Religious

This I Accomplish Harriet Powers' Bible Quilt and Other ...

The powerful quilts of Harriet Powers (1837-1910), a former Athens, Georgia slave, continue to capture our imagination today. Her two-known creations, the Bible Quilt and the Pictorial Quilt, have independently survived since stitched more than a century ago. Over the years, thousands of museum visitors to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston have stood transfixed viewing her artwork.

Powers' two quilts are arguably the most well-known and cited coverings in American quilt history. But, until today, no one has told the entire, dramatic story of how these two quilts, one of which initially sold for $5, were coveted, cared for, and cherished for decades in private homes before emerging as priceless, national treasures.

This I Accomplish: Harriet Powers' Bible Quilt and Other Pieces brings to light new, exciting facts - many never before published: complete exhibition history for both known quilts; proof Harriet Powers was a literate, award-winning quilter, who stitched at least five quilts and promoted her own artwork; profiles of the two nineteenth century women who sought to purchase the Bible Quilt; profiles of the three men who once owned the Pictorial Quilt; unveiling of a young artist who embellished the Pictorial Quilt; and the name of the person who first made the connection in the twentieth century that Harriet Powers stitched both quilts.

This I Accomplish: Harriet Powers' Bible Quilt and Other Pieces is the most comprehensive resource guide on this influential African American quilter. The book includes nearly 200 bibliographic references, most annotative, including books, exhibition catalogs, newspapers, plays, poetry, interactive map and more. For the first time ever, readers are provided with clues and encouraged to search for Harriet Powers' lost 1882 Lord's Supper Quilt.

This I Accomplish: Harriet Powers' Bible Quilt and Other Pieces is written by Kyra E. Hicks, a quilter whose story quilts have appeared in over forty group exhibitions in places such as the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, NY, the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the American Folk Art Museum in NY. Hicks is the author of Black Threads: An African American Quilting Sourcebook and Martha Ann's Quilt for Queen Victoria. She lives in Arlington, Virginia.
Price: Too low to display

Jesus the Christ Collector's Edition

A Study of the Messiah and His Mission according to Holy Scriptures both Ancient and Modern
by
James E. Talmage
One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
1922
Price: $94.19

The Tao Te Ching An Illustrated Journey

Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching (The Book of the Way) is a timeless guide to the art of living. Its central figure, the Master, lives in harmony with the Tao, the irreducible essence of the universe. Surrendering to it as the Master teaches, we feel whole. Emptying ourselves of judgment and desire, we discover the universal truths within: Without wanting, we find peace; if we let go of what we love, our love becomes present.

Stephen Mitchell's acclaimed translation of this age-old text has sold more than half a million copies worldwide. Here, for the first time, it is illustrated with Chinese paintings selected by Asian art expert Dr. Stephen Little. The perfect depiction of plants, animals, and birds expresses harmony with nature, the principal teaching of the Tao; the mountainous landscapes are the heavenly home of the Tao. Each brushstroke is painted with precision, just as each word of Mitchell's translation speaks with unmatched power.

This inspired translation, combined with the best images in Chinese art, will ensure that the Tao Te Ching continues to exert a profound influence into the next century.

Price: $49.97

Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling

In 1508, despite strong advice to the contrary, the powerful Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the newly restored Sistine Chapel. With little experience as a painter (though famed for his sculpture David), Michelangelo was reluctant to begin the massive project.

Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling recounts the four extraordinary years Michelangelo spent laboring over the vast ceiling while the power politics and personal rivalries that abounded in Rome swirled around him. Battling against ill health, financial difficulties, domestic problems, the pope's impatience, and a bitter rivalry with the brilliant young painter Raphael, Michelangelo created scenes so beautiful that they are considered one of the greatest masterpieces of all time. A panorama of illustrious figures converged around the creation of this great work-from the great Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus to the young Martin Luther-and Ross King skillfully weaves them through his compelling historical narrative, offering uncommon insight into the intersection of art and history.

