Jenny Read

Many moons ago I was flipping through Sabrina Ward Harrison's first book, Spilling Open. I always take note of recommended books especially when mentioned by other artists. Sabrina kept mentioning something called, "Jenny Read." An internet search at the time yielded nothing. I searched about it on and off over the years in my travels and never found it. I recently pulled Sabrina's book off the shelf and made note of it again. I searched on amazon and google and found nothing. I thought about it for a minute and did a google image search. There it was! FINALLY! After fifteen years I finally have a copy in my hands. The full title is actually, "Jenny Read, in Pursuit of Art and Life: The Journals and Letters of a Young Sculptor."

I didn't know anything about the artist when I bought the book and an internet search doesn't bring up very much except for one article that I was able to find. As a collector of artists' journals, I'm looking forward to reading this. It makes me sad that there isn't much known about Jenny Read or her work. I'm hoping that you'll seek her out like I did. 

While searching for Jenny's book today, I found a fabulous list of publications of artists' journals, sketchbooks and diaries from the Maryland Institute College of Art. I have many of the books on this list and have added a few to my wishlist. I hope that it also inspires you.

Here's my list of favorite art books. I will do a separate post soon with my favorite published artists' journals, sketchbooks, etc...

 

Do you have any favorite books on artists' journals, sketchbooks or diaries?