Customer Reviews

Transfigurations

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I have possessed a slightly beaten-up copy of Alex Grey's first book, Sacred Mirrors, since it was released, and I waited anxiously for Transfigurations to come out. Let me warn everyone: it is a book with a different message and focus than Mirrors. However, it is a message than many of us need to hear. This book focuses more on Grey's development as an artist, with an informative opening section on Grey's artwork through the years. It really gives meaning to his art to see the fruits of his confrontations with his "dark side" early on, and to see what those insights have contributed to the art he produces today. These pieces seem more personal than those in Mirrors, with Grey depicting families, birth, and his young daughter in his trademark hyper-realistic, transparent-skin style. He also includes some of his poems, which accompany a multi-part piece on the journey of the soul. Grey's earlier pieces tended to depict kisses, sex, or deities--universal themes we can all relate to. This book finds him paiting "headaches" or "despair" with the same insight he devotes to more upbeat subjects. Overall this is a great book, illustrating how Grey has grown as an artist over the years. If you are searching for just another "trip-book" on the order of his first publication, this may not be what you're looking for. But for me, it was an enriching view of what Grey's art is becoming as he, like many of us, tries to reconcile a transcendental and psychedelic worldview with a comforting and stable family life.

What a treat a new collection of images from Alex Grey is.
This new book, following his original Sacred Mirrors, is an eyeful of wonder, magic, luminosity, and to borrow from Mircea Eliade, the spiritual philosopher, NUMINOSITY-- visions of the sacred, mystical and, paradoxically, of the unknowable.

In this beautifully rendered book, Alex Grey takes you to his newest visions and also to his fascinating roots. There are very few people who have followed his path. It is no wonder that he has such an amazing group of people (Albert Hoffman, Ken Wilber, Stephen Larsen) contributing to his book.

This is not your typical beautiful art book. It will fill you up, as many an art book can, but it will also lift you, and offer you a kaleidoscope of visions, or more precisely, ways of looking at the world.

the book also includes some images of Alex's dream project, the creation of a sacred space where his sacred mirrors series can be properly displayed. I have a feeling that when it completed, it will evoke feelings similar to those one experiences when entering Notre Dame, the Blue Mosque, (been to them) or the Pyramids.

This well printed, well bound, book contains stunningly beautiful and provocative spiritual imagery that resonates with the truth within us. But anyone who has seen Mr. Grey's work before has come to expect this from him.

The real treat is that the pages contain an incredible amount of intensely interesting background information (and tons of photos!) on Alex's early works, as well as insightful commentaries by Albert Hoffmann, Stephen Larsen, Donald Kuspit, and Ken Wilber.

I have to say... I bought my copy at a higher price directly from Alex Grey's website (...). It showed up a few days after ordering, smelling of freshly printed ink, nicely wrapped and (best of all!) signed by Alex Grey.

While it is true that Alex Grey's most recent book celebrates the Journey within all of us, it also offers the reader the opportunity to be subtly transformed by the power of the imagery and lyrical writing contained within - something that we can all benefit from during these disturbing days and into the uncertain ones to come.

For this reader, the most exciting aspect of this book is the announcement of Alex Grey's plan to build a Chapel to house the Sacred Mirrors.

I have no doubt that this Chapel will be one of the wonders of our age.

May God Bless Alex, Allyson, and Zena Grey and give them all the strength, luck, and power to support each other into the distant years to come.

- G.F.

You know what I LOVE about Alex Grey? He visually represents states of awareness that I share, in ways I never imagined... I think this is what a reveiwer below was referring to when he said "Grey stole my best ideas before I ever had them."

I remember walking through the woods one evening some 30 years ago and feeling that I expanded my awareness out into the starry infinity above me. This was a tangible feeling of expansion, not just an interesting idea. The cover of this book illustrates that very experience.

I might add that Grey seems to go further into spiritually expanded states than I ever have.

A friend of mine used to tease his wife. She would say "Honey, do you love me?" He would respond, "Only when I think about it." States of awareness (love, expansion, connection) are like that, aren't they? Sometimes we forget about them, and when we're not thinking about them, they're not present for us.

Grey's work is like a beacon bell that reminds me of what I never left but have sometimes forgotten. There is a restimulation of a state of beingness that says "Remember me?... I am still here... Wake up... You can drop the illussion... You can drop your stories... Welcome home.

If you liked sacred mirrors this book is the next step up. Opening to the first part of the book shows Alexs' earlier works and performances which seem strange compared to recent works. However it takes you through his lifes works and shows a very logical progression for the artist. His art progresses from a dark macabre form to a magnificant, spirtual art with bright exuberant colors. With the turn of every page I felt myself slowly filling with spiritual happiness until the end of the book when I felt overcome with spiritual energy and immediately upon closing the book I went into a meditative state and had the most wonderful experience. A must have for any Alex Grey fan or any believer in the sacred purposes of art.

Truly edifying, powerfully enlightening art of the nervous system (peeled open) and all its glory.

The universe is marvelous, indeed. Grey is a shining star.

Transfigurations is the pictorial history of the artist and how he finds his way towards his own personal excellence.

Alex Gray is a remarkable artist who has survived the different phases artists move through in their lifetimes, and has found himself a style and expression that is both moving and beautiful to experience. From his early works as a teenager, to his performance art of the 70's and 80's, Mr. Grey has translated many of his emotional experiences to various artistic mediums. The pictures and history provide you with the background you need to understand the spiritual inspiration Mr. Grey has finally found in his work and presented in this book.

I found this book to be very inspirational. The artwork is a personal and moving experience of the artist and I was very much taken by the meanings and visual ideals conveyed by them.

Bravo for a well produced effort on the part of the publisher, Inner Traditions, to be able to produce a book worthy of the works of this artist.

Spiritually inspired, expertly rendered and well produced, this book is worthy of a place on any serious collectors shelf.

This book details not only Grey's most recent work, but provides excellent critical and biographical material that illuminates his brilliant career from its dark, troubled beginnings to the personal transformation that brought the numinous images of his inspirations to reality. I had no idea of the extent to which he engaged in performance art, most of it the results of a very tortured psyche that finally found healing in his relationship with his wife, muse, and colleague Allyson. This became the bases for even greater forms of expression that are documented chronologically. I have watched his career with interest since encountering the first of his Sacred Mirrors series 18 years ago. No other modern artist with the exception of H.R. Giger has so consistently captured this reviewer's imagination and I look forward to what he will produce in the years to come. Additionally, this book should be read as a companion piece to his autobiographical essay The Mission of Art.

Grey's art touches one deeply. Approach it with an open mind and it will change you. A transfiguration is a change that glorifies. This metamorphasis of the artist can be seen in the marked difference of his disturbing early work to his later edifying depictions of omnipresent spirit. The beautiful intricacy of Grey's paintings pull you in, transform you, and leaving you contemplating the complexities of the self and the universe.

Transfigurations is a beautiful book that does an excellent job presenting the work of Alex Grey, one of the most important artists of our times. There is no artist quite like Alex Grey. For many years, I have used this book and an earlier Grey book, Sacred Mirrors, as a transformative tool both in my own life and helping others.