nagati, co-founder of CLUSTER, an urban design and research platform also in Cairo.

Dust: Egypt's Forgotten Architecture leads us seductively into some of the most breathtaking architectural spaces of Egypt's recent past, filled with a sense of both the immense weight and the impermanence of history.

This is the perfect book for fans of Journal 29, and those who want to re-create an exciting escape-room experience in their own home!

You are Adam Parkinson, an intrepid journalist who has recently been employed by the time-travelling Wexell Corporation. Adam is invited to an unusual art gallery, filled with objects and artworks donated by a mysterious figure. It will be up to you to help Adam unravel the mysteries of the Gallery, and you will travel from Ancient Egypt to Victorian England – and beyond – to do it. And, quite possibly, to save the world!

Escape from the Gallery is an immersive escape-room experience that provides a visual feast as well as a tricky puzzle adventure. Featuring artworks ranging from Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs to Mexican masterpieces, you will need to solve visual riddles and discover the hidden secrets that lie within the artworks if you want to figure out what is going on, and why this might be the most important visit to a gallery you have ever made.

Over the past decade, Kathy Callahan’s family has taken in more than a hundred rescue puppies. This delightful photo-filled book features the wonderful stories that emerged as these foster pups were suddenly surrounded by a nurturing family complete with patient adult dogs and curious cats. With a gift for capturing the moment in both words and images, Callahan brings readers inside the poignant and ultimately uplifting work of fostering. This inspiring read is indeed about puppies, but it’s also about family and human connection. It’s about finding your own way — through that one special thing you can do to light a candle, instead of cursing the darkness.

FEATURED IN THE NEW YORKER: The Faces of Americans Living in Debt

Finalist for the Dorothea Lange/Paul Taylor Prize in Documentary.

Featured on Politico, in the Washington Post, the Daily Mail, and the Huffington Post, USA Today, Business Insider, Refinery29, and Fast Company.

Based on the popular online photo series and now published in print for the first time, The Debt Project collects 99 portraits of debt across the United States, featuring people of all different backgrounds and stories, to recontextualize an often stigmatized experience.

In 2013, Brittany Powell made the difficult decision to file for bankruptcy for her photography business. In the years following the 2008 economic collapse, she found herself in a significant amount of debt, a position many Americans across the country still share, a common yet isolating and private experience often steeped in shame.

Her personal experience, bolstered by the We Are the 99% slogan that came out of the Occupy movement, brought her to start The Debt Project, an exploration of the role debt and finance plays in our personal identity and social structure. This book presents an intimate look into 99 different lives: each shares an arrestingly honest portrait in the person’s home, surrounded by all their belongings, accompanied by a handwritten note of the amount of debt that person is in and the story behind the numbers.

The Debt Project, with a foreword by writer and filmmaker Astra Taylor plus resources at the back of the book to support people in debt, examines the social and personal hold financial debt has on us and invites others into a private world, while at the same empowering people to share their stories and overcome the shame they may feel.

People magazine's top reason for Hope in America.

Curated from a grassroots social movement, The Front Steps Project is an inspiring, uplifting portrait series capturing how people coped with living in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Front Steps Project™ demonstrates that even in the most challenging of circumstances, kindness, love, courage, and hope exist to build, bind, and connect communities around the globe.

Created on March 18, 2020, The Front Steps Project™ began when friends Kristen Collins and Cara Soulia sought out to unite their neighbors through photographs of life in quarantine. In addition to incorporating work from other local photographers, the women traveled to neighborhoods around Needham, Massachusetts to photograph residents in front of their homes in exchange for donations to their local food pantry.

Within days, #TheFrontStepsProject became a grassroots social mission, connecting thousands of people across the globe and raising over $3,250,000 for vital non-profit organizations and local businesses including food pantries, frontline workers, homeless and animal shelters, hospitals and so much more. Through their noble efforts, hundreds of thousands of images and stories of love, sacrifice, compassion, kindness, perseverance, and – ultimately hope – flooded social media.

Featured on Good Morning America, The Today Show, People Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe and more, The Front Steps Project brings communities together virtually, despite being – and maybe feeling – isolated.

The Front Steps Project contains over 400 photographs and dozens of stories of families during the COVID-19 pandemic. This heartwarming keepsake commemorates a massive effort of courage, unity, and goodwill.

As a tribute to the good work of The Front Steps Project, a portion of book sales will be donated to The United Way to help people impacted by the pandemic.

An in-depth look at the fifty best Bears players in franchise history, featuring profiles and photography created by the Chicago Tribune.

