Mary Todd Beam's Creative Edge

Another wonderful book for mixed-media artists from Mary Todd Beam, The Creative Edge: exercises to celebrate your creative self, has been published by North Light books (2009). Filled with beautiful illustrations of finished art, the book is also packed with hands-on demonstrations and information on tools and materials. The lay-flat spiral binding makes it easy to use while following the techniques instruction. In addition all this, Beam offers inspiration to the artist, something lacking in many art instruction books. Her table of contents includes: Claiming Your Creative Edge; The Tactile Edge; The Emotional Edge; The Symbolic Edge; The Dynamic Edge; Nature's Edge; The Soul's Edge; The Edge Around Us; and The Human Edge. Whew! What great stuff! If you want to try mixed-media painting, The Creative Edge is a good place to start. Mary's earlier book, Celebrate Your Creative Self: More than 25 exercises to unleash the artist within (North Light, 2001) is also a good handbook on mixed-media painting.