Never has a single read been so inspiring, or so it feels after the last page of Laura Freeman’s biography of Jim Ede and the Kettle’s Yard artists. This book review – Ways of Life – has reinvigorated my certainty that art, in its many forms, is a force for good, and even for love.
Over and over, visitors to Kettle’s Yard, the visionary, living gallery created by Jim Ede, use one word to describe it: sanctuary.
Read about the passion for looking, the artists supported and the letters written.
Travel with Jim and Helen Ede as they tour America living out of two suitcases in a Buick…for two years.
Marvel at how Kettle’s Yard came to be.
Imagine presenting a pale lemon on a pewter dish to match the yellow in a painting by Miro nearby.
Go and select pebbles for a spiral!
‘Caring, giving and receiving’ is the message Jim lived by. Freeman shows how he ‘had to make his own way of life.’ And felt lucky to have been able to invent what he wanted to do.
Witnessing the intersecting lives, often linked by tea and marmalade, throughout this book gives a profoundly affirming view of creativity.
Ways of Life: Jim Ede and the Kettle’s Yard Artists, by Laura Freeman, is published by Jonathan Cape.
Click here to order your copy from Golden Hare Books and use the code bookbinderbookreview29 to receive 10% off, valid until 17th October 2023.
If you’d like to exercise your collecting and arranging muscles, then book yourself on one of the last places on the online Gathering Retreat, 28th September – 1st October.
