Whatever Happened To Paint By Numbers

Fifty years ago, an unemployed artist named Dan Robbins had no intention of creating an American icon, but that's exactly what happened when he convinced a savvy but sceptical entrepreneur named Max Klein to manufacture and market the first painting-by-numbers kits in 1949. Here is the light-hearted historical account of the business and cultural phenomenon that touched the lives of more baby boomers than Barbie and G I Joe.

"The how-to craze that swept the nation."--Cover subtitle.

Outlines the important social, political, economic, cultural, and technological events that happened in the United States from 1950 to 1959.

Amateur Craft provides an illuminating and historically-grounded account of amateur craft in the modern era, from 19th century Sunday painters and amateur carpenters to present day railway modellers and yarnbombers. Stephen Knott's fascinating study explores the curious and unexpected attributes of things made outside standardised models of mass production, arguing that amateur craft practice is 'differential' – a temporary moment of control over work that both departs from and informs our productive engagement with the world. Knott's discussion of the theoretical aspects of amateur craft practice is substantiated by historical case studies that cluster around the period 1850–1950. Looking back to the emergence of the modern amateur, he makes reference to contemporary art and design practice that harnesses or exploits amateur conditions of making. From Andy Warhol to Simon Starling, such artistic interest elucidates the mercurial qualities of amateur craft. Invaluable for students and researchers in art and design, contemporary craft, material culture and social history, Amateur Craft counters both the marginalisation and the glorification of amateur craft practice. It is richly illustrated with 41 images, 14 in colour, including 19th century ephemera and works of contemporary art.

This book examines four types of shortcuts in the history of American education—streamlined paths to vocational success, cultural sophistication, college credentials, and the efficient use of English. The chapters profile Norman Rockwell, the Harvard Classics, Cliff Notes, speed reading, a Doctor of Arts diploma for college teachers, and other riveting examples of time-savers that attracted millions of ambitious Americans since the late 19th century.

WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER • A how-to guide for crafting beautiful and delicious cheese boards for entertaining and self-care, from the creator of the Cheese by Numbers method and the Instagram phenomenon That Cheese Plate “[Marissa Mullen] takes the guesswork out of the coolest, most solid thing to bring to any party or potluck: the cheese platter.”—Rachael Ray With her gorgeous, showstopping cheese and charcuterie boards, Marissa Mullen takes cheese to a whole new level. Her simple, step-by-step Cheese by Numbers method breaks the cheese plate down into its basic components—cheese, meat, produce, crunch, dip, garnish—allowing you to create stunning spreads for any occasion. This beautifully designed book goes beyond preparation techniques. According to Mullen, cheese plates can be an important form of artistic self-care, like flower arranging or meditative coloring books—but you can eat the results! That Cheese Plate Will Change Your Life celebrates the ways in which cheese brings people together, and how crafting a cheese plate can be a calming, creativity-bolstering act. With fifty exquisite, easy-to-make cheese and charcuterie plates, this book will teach you how to relax, enjoy, and indulge— to find your cheesy bliss.

Learn how to communicate better with numbers Whether you are distributing a report or giving a presentation, you have a lot of numbers to present and only a few minutes to get your point across. Your audience is busy and has a short attention span. Don't let an amateur presentation bog you down, confuse your audience, and damage your credibility. Instead, learn how to present numerical information effectively—in the same way you learned how to speak or write. With Painting with Numbers, you'll discover how to present numbers clearly and effectively so your ideas and your presentation shine. Use the Arabic numeral system to your advantage master the use of layout and visual effects to communicate powerfully Understand how audiences process your information and how that affects your "personal brand image" Learn how to be perceived as a professional who truly understands the business concepts and issues underlying your numbers Use software tools, including Excel, PowerPoint, and graphs, efficiently and to drive home your point Author Randall Bolten shares his decades of experience as a senior finance executive distilling complicated information into clear presentations, to help you make your numerical information more comprehensible, meaningful, and accessible. Painting with Numbers is brimming with hands-on advice, techniques, tools, rules, and guidelines for producing clear, attractive, and effective quantation (the word the author has coined for the skill of presenting numbers).

A pathbreaking history of art that uses digital research and economic tools to reveal enduring inequities in the formation of the art historical canon Painting by Numbers presents a groundbreaking blend of art historical and social scientific methods to chart, for the first time, the sheer scale of nineteenth-century artistic production. With new quantitative evidence for more than five hundred thousand works of art, Diana Seave Greenwald provides fresh insights into the nineteenth century, and the extent to which art historians have focused on a limited—and potentially biased—sample of artwork from that time. She addresses long-standing questions about the effects of industrialization, gender, and empire on the art world, and she models more expansive approaches for studying art history in the age of the digital humanities. Examining art in France, the United States, and the United Kingdom, Greenwald features datasets created from indices and exhibition catalogs that—to date—have been used primarily as finding aids. From this body of information, she reveals the importance of access to the countryside for painters showing images of nature at the Paris Salon, the ways in which time-consuming domestic responsibilities pushed women artists in the United States to work in lower-prestige genres, and how images of empire were largely absent from the walls of London’s Royal Academy at the height of British imperial power. Ultimately, Greenwald considers how many works may have been excluded from art historical inquiry and shows how data can help reintegrate them into the history of art, even after such pieces have disappeared or faded into obscurity. Upending traditional perspectives on the art historical canon, Painting by Numbers offers an innovative look at the nineteenth-century art world and its legacy.