Customer Reviews

Process Recess Volume 1: The Art Of James Jean

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When i first opened the box that contained this book, the Fed Ex guy was barely out the door, i was pretty excited, but i was instantly unsure of myself when i saw the format of the book. Small and thick. I started doubting that this was a good deal. I have been purchasing a lot of art books lately, and most are the large format books with huge pages.
About a minute into flipping the pages of it though, all my fears and uncertainty were put to rest. This is a wonderful book. It is jam packed with art. Drawings, pencil, ink, paintings, mixed media, lots of finished pieces, but also lots of pages right out of his sketchbook. These sketchbook pages give you an intimate look at the artists work, you can see lots of ideas flowing, and that he fills every page with them. Being able to look at a fellow artists sketchbook is a very eye opening experience for anyone because you get to see the things that they do that dont necessarily make it into a gallery showing, or on a website, this is raw. I love that on some of the pages accompanying a nicely worked figure drawing, was a quickly written list of things he had done on that day, such as go to a gallery, and watch. " a beautiful mind." Again, just a peek into the life of this artist. Not only that, but he gives you a look at which materials he uses to create his works, from certain paints and mediums, to his cotton weaved sketchbook.
If you know his work at all, you will love this book, if you dont, look him up on the net or just take a chance with this, you will most likely love it.
I have shown it to a few of my artist friends and they have all inquired as to where they can get a copy.
If i had to come up with a slight downside to the book, it is the size, and only because i would like to have this match up with the rest of the books on my self and perhaps be able to see the detailed paintings and drawings in a little bigger format. But this is digging for something bad because it doesnt even really bother me.

I first noticed James Jean's art on the covers of the Fables TPBs and I couldn't forget some of them. Beautiful paintings.

So I decided to try this book but I had no idea how talented this guy is!

What you get is 200 pages of pure beauty. Whether it's a sktetch, a painting, a collage or a writing, everything is gorgeous with details everywhere that makes you go back as soon as you have turned a page.

Yes the format of the book is quite small but it's a nice object and you get A LOT for your money here.

This book is small, but very worth it. It shows us how the artist thought and serves as a journal of places and ideas. He uses both sides of the book as if it were one large page. Mixes pen & ink with painted work, life drawings with imagined ones. It shows artist how anything goes and they should try different things.He is a great artist and this is a sketch book of what it must have been when he was a student.

This book really should go back in print. As a huge James Jean fan myself, i willing bought a second hand version for a few hundred dollars. I know.. I know.. very pricey decision but i thought it was all worth it. This book is actually very small, but contains a distillation of James's earlier works. It really gives you an insight into his ideas and developments during the earlier stages of his career, and let me just say that this guy was indeed incredibly talented. His sketches and earlier works reflect a surrealism and cross culture influence that is still prevalent in his newer and more refined works today. To sum up this book

" Today i continue to struggle with the shape of things, imagined and invisible, to condense the spectrum of experience into technicolor. My conviction wavers: A step forward, a step back, indeterminate future and past- there is PROCESS, and there is a RECESS" - James Jean

thus the title Process Recess.