Contents
A Selection of the Best Mobiles Art Books Available
Making Mobiles
When observing an especially beautiful mobile, beginning artists often think, Wow, I want to make mobiles like THAT! If you have stood under a mobile by Alexander Calder and entertained such thoughts, this book will help you make one like that. This guide provides practical and encouraging step-by-step instructions for making horizontally balanced mobiles. From assembling the materials and tools through the designing, fabricating, assembly, painting, and hanging stages, you can create your own mobiles, with Bruce at your side the whole time. His 19 carefully written chapters and 190 color photographs let you see and understand all the stages toward creating your mobiles. He even shows you how to fix a mistake and pack it for shipping. By following Bruces steps and positive attitude, hours of fun and challenge will be rewarded with art you are proud of.
Making Creative Mobiles
“If you have looked at a painting and wondered what it might be like to be inside it, or wondered what it would be like to see it move, imagined what it would be to have a picture “play back” its story to the viewer, changing over time, that is what mobiles are about. When I discovered mobiles, I felt at home. Perhaps I can impart some of this enthusiasm to you. Movement attracts the eye. We are hard-wired as a species as hunters. We have the hunting instinct of seeking movement and detail from the environment. Mobiles with their inherent eye-catching quality of movement are a natural to grab our attention”–Back of book.
Mobile Art
Instant decor is just a few snips away with this gorgeous portfolio that contains everything crafters need to make twenty exquisite paper mobiles that will bring a special handmade touch to any space, occasion, or home!
The Origins Of Mobiles
The meaning of the term “mobile” as applied to sculpture has evolved since it was first suggested by Marcel Duchamp in 1931 to describe the early, mechanized creations of Alexander Calder. At this point, “mobile” was synonymous with the term “kinetic art”, describing sculptural works in which motion is a defining property. While motor or crank-driven moving sculptures may have initially prompted it, the word “mobile” later came to refer more specifically to Calder’s free-moving creations. Influenced by the abstract work of Piet Mondrian, Joan Miró and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Calder in many respects invented an art form where objects (typically brightly coloured, abstract shapes fashioned from sheet metal) are connected by wire much like a balance scale. By the sequential attachment of additional objects, the final creation consists of many balanced parts joined by lengths of wire whose individual elements are capable of moving independently or as a whole when prompted by air movement or direct contact. Thus, “mobile” has become a more well-defined term with its origin in the many such hanging constructs Calder produced in a prolific manner between the 1930s and his death in 1976.
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