Art and Camouflage: Concealment and Deception in Nature, Art and War by Roy R. Behrens (review)

Books 149 occasions and dates of nearly half of the eleven lectures. On the other hand, the book is indexed, and that alone makes up for a great deal. Too, the pages have been sewn into signatures and actually bound, not just glued to the spine in a so-called ‘perfect’ binding. That makes any book of value today worth half again its cost. Sculpting with Cement. Lynn Olson. Steelstone Press, Valparaiso, Ind., 1981. Paper, $14.95. Reviewed by J. J. Beljon* The author of Sculpring with Cemenf has in me a reader with a lifelong experience in casting concrete in plaster molds for small pieces and in wooden molds for superstructures. I have alsodone a lot of experiments in coloring and finishing for myself and with my students. Tohandle the material in a more direct way has always been my wish, but I never could gather the courage nor the knowledge to take the first step. Olson gives an answer to both questions; he encourages you and he shows you the way. Cement has long been used as a casting medium packed into plaster molds. As every practitioner knows, this way of making a piece of sculpture has its limitations in terms of time, cost and spontaneity. Shaping a cement mixture with your hands or with simple modeling tools (direcr modeling in a permanent medium) isquitea differentthing. It is possible indeed to discard the mold and to use cement as direct medium. No less a person than Sam Rodia showed us the way with his Watts Towers. The mixture of steel and cement gives a freedom that makes any complex form possible. And then, cement can be combined with plastics to form polymer impregnated concrete, a strong material with good structural qualities. Sculpture is a time-absorbing and a costly occupation. Marble, bronze, copper, wood and plastics, as well as the equipmentrequired for working steel and using plastics safely, have all but priced themselves beyond the reach of many sculptors. Many of us are desperately in need of a cheaper and faster way of making the things we want to make. The study of Olson’s book on the use of cement helps a great deal. This sculptor experimented over a long time with combinations of cement and other materials in order to get a medium similar to clay, but that, unlike clay, would be weatherproof and permanent after it hardened. Step by step, Olson gives us all the information we need. He does so in language that is understandable for people who may speak English as a second language, and with very clear drawings and photographs. After closing this useful book, the reader will know how to make a piece of sculpture in fiber-cement or in sand-cement. The titles of the chapters, Sculpting the Head, Sculpting the Four-legged Figure, Sculpting the Two-legged Figure, Sculpting Shell Design, need not necessarily discourage those sculptors whose imagination differs from that of the author. Personally, I see the chapter on mounting stained glass as an extra. The book is really a ‘how-to’ book. It gives recipes for texturing, colouring and polishing cement surfaces. It teaches how to design for strength and durability. Professionals and amateurs alike can profit by the instructions. The text is short but dense and leaves no questions. I enjoyed it. Art and Camouflage: Concealment and Deception in Nature, Art and War. Roy R.Behrens. University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, lo., 1