The Chicago Bears football team has a grip on the Windy City that spans generations and cultures, endures disappointments, and impels celebration of triumphs great and small. From the team’s humble beginnings through its century-long history as the flagship NFL franchise, the Chicago Tribune has documented every season and kept a close eye on the superstars who have shone the brightest over the last 100 years. The Chicago Tribune’s 50 Best Chicago Bears of All Time is a tribute to Bears tradition, collecting classic photography and original profiles on the very best players to don the navy and orange uniform. In 2019, as the team set out to begin their 100th season, the Chicago Tribune took a look at the one thousand, five hundred and eighty-two players who have ever suited up for the Bears and culled down the list to the fifty best of all time.

The Chicago Tribune’s 50 Best Chicago Bears of All Time is a must-have collector’s item for any Bears fan. From Larry Morris to Walter Payton, the Chicago Tribune has put together an in-depth look at each of these top players in franchise history, with profiles that provide readers with an overview of the player’s life and career, as well as his stats and how he measures up against the rest of the field. As a team, the Bears found success at its very beginning, dominating the sport with four NFL titles in the 1940s, seven winning campaigns in the 1950s, and a final title with founder George Halas as coach in 1963. Their 1985 Super Bowl championship transformed the city's passion into a full-blown love affair that continues today.

Professional football was practically born in Chicago, nurtured by Halas through the Depression and a world war. The NFL game was made for Chicago, in Chicago, by a Chicagoan. Now the award-winning journalists, photographers, and editors of the Chicago Tribune have produced a collector’s item that every Bears fan will love.

The Art of Science explores the work of forty artists and artist-scientists whose work has furthered and made visible the relationship between these fields of creativity and discovery. Lavishly illustrated, the book authoritatively explores the age-old affinity between two disciplines whose commonalities are greater than their differences. Since the earliest days of humanity, the urge to create has been intertwined with the desire for knowledge, experimentation and the collection of information. The line between artist and scientist is often so blurred as to become imperceptible, often with artists contributing vital visualizations that enable the progression of scientific discovery - and scientists providing raw data and the opportunity for observation to artists hungry for invention. From botany and natural history to neurology and optics, no field of science has gone unexplored by artists. The Art of Science provides a illuminating insight into this most fruitful of relationships between two vital disciplines.

"Joe Dator makes me laugh. Everybody loves to look behind the scenes and his new book shows the secrets, inspirations, heartaches, and triumphs of a life in cartoons. Christopher Guest and I have a collection of original cartoons, and we love our Joe Dator!" —Jamie Lee Curtis

From inspiration to conception and all the trials in-between.

Inked is a collection of cartoons from one of the New Yorker’s most beloved cartoonists.

Filled with more than 150 of Dator’s single-panel cartoons, this lively, quick-witted book betrays a deadpan sense of humor.

But Inked is more than a book of cartoons. Dator also dives into the creative process, offering bonus commentary on how ideas have come to fruition, how one idea has led to another, and the various attempts to get an idea right. Along the way, he shows how a spark of imagination has turned into a laugh-out-loud moment with only a single image and caption, and how other attempts have found themselves on the cutting-room floor.

A fresh new guide to contemporary palette knife painting for beginner and experienced artists, featuring step-by-step tutorials on colour mixing, mark making, and a variety of painting techniques to create your own unique abstract, landscape, and floral paintings. Publisher's note: regrettably there were some production problems with the first printing of this title. We have recalled the affected books and new stock is now available. Author and artist, Melissa McKinnon, has designed this book to take both the beginner and experienced artist on a journey into impasto painting. She begins with an overview of the essential tools and materials you'll need to get started. Included are detailed instructions to make your own stay-wet palette and how to combine thickening mediums with acrylic paint to achieve the ideal consistency. There are simple practice exercises to get you comfortable using a palette knife, mixing colours and blending with a brush. Melissa explains how to sculpt and control the paint to create a variety of stunning textural effects. She demonstrates several mark making techniques that you can use alone or in combination to create your own expressive textured paintings, as well as an introduction to colour theory and tips on composition. Once you feel confident with the tools and paint, you'll learn how to create twelve different textured landscape, floral, and abstract paintings with step-by-step instructions. This series of paintings was designed to help you put all of the techniques and colour theory you've learned into beautiful paintings of your own. Melissa generously shares her knowledge and expert tips gained from years of experience developing her unique approach to palette knife painting. She values experimentation and is always evolving her technique. The last two projects explore alternative painting methods inviting you to take your paintings one step further by incorporating new materials and experimental techniques. Using the instructions in this book you will become equipped to take your practise further and continue to develop the skills you need to improve your artwork. This book will become a trusted resource in your studio, one that you can refer back to again and again as you grow and evolve as an artist. When speaking about the book Melissa says: "Painting with a palette knife can be intimidating even for experienced artists. My goal is to simplify the process and show you how easy and enjoyable this technique really is. Textured Art is is a deep dive into my unique painting process that I've developed over a lifetime of art making. Designed for both beginner and experienced artists, I'll teach you step-by-step everything you need to know to create colourful textured paintings of your own. I'm confident this book will become a trusted resource in your studio, one that you can refer back to again and again as you grow and evolve as an artist.".

