Excerpts

From the Preface:

"SLMM is composed of individuals who use the experience of art to cultivate their spiritual awareness; therefore, my interaction with members down through the years has been extremely fulfilling. Whether I am engaging their thoughts or contemplating the artistic products that emerge from each unique perspective, the result is the same. Their company provides a nurturing place where I can become enriched and energized. They reinforce the notion that creative encounters can be dedicated equally to preserving the traces of the journey as well as the final destination. What one ultimately discovers as a mature artist is that nuance should be celebrated rather than overshadowed by bravado. Layered art appeals to the viewer who enjoys searching for those fine details that require thoughtful consideration to reveal hidden meaning. It calls as much upon visual metaphor as technique to bring its subtlety to the surface.

"SLMM members have adopted a holistic attitude about their responsibility as artists and citizens. They are avid readers in a wide field of disciplines and ignore the stereotype that they should only rely upon their visual relationship to the world. Many express themselves in a variety of media and also have productive careers as authors, professors and therapists. They let intellectual curiosity, as well as mindful sensitivity, infuse their work. Furthermore, as creators they recognize the importance of memory as they pursue their studio explorations. Greeks were wise to give mythic importance to the union of Zeus with Mnemosyne (memory) who together produced the Muses. It is the landscape of memory which Layerists draw upon to give form and significance to their artful discoveries."

Richard Newman, President, SLMM, 1986 - 2004

From the Foreword:

Creativity is that force within each of us that allows us to formulate what painter Piet Mondrian called "the individual-universal equation." The equation celebrates the paradox that each of us is both isolated and individual and universal and indivisible from the whole.

"The existential paradox might properly be called our Primal Nuance to emphasize the fact that each of is unique, a "nuance" of the whole from which we come. Each of us sees that line joining (and separating) our individuality and our indivisibility from a subtly different angle. Our bodies and minds are made up from the cosmic dust of the big bang. Our DNA molecules connect us to the whole history of evolution and each of us expresses that history in a slightly different way. Our consciousness is a microcosm of human consciousness.

John Briggs, Ph.D. Author of Fire in the Crucible, a Study of Creative Genius

From the Introduction:

"The holistic worldview has gained currency, not only in art but also within the human psyche ever since the publication of the Apollo photograph of Earth from space in 1972.. We can now visualize this gorgeous planet as a single unit, without visible boundaries separating countries and peoples. We are, I propose, in a different stage of awareness than we were before that image of the beautiful "Blue Marble" was implanted in our memories. This potent symbol has altered our visual perspective forever. I believe this picture signals the appropriateness of a holistic perspective to a new age of inner and outer exploration."

Mary Carroll Nelson, Founder, SLMM, 1982

Book Stats:

Hardbound, laminated cover, size 8½ x 11, 176 pages, 156 color images.

ISBN: 0-9628851-1-1-8

Retail price: $35, plus shipping and handling

Order information:
University of New Mexico Press
1–800–249–7737

or send an email to: custserv@upress.unm.edu

Note: SLMM members should order from the members pages.