Bücher veröffentlicht von Helane Designs, Inc.

"Doug Rucker's latest, and perhaps final opus, is a touching, thoughtful, and often-humorous compilation of "found" essays and poems about life, aging, the universe and the meaning of it all, presented as a lively conversation between old friends."

These Autobiographical Illustrations began as a hedge against loss.We live in a fire zone in the Santa Monica Mountains in Southern California. Every Fall when the dry Santana winds blow there is high danger that a fierce fire storm will blow through, incinerating everything in its path. I know people who have experienced a fire and lost everything. They have rebuilt, sometimes better than before, and have moved on. But they have lost all those precious objects that we place so much value on. The objects may have no monetary value, yet they are invaluable as personal mementos of the important relationships and events which they represent.I have such objects, saved over the years in odd corners and shelves.When I see these objects I see much more. My mind's eye holds images of events, places and people associated with these objects. They are links to my past. They help me know who I am, how I got here, and what I should be doing now.Thinking of this and the yearly fire danger that could take them all away in five minutes, I realized that it is the memories they hold that are important to me. I decided to focus on these objects, draw them in detail, imbed them in my memory, and then surround them with the images I associate with them. In this way I could place them more firmly in my heart and mind…and also in a very portable portfolio which I could hopefully grab as I escaped the oncoming blaze.

Having to experience the reality of being diagnosed and treated for breast cancer personally and the fact that art was already a part of her daily life, led to her interest in using 'Art Therapy' to help others. Recognizing the benefits it reveled in her life, it seemed to be a natural progression to integrate it into the process as she worked with cancer patients and their families. Following this lead she filled some of her intern requirements with the American Cancer Society, and then on a pilot program in which she worked bedside with cancer patients at the Johnson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA. Needing a practice closer to home she opened her private practice in Woodland Hills. She facilitated art therapy groups on women's issues at Pinegrove Psychiatric Hospital in Canoga Park. She led support groups in the Thousand Oaks Senior Center for seniors who had lost their spouses and she continued this work until the onset of Parkinson's disease that caused her to stop her group work. Now in retirement, Marjory is enjoying working on some books she has had in mind for a long time. The first book, In My Mind's Eye, is an illustrated autobiography in which she uses words and pictures to share memories connected with memorabilia found in her home and studio. She hopes her second book, Observations, about similarities in art and life will be entertaining, thought provoking, informative and fun. She's hoping it will bring out the art in your everyday life.

Cranthology is a collection of poems, cartoons, stories, excerpts, etc., chosen by the compiler, who is me, Roy Crandal. You will find dictionary poems, straight poems, arbitrary silliness, cartoons, six essays and one special Movie Matinee.

This book is a collection of essays and poetry on philosophy and psychology that I have discovered throughout my life. I have included descriptive prose for better explaination and subjects include, Soul, Love, Life After Death and Mindfulness.

It was long my contention that if anyone should take the time to write about 62,000 consecutive words (about the size of an average book) off the top of his/her head, a reader could learn a great deal about the writer and the writer could learn even more about him/her self. When I got into it, I discovered consecutive words turned into arbitrary essays, some humorous, some autobiographical, some philosophic. Since that's the way it came out I decided to leave it. The writing may not always be terrific but for me the essays are worth saving.

Catchall is a catch of all the variety of my past unorganized thoughts and philosophies. During the last-period of years, I've been writing myself letters and essays about what's gone on in my mind and what I think and believe with a little humor and a few dreams. However, such a variety of thoughts and ideas did not make a single simple topic that might make a single simple book. Pressed with new ideas that would now make a more cohesive book, I thought my former ideas and essays were important enough to be saved in this book. I couldn't see them wasting away in the computer or inaccessible in a notebook. I wanted to give them a life and let them be free to garner whatever brilliance or aversion is their due. In three articles, Body Surfing, Matusak and Raindrops on my Face, I have taken former prose and presented them.

In this book may be found poetries derived from three sources: abstract art, new poems and those copied directly from short prose and put into poetic form. Having discovered abstract art through my own photography, I have taken a poetic approach to find out what each artwork means. I'm not sure I found out, but the idea stimulated my imagination and this book was created. New verses followed as in most poems as a record of whatever feelings were in me at that arbitrary time. For these, I have no excuses, so I'm willing to live with whatever results they might bring forth and try to go on with life. The final third of this book was taken directly from already-written prose. Oversimplifying, I could say prose is written horizontally to fit a standard book page, while poetry is written vertically in short paragraphs with spaces in between. What they have in common is what each has to say. Perhaps that's the main criterion we must use to judge their worth.

Doug Rucker, in divorce proceedings while being madly in love with a mother of four, was also heavily involved in introspection and psychotherapy. With a persistent artistic temperament it dawned on Doug that if he did a series of drawings with no thought whatever, (No-Think) they'd give him access to his unconscious mind, thus leading him to quicker solutions to his problems. Fifty years later, Doug now makes a more detailed analysis of his daily drawings considering what each line, shape and color represents and sharing revelations he observed behind each separate piece.With over 150 striking, colorful pieces of art to contemplate and enjoy, Doug guides the reader through the meanings of each drawing's color and composition, explaining what they meant to him at the time. No-Think Drawings are meant to be a colorful collection of creative artwork and a personal view into the artist's unconscious mind, drawn by the artist himself.

Growing Edge is the third in a series of autobiography written by the famous mid-century architect, Doug Rucker. In his own words;After making eight, one hundred-page comedy books with cartoons and humorous essays and giving them to friends, and doing enough poetry to fill a four-hundred page book, I finally had the desire remember the past and think maybe I could write it. I'd tell myself the stories of my life. At the age of sixty-five and prompted by my mother's gift of three tattered family photo albums, I was reminded of the past and suddenly wanted to remember everything of that far distant time. I started with my birth. It should organize easily. The outline would be chronological. In remembering everything, perhaps I indulged myself too much, but you be the judge. When I finished the book after writing about graduating from the University of Illinois, I felt, perhaps my life story could not be told in a mere three or four hundred pages. It looked very much like there would at least be a LATER STORIES. ~ Doug Rucker

Learn about THE THROW-AWAY BOOK (If you want.)You might want to throw this book away right now! But again, you might want to leaf through the pages, then throw it away and mutter, "I don't have time for this!" However, you might be intrigued and see the true worth of this rare book, then throw it away. Or you might be sitting on a bench avoiding work while finishing a coffee-break and decide to be mildly amused. In fact, I thought of calling this book THE MILDLY AMUSING BOOK, but thinking again, that wouldn't do it justice. You might ask, "What is its justice?" It has no justice! It's unjustifieable. With this mild warning and before you embark on this remarkable adventure, I say, "Travel at your own risk!" Absorb the intelligence (or lack thereof) of whatever's in (or out) of this original copy of THE THROW-AWAY BOOK! (Then throw it away.)