Price: $8.29

The Brick Bible A New Spin on the Old Testament

"The Good Book" meets "The Brick"
Brendan Powell Smith has spent the last decade creating nearly 5,000 scenes from the bible--with Legos. His wonderfully original sets are featured on his website thebricktestament.com, but for the first time 1,400 photographs of these creative designs--depicting the Old Testament from Earth's creation to the Books of Kings--are brought together in book format. The Holy Bible is complex; sometimes dark, and other times joyous, and Smith's masterful work is a far cry from what a small child might build. The beauty of The Brick Bible is that everyone, from the devout to nonbelievers, will find something breathtaking, fascinating, or entertaining within this collection. Smith's subtle touch brings out the nuances of each scene and makes you reconsider the way you look at Legos--it's something that needs to be seen to be believed.
1,400 full-color photographs

(This product is not sponsored, authorized, or endorsed by the LEGO company.)
Price: $8.01

Praying in Color Drawing a New Path to God Active Prayer ...

Need help communicating with God?
Maybe you hunger to know God better. Maybe you love color. Maybe you are a visual or kinesthetic learner, a distractable or impatient soul, or a word-weary pray-er. Perhaps you struggle with a short attention span, a restless body, or a tendency to live in your head.
This new prayer form can take as little or as much time as you have or want to commit, from 15 minutes to a weekend retreat."A new prayer form gives God an invitation and a new door to penetrate the locked cells of our hearts and minds," explains Sybil MacBeth. "For many of us, using only words to pray reduces God by the limits of our finite words."

For more information, including author events, examples and contact information to request Sybil MacBeth to do a workshop, visit www.prayingincolor.com.

Use Praying in Color to help with:
•lectio divina -- reading the bible for spiritual growth
•memorizing Scripture
•prayers for discernment
•creating a personal Advent or Lenten calendar
•praying for enemies


Praying in Color is ideal for:
•Intergenerational Education Classes
•Women's Meetings
•Praying Workshops
•Vacation Bible School and Summer Camp
•Staff Retreats on Prayer
•Summer Sunday School Classes
•Wednesday Night Church-wide Programs
•Senior Citizens Activity
•Youth Confirmation Retreats
•Men's Prayer Groups
•Prayer Therapy During Convalescence
•Kindergarten and Children's Prayer Training
•Homeschooling, grades K-12
•Prison Ministry
•Ministry to the hearing impaired
•Ministry to the disabled
"This is the most invigorating and enabling book about prayer that I have seen in years! Wry, funny, accessible, wise beyond all appearances, and deeply spiritual, MacBeth warms the soul as well as the heart. So will praying in color." - Phyllis Tickle, compiler, The Divine Hours
 
 
Price: $5.71

The Big Poster Book of Hindu Deities 12 Removable Prints

Following the success of his Little Book of Hindu Deities and Ramayana: Divine Loophole, illustrator Sanjay Patel selected twelve popular Hindu deities to feature in this gorgeous print portfolio. Each full-color poster shows off Patel s cute-meets-modern graphic style, bringing Ganesha, Kali, Shiva, and nine other gods and goddesses into a 21st century Technicolor world. Colorful, playful, and iconic, the posters will be equally at home on a dorm room wall, office cubicle, or framed in a living room or kid s bedroom. Each poster also includes a black-and-white concept sketch on the back, along with descriptive text about the pictured deity.
Price: $7.20

The Lost Painting The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece

An Italian village on a hilltop near the Adriatic coast, a decaying palazzo facing the sea, and in the basement, cobwebbed and dusty, lit by a single bulb, an archive unknown to scholars. Here, a young graduate student from Rome, Francesca Cappelletti, makes a discovery that inspires a search for a work of art of incalculable value, a painting lost for almost two centuries.

