Adams Christine - Inspirational quotes illustrated : art and words to motivate

NORTH LIGHT BOOKS
Cincinnati, Ohio
CreateMixedMedia.com To all the wise men and women who wrote or said the words that inspired me, the book and the art within. To all the artists who answered my call for art. Whether your creation made it into the book or not, I offer you my gratitude for your contribution. This book would not exist without you. To download digital wallpaper of select images from inspirational quotes
Illustrated, visit CREATEMIXEDMEDIA.COM/INSPIRATIONAL-QUOTES-ILLUSTRATED. My first introduction to quotes was my fathers well-worn, blue hardback copy of Bartletts Familiar Quotations. I remember it being quite heavy for my ten-year-old handsa large book with tiny print filling just about every inch on every page.

This book was full of amazing insight and wisdom. I understood the magic it held even at that early age. Quotes became a visual obsession a few years later when the Abbey Press catalog arrived in our mailbox full of Sister Corita Kents brightly colored 1960s-era illustrated quotes. It was the first place I read the words that set me on my path to becoming an artist: Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe I have been collecting quotes for over fifty years.

Thankfully its much easier now with word processors, Internet quote sites and search engines. But I still love to pull my very 1960s colored journal off the shelf, smile at my teenage penmanship and read over the words that inspired and influenced me back then. Today, finding a quote takes nothing more than a visit to Google to type in the few words of a specific quote I am looking for, or entering keywords for a new one. That is, if its not already in my vast collection. I have a two-column, 126-page Microsoft Word document that right now contains 41,657 words of wisdom. By the time you read this, I know there will be more.

I add to it daily. You see, Im fascinated by how much I glean and am inspired by the bite-sized thoughts of famous and not-so or not-even famous people that have been preserved for posterity. I call it quotespiration. Back in 1989, I tucked Goethes quote into that whisper of a space between the frame and the mirror so I would see it every day. Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Begin it, begin it It took me several years to work up the courage to begin it.

Ten to be exact. And I can tell you now, fifteen years later, that its so true, so powerfully true. Boldness does have genius and power and magic in it. This book you hold in your hands is evidence. As a quote collector, one of the things that fascinates me most is how often you will hear the same wisdom or knowledge shared again and again by so many different people over timeeven centuries. They endure, perhaps in part to being short and concisemost quotes are less than three sentences.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC43 BC), who preserved many ancient quotes with his writings, said, Brevity is a great charm of eloquence. In todays fast-paced world of short attention spans and soundbite journalism, they still deliver a punch of wisdom or inspiration on the go. Just peek inside Oprahs O magazine for her monthly quote cards or the multitude of Pinterest boards devoted to quotes. Quotespiration spans generations, societies and cultures. The impact and influence are ageless. Quotes are powerful.

They are preserved moments of wisdom, insight and truth. Quotes inspire, guide and remind. They speak of what we know but havent been paying attention to and make us want to pay attention. In his book Quotology, Willis Goth Regier says, Oh to say something so fine, so memorable, that it carries across time, oceans, and languages as if a few sentences, or one alone, could touch hearts, grasp truth, and endure. The book you now hold in your hands is the culmination of a dream. It is a combination of the two things that I carry in my heart and soul as guiding lights: quotes and art.

It is my attempt at the ultimate in inspirationwords and works of art that will move you to smile, to feel happy and think positive. Most of all, I hope to inspire you to take action on your dreams. This book is a result of the friendship and community I have found by taking action on my dreams and following my passion. It would not be anywhere near as expressive and rich without the many artists who responded to my call for art. My seed of an idea became a rich community garden of delight thanks to their contributions. This book would not exist without their time and talent.

I want to thank you, too, for sharing this experience with me. This edition of Inspirational Quotes Illustrated is the magic that Goethe said would appear when you take action. My original self-published edition, entitled Quotes Illustrated, became a number one best-seller on Amazon in its one short month of availability. Within a week of its publication, Tonia Jenny of North Light Books asked me if North Light could acquire the book. It has always been my goal to reach and inspire more people, and a mass market publisher can make that happen. So I said a holy YES! Our task is to say a holy yes to the real things of our life as they existthe real truth of who we are.Natalie Goldberg To do something, however small, to make others happier and better, is the highest ambition, the most elevating hope, which can inspire a human being.
John Lubbock LESLEY RILEY That Self LESLEY RILEY
7" 10" (18cm 25cm)
fabric, paint To be that self which one truly is.

SREN KIERKEGAARD Waiting With My Father for the Martins
MEG GREENE
6" 10" (15cm 25cm)
digital collage: photograph Time is not a line, but a series of now points. TAISEN DESHIMARU The Smallest Thing
SERENA BARTON
6" 6" (15cm 15cm)
painting: oil, cold wax I love even the smallest thing of all and I paint it on a golden background and make it visible in order that it moves someone even if I dont know whom. RAINER MARIA RILKE Place of Power NM CREATRIX
8" 11" (20cm 28cm)
digital collage The womans place of power within each of us is neither white nor surface, it is dark, it is ancient, it is deep. AUDRE LORDE Quite Still SETH APTER
512" 7" (14cm 18cm)
book cover collage: photograph paper, ink, wax pastel, crayon, lettering Be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you unmasked. It will roll in ecstasy at your feet. FRANZ KAFKA