Luc Leestemaker's Night Table recommendations
Saturday, Jan 30, 2010 at 1:08pmEspecially because I spend so much time in the studio, where paint and intuition rule, I feel it's important to feed that other part of my brain when I'm not painting; by reading. I'll admit that I devoured an awful lot more literature earlier in my life than I do now. But aside from my beloved weekly New Yorker magazine, which is a wonderful cheater's way of being intimately -and instantly- informed on all current matters that may hit the dinner party conversations, I always have a few new discoveries ready to be broken in. Here are two books that are on top of the stack right now.
Any Human Heart by
One of those novels that I keep re-reading. Boyd is not only an incredible story-teller but also an impressive researcher. He creates fictional characters, placed in historical contexts, and as you identify from the first page with the protagonist of the story, you feel as if you yourself are wandering through the corridors of time.
Spontaneous Evolution by
taught me how exciting and mesmerizing the world of -cellular- biology can be in his earlier groundbreaking publication The Biology of Belief.
In Spontaneous Evolution Lipton analyzes the current state of the world and he replaces outdated concepts of Darwin's "survival of the fittest" with the notion of the "biological imperative" as a dance between environment and evolution, in which the option of a choice to create our own destiny is outlined. It's not just the make-up of the genes, Lipton points out; our environment, hence our perception of our environment, plays an equally important role in shaping our world. An incredibly inspiring book that makes one hopeful and optimistic about the future of mankind.
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is the author The Intentional Artist (Skylark Press, 2010), available at McNally Robinson Grant Park. Visit him online at www.lucleestemaker.com. He will be joining WSO composer-in-residence Vincent Ho at McNally Robinson Grant Park on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at 2:00 pm to discuss their collaboration on his piece Four Paintings by Leestemaker, being premiered in this year's Festival by acclaimed pianist Jenny Lin and the WSO String Quintet on Monday, February 8.
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