The artist was Caravaggio, a master of the Italian Baroque. He was a genius, a revolutionary painter, and a man beset by personal demons. Four hundred years ago, he drank and brawled in the taverns and streets of Rome, moving from one rooming house to another, constantly in and out of jail, all the while painting works of transcendent emotional and visual power. He rose from obscurity to fame and wealth, but success didn’t alter his violent temperament. His rage finally led him to commit murder, forcing him to flee Rome a hunted man. He died young, alone, and under strange circumstances.

Caravaggio scholars estimate that between sixty and eighty of his works are in existence today. Many others–no one knows the precise number–have been lost to time. Somewhere, surely, a masterpiece lies forgotten in a storeroom, or in a small parish church, or hanging above a fireplace, mistaken for a mere copy.

Prizewinning author Jonathan Harr embarks on an spellbinding journey to discover the long-lost painting known as The Taking of Christ–its mysterious fate and the circumstances of its disappearance have captivated Caravaggio devotees for years. After Francesca Cappelletti stumbles across a clue in that dusty archive, she tracks the painting across a continent and hundreds of years of history. But it is not until she meets Sergio Benedetti, an art restorer working in Ireland, that she finally manages to assemble all the pieces of the puzzle.

Told with consummate skill by the writer of the bestselling, award-winning A Civil Action, The Lost Painting is a remarkable synthesis of history and detective story. The fascinating details of Caravaggio’s strange, turbulent career and the astonishing beauty of his work come to life in these pages. Harr’s account is not unlike a Caravaggio painting: vivid, deftly wrought, and enthralling.
". . . Jonathan Harr has gone to the trouble of writing what will probably be a bestseller . . . rich and wonderful. . .in truth, the book reads better than a thriller because, unlike a lot of best-selling nonfiction authors who write in a more or less novelistic vein (Harr's previous book, A Civil Action, was made into a John Travolta movie), Harr doesn't plump up hi tale. He almost never foreshadows, doesn't implausibly reconstruct entire conversations and rarely throws in litanies of clearly conjectured or imagined details just for color's sake. . .if you're a sucker for Rome, and for dusk. . .[you'll] enjoy Harr's more clearly reported details about life in the city, as when--one of my favorite moments in the whole book--Francesca and another young colleague try to calm their nerves before a crucial meeting with a forbidding professor by eating gelato. And who wouldn't in Italy? The pleasures of travelogue here are incidental but not inconsiderable." --The New York Times Book Review


"Jonathan Harr has taken the story of the lost painting, and woven from it a deeply moving narrative about history, art and taste--and about the greed, envy, covetousness and professional jealousy of people who fall prey to obsession. It is as perfect a work of narrative nonfiction as you could ever hope to read." --The Economist
Price: $4.94

The Illuminated Rumi 2011 Wall Calendar

Based on One Song: A New Illuminated Rumi, this calendar is an interweaving of poetry and art: a magnificent meeting of ancient tradition and modern interpretation that uniquely captures the spiritual wealth of Rumi's teachings. Michael Green's magical art, along with his sensitive renderings of Rumi's poetry, makes this work a classic guide to the life of the soul for a whole new generation of seekers.
Rumi is still this country's most-read poet, and a major spokesman for open, boundary-crossing spirituality. The first Illuminated Rumi, published in 1997, is still a phenomenon with over 100,000 copies in print.
Artist/author Michael Green has numerous books in print, including The Illuminated Rumi, The I Ching Journals, The Illuminated Prayer and The Unicornis Manuscripts (978-1-60237-119-4).
The interior pages of this calendar are printed on 100% recycled, 50% post-consumer paper, processed chlorine free and printed with soy based inks.
Price: $22.93

The Sistine Secrets Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in ...

The Shocking Secrets of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel Artwork

The recent cleaning of the Sistine Chapel frescoes removed layer after layer of centuries of accumulated tarnish and darkness. The Sistine Secrets endeavors to remove the centuries of prejudice, censorship, and ignorance that blind us to the truth about one of the world's most famous and beloved art treasures.

Price: $4.99