Learn how to create realistic 3D art with this collection of step-by-step techniques and tutorials for creating hyperrealistic art using coloured pencils.

The trend for hyper realistic artworks featuring high shine subjects is inspiring a new generation of artists. Take your art to the next level with this collection of step-by-step techniques and tutorials for creating hyper realistic artwork. Artist and author, Amie Howard, is an expert in how to get the most from coloured pencils and she takes you through all the key techniques for rendering realistic representations of everything from pets to water.

The first part of the book explores basic drawing techniques including blending, shading, glazing and scumbling - a technique used to create a slick surface texture. There are simple practise exercises for each of the techniques sections so that you can experiment and get comfortable with the different methods before trying them out on a final artwork. This section includes advice about how to get the perfect blend of colours and textures as well as tips about adding in the fine details that make all the difference.

The step-by-step tutorials feature a wide range of subjects including animals, portraits, food and drink so you will learn how to recreate a large number of different surfaces and textures. The chapters are broken up into sections: Surfaces; Animals; Birds, People and Other Textures which looks at a range of different natural and synthetic textures including tree bark, grass, a soft drink can and a shiny sweet wrapper.

All of the tutorials have multiple step-by-step images so you can see how the forms and textures are built up over a series of stages. Amie shares her tips and tricks for creating incredibly realistic representations of textures including feathers and fur and there are up close studies for a cat's eye, a dog's nose and a single feather so you can the details involved in these projects. Other up close studies include lips and a nose and a bird's beak and eye. The instructions will allow you tackle challenging subjects such as reflective surfaces and ice in glass by breaking down the drawing process into clear step-by-step instructions and photographs, allowing you to follow the artist at each step.

A comprehensive and practical guide full of advice and inspiration for anyone wishing to capture the beauty of the urban landscape.

The wonderful thing about drawing buildings is that, wherever you travel around the globe, you will never be short of subjects to inspire you. From the most elaborate of Renaissance cathedrals, through to the humble garden shed, you will always be able to practise your skills and learn a few techniques in the process.

This hands-on and inspirational book will encourage you to meet the exciting challenges of drawing and painting buildings using a variety of media and a wide range of techniques, including pencil, pen, graphite powder, watercolour, water-soluble pencils and Indian ink. As you work through this book, you will look at materials and their qualities then move on to explore how to put these materials to best use when drawing specific types of building. You will be led gently through levels of learning, with easy and more challenging exercises progressing your knowledge and developing your skills.

As the book is divided into discrete sections, you can dip in to a particular type of building that you wish to draw, and use the information and illustration provided, while extended teaching exercises take you through the way the author approaches composing and completing a drawing. Fully annotated paintings, working drawings and extended projects reveal how each effect was achieved.

Detailed artworks in a range of styles and media are thoroughly annotated to demonstrate key techniques and important details and there are invaluable exercises for understanding perspective, negative and positive space, tone, choosing details and constructing large-scale images.

The book includes thorough studies of a wide range of different architectural styles, from town houses to rural cottages and barns, from churches and classical architecture to continental cafes and street scenes. Taylor's exquisite drawings and paintings demonstrate the quality of the results that can be achieved by following his helpful guidance and advice.

A bold, compelling, and original study of nonhuman life in Warhol.
 
Like a Little Dog examines a dimension of Andy Warhol that has never received critical attention: his lifelong personal and artistic interest in nonhuman life. With this book, Anthony E. Grudin offers an engaging new overview of the iconic artist through the lens of animal and plant studies, showing that Warhol and his collaborators wondered over the same questions that absorb these fields: What qualities do humans share with other life forms? How might the vulnerability of life and the unpredictability of desire link them together? Why has the human/animal/plant hierarchy been so rigidly, violently enforced?

Nonhuman life impassioned every area of Warhol’s practice, beginning with his juvenilia and an unusually close creative collaboration with his mother, Julia Warhola. The pair codeveloped a transgressive animality that permeated Warhol’s prolific career, from his commercial illustration and erotica to his writing and, of course, his painting, installation, photography, and film. Grudin shows that Warhol disputed the traditional claim that culture and creativity distinguish the human from the merely animal and vegetal, instead exploring the possibility of art as an earthy and organic force, imbued with appetite and desire at every node. Ultimately, by arguing that nonhuman life is central to Warhol’s work in ways that mirror and anticipate influential texts by Toni Morrison and Ocean Vuong, Like a Little Dog opens an entirely unexplored field in Warhol scholarship.

Step inside the places where flowers come to life. Slow Flowers Society founder Debra Prinzing's new book showcases the beautiful plant- and flower-filled settings of Slow Flowers designers, farmer-florists, and growers. Each environment reflects the personality and aesthetic style of its owner, offering great ideas to inspire the design, organization, and functionality of your creative studio. Visit their spaces and read about their floral passions.