An exploratory and artistic activity guide around the infinite possibilities and techniques of mixed media: materials, tools, supports and finishes.

Erik Erikson, best known for his life-cycle theory and concept of the identity crisis, proposed that we are comprised of a number of selves. In several earlier books, including At Home in the World, Donald Capps has suggested that the emotional separation of young children--especially boys--from their mothers results in the development of a melancholy self. In this book, Capps employs Erikson's assignment of an inherent strength to each stage of the life cycle and proposes that the life-enhancing strengths of the childhood years (hope, will, purpose, and competence) are central to the development of a resourceful self, and that this self counters the life-diminishing qualities of the melancholy self. Focusing on Erikson's own writings, Capps identifies the four primordial resources that Erikson associates with childhood--humor, play, dreams, and hope--and shows how these resources assist children in confronting life's difficulties and challenges. Capps further suggests that the resourceful self that develops in childhood is central to Jesus' own vision of what we as adults may become if we follow the lead of little children.

The author examines issues such as the rightness of web-based applications, the programming language renaissance, spam filtering, the Open Source Movement, Internet startups and more. He also tells important stories about the kinds of people behind technical innovations, revealing their character and their craft.

The emotional separation of boys from their mothers in early childhood enables them to connect with their fathers and their fathers' world. But this separation also produces a melancholic reaction of sadness and sense of loss. Certain religious sensibilities develop out of this melancholic reaction, including a sense of honor, a sense of hope, and a sense of humor. Realizing that they cannot return to their original maternal environment, men, whether knowingly or not, embark on a lifelong search for a sense of being at home in the world. At Home in the World focuses on works of art as a means to explore the formation and continuing expression of men's melancholy selves and their religious sensibilities. These explorations include such topics as male viewers' mixed feelings toward the maternal figure, physical settings that offer alternatives to the maternal environment, and the maternal resonances of the world of nature. By presenting images of the natural world as the locus of peace and contentment, At Home in the World especially reflects of the religious sensibility of hope.

Immersed in the natural world, The Organic Artist for Kids inspires creativity by connecting kids and their adults to our wilderness roots. In addition to offering a wide variety of fun, collaborative projects using nature as a source for art supplies and inspiration, this book also introduces the concepts of awareness and perception that are fundamental to the creative process. Children will be encouraged to learn new skills, build resilience, and be resourceful as part of an urgent struggle to prevent and undo Nature Deficit Disorder. Rooted in experimentation and an understanding that fun is fundamental to learning, kids will refine their drawing skills, as well as increase their appreciation for the visual arts and the natural landscape. Just some of the projects and skills covered include: Making pens and wild inks Making paint from stones and rocks Crafting your own paintbrushes Making simple stencils and rubbings The Organic Artist for Kids encourages you to return to the days when art was made with all-natural materials like charcoal and birch bark.

Utah Art, Utah Artists surveys 150 years of the extraordinary talent and achievements of Utah artists. This overview ranges from the sublime paintings of a resourceful ranching woman to the polished work of artists trained in Paris, Rome, and New York. It highlights the rural and the cosmopolitan, the traditional and the modern, the concrete and the transcendent that encompass Utah art. This sweeping exhibition showcases 300 works of art by 220 artists painstakingly compiled from a list of 10,000 Utah artists. Selection was made in light of five considerations: quality of the work; critical acclaim and professional success of the artist; belated but deserved recognition of the artist; young emerging artists who are the future of art in Utah; and a representative sampling of periods, styles, mediums and geographic regions of the state. One hundred twenty of the artworks are reproduced in rich color, most illustrated for the first time. Selected works and biographical material on the artists are presented chronologically, providing a perspective on Utah art that will make this volume an essential reference for collectors, scholars, and enthusiasts of Utah art. Vern G. Swanson, Ph.D., has been the director of the Springville Museum of Art since 1980. He has written numerous books and articles and he is coauthor with Drs. R. S. Olpin and W. C. Seifrit of Utah Art, Utah Painting and Sculpture, and Utah Arts. Robert S. Olpin, Ph.D., a University of Utah Professor of Art History, has become a familiar face on his eighteen-part television course on the Art Life in Utah series. He has acted as a consultant to such organizations as the National Gallery and Vose Galleries. Donna L. Poulton, Ph.D., is the Assistant Curator of Exhibitions at the Springville Museum if Art. For the past three years she has been documenting and chronicling, on film, the lives and works of Utah artists. Janie L. Rogers, M.A., wrote her master's thesis on Utah architecture. Rogers is a founding member of the Associated Art Historians, Inc., Salt Lake City.