An Apothacary of Art - To soothe your soul
Ravenous Butterflies
Batsford
I will openly admit that I had never heard of Ravenous Butterflies until I received this book. We get used to book titles and authors, yet this name instead of an authors intrigued me. On further research , we learn that this is the name of a wellbeing art and literature blog - very fitting if you then relate this back to the book, once you have been able to read its matter. Suddenly this book has so much more meaning and depth than my first judgement of it. Apparently the founder, Lisa Azarmi began this pathway due to her own requirement for soothing her soul. It is all about searching for the beautiful - positivity over negativity. That in itself is a wonderful point of research in my estimation. Fuse this with the arts and it is a powerhouse.
As this is a review about the book not the message or website as such, I will tell you a little about its content…..
It is hardback and to the immediate eye, it is luxe.
It is a tandem of both the pictorial and literature, combining a plethora of painted works in visual form, beset with quotes.
On page six we discover a mood finder, where we are directed via one word and image to a certain section to tie in with our thoughts and feelings. For example, turn to page forty for Grief, or sixteen for optimism. Without telling us too detailed an account of her personal private details, this author describes in brief within the introduction that she knows the anxiety road, so she really can and has, create a book with evidence we can trust - yes believe in. What I like about the book is that it is not on first glance a book which you imagine will be with comfort in mind. It is intelligent looking, will appeal to those of us who enjoy our gallery jaunts and meetings; this is no “me too” title or one which you feel drowned by a negative aura.
On reading, you will in basic terms discover a load of beautiful famous and not so famous artists paintings, all issued with quotes of the wellness and repair kind. They actually add meaning to the individual artists work illustrated, for example a beautiful image by John Singer Sargent is married with a quote by Marcel Proust, imploring us to find a spirit of gratitude within, for the people in our lives who bring us joy.
This book, for myself, it will reside on my bedside for a while. I do not feel the need to consume it again in one sitting, rather its just there, to keep me company, so when I desire an emotional exploration, it will be there to fill that need, to show me the beautiful and as one of the quotes describes become ‘wild’ again - in other words, not captured by anxiety - just be myself, set free.
To fully get this book, you need to experience it for yourself, I won’t call it indescribable, but to comprehend how this can really affect you with your own life experiences in mind, you have to be the one who walks down its lines.
So please, purchase your copy through this link.
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