Reporter Christopher Borrelli has a fascination with the quirky and the obsessive, and a talent for finding unique angles and stories when it comes to artists, entertainers, and everyday people. This book collects his in-depth profiles of celebrities, as well as profiles and commentary on everyday people he affectionately calls "obsessives." The kind of folk who fascinate Borrelli can be workers at a local prop shop, carhops at the fast-food chain Sonic, or a video collective that has over 4,000 VHS copies of Jerry Maguire. But regardless of the quirks of a featured subject, Borrelli gives an illustrative and illuminating look into their true character—from celebrities we all "know" to cult heroes and veritable unknowns. Filled with entertaining celebrity Q&A's, unique views on cultural phenomenons, and insightful takes on all things Chicago, Borrelli is one of the Chicago Tribune's most enjoyable and humorous writers. His feature pieces are sure to offer inspiring perspectives on art, entertainment, film, found life, celebrities, and Chicago originals. This broad collection of Borrelli's best articles and commentary will appeal to his fans, Chicagoans, and consumers of pop culture across the country.

Judy Chicago's monumental art installation The Dinner Party was an immediate sensation when it debuted in 1979, and today it is considered the most popular work of art to emerge from the second-wave feminist movement. Jane F. Gerhard examines the piece's popularity to understand how ideas about feminism migrated from activist and intellectual circles into the American mainstream in the last three decades of the twentieth century. More than most social movements, feminism was transmitted and understood through culture--art installations, Ms. Magazine, All in the Family, and thousands of other cultural artifacts. But the phenomenon of cultural feminism came under extraordinary criticism in the late 1970s and 1980s Gerhard analyzes these divisions over whether cultural feminism was sufficiently activist in light of the shifting line separating liberalism from radicalism in post-1970s America. She concludes with a chapter on the 1990s, when The Dinner Party emerged as a target in political struggles over public funding for the arts, even as academic feminists denounced the piece for its alleged essentialism. The path that The Dinner Party traveled--from inception (1973) to completion (1979) to tour (1979-1989) to the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum (2007)--sheds light on the history of American feminism since 1970 and on the ways popular feminism in particular can illuminate important trends and transformations in the broader culture.

"Offers a new approach to American folk art, suggests that folk artists were influenced by fine art, and attempts to describe the context and meaning of the paintings."--Google books.

Reveals how the artist recorded his memories of the American railroad and the traveling circus as landscapes.

One way or another, all playwrights use their work to explore the issues that interest them. The characters in a play may trumpet their creator's political views from the stage, or an unusual structure or set design may result from the playwright's interest in theatrical form. It is also common, particularly in the plays of the 20th and 21st century, to see a playwright delving into psychological issues raised by his own mental struggles or those of people he loves. Luigi Pirandello, tormented by the schizophrenia of his wife and other family members, repeatedly explored the problems caused by different visions of reality. Noel Coward's self-obsessed characters reflect his own narcissism. Alcoholism is a recurrent theme in the works of many playwrights, including Eugene O'Neill, Edward Albee, and Brian Friel. Through their exploration of these issues and more, the great writers of the theater have turned suffering into art. This book looks at the work of 20 playwrights to see how their examination of the disturbed mind has influenced the modern theater.

We live in an age of obsession. Not only are we hopelessly devoted to our work, strangely addicted to our favorite television shows, and desperately impassioned about our cars, we admire obsession in others: we demand that lovers be infatuated with one another in films, we respond to the passion of single-minded musicians, we cheer on driven athletes. To be obsessive is to be American; to be obsessive is to be modern. But obsession is not only a phenomenon of modern existence: it is a medical category—both a pathology and a goal. Behind this paradox lies a fascinating history, which Lennard J. Davis tells in Obsession. Beginning with the roots of the disease in demonic possession and its secular successors, Davis traces the evolution of obsessive behavior from a social and religious fact of life into a medical and psychiatric problem. From obsessive aspects of professional specialization to obsessive compulsive disorder and nymphomania, no variety of obsession eludes Davis’s graceful analysis.

Teaching Artist Handbook is based on the premise that teaching artists have the unique ability to engage students as fellow artists. In their schools and communities, teaching artists put high quality art-making at the center of their practice and open doors to powerful learning across disciplines. This book is a collection of essays, stories, lists, examples, dialogues, and ideas, all offered with the aim of helping artists create and implement effective teaching based on their own expertise and strengths. The Handbook addresses three core questions: “What will I teach?” “How will I teach it?” and “How will I know if my teaching is working?” It also recognizes that teaching is a dynamic process that requires critical reflection and thoughtful adjustment in order to foster a supportive artistic environment. Instead of offering rigid formulas, this book is centered on practice—the actual doing and making of teaching artist work. Experience-based and full of heart, the Teaching Artist Handbook will encourage artists of every experience level to create an original and innovative practice that inspires students and the artist.

Today the work of so-called "outsider" artists is receiving unprecedented attention. This major critical appraisal of America's 20th-century self-taught artists coincides with a major 1998 traveling exhibition organized by the Museum of American Folk Art in New York. While some of these artists have received critical recognition, others remain virtually unknown, following their muse regardless. 150 color images.