Art and Survival in the Twenty-First Century: A Creative Response to the Challenges of Our Time Through Drawing, Painting & Scul

Award-winning artist and former combat marine declares art and the creative spirit essential to humanity's survival while offering special hope to thousands of veterans, including struggling service men and women returning from combat duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. In this unique and pertinent art book, James Menzel-Joseph offers his story of art and survival.

By the time he returned home from his duties as a combat Marine in the Korean War, his beliefs and assumptions about every aspect of life had been shattered. This sent Menzel-Joseph on a truth-seeking journey that, in the telling, transcends time and personal narrative. Art and Survival in the 21st Century offers all of us the opportunity to see that traumatic experiences can be transformed, becoming the juice for an inspired, creative and impassioned life.

Art & Survival in the 21st Century explores issues and actions related to the elevation of human consciousness, and the survival of our species within the frame-work of sustainability for all life, including that of our planet. To this end, Menzel-Joseph insists that we are all artists and that the healing that must occur for our survival will only come through each of us committing to creating our life as a work of art. In this thought-provoking book, he shares his observations and discoveries in a series of compelling and thought-provoking essays, as well as specific instruction on painting, sculpturing and the creative process, all accompanied by 150 full-color beautiful reproductions of his paintings, sculptures, sketches and machetes.

"The process of creating has the power to wake us from our dysfunctional beliefs and assumptions. It may be that peace and balance in the world will come through these creative awakenings." -James Menzel-Joseph

Related to Germany’s most prolific artist of the nineteenth century, Adolph Menzel, and to the French Symbolist, Henry Fantin-Latour, James Menzel-Joseph is an internationally recognized artist and the recipient of numerous honors and awards. Drawings of his experiences as a combat artist in the Korean War are on display in the National Archives in Washington D. C., and he has exhibited in the Art Institute of Chicago, the Salmagundy Club of New York, the Ojai Valley Museum, and the Carnegie Museum in Oxnard, California. His work has been featured in Architectural Digest, Time-Life Books, Playboy, the Chicago Tribune Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times Magazine. ＂I cannot imagine a better qualified person than Jim Menzel-Joseph to present an in-depth and holistic view on the role of the artist in today’s society. Art and Survival in the Twenty-First Century unveils a masterful body of work by a thought provoking and prodigious artist and philosopher.＂ -- Richard Waxberg, Parsons School for Design, New York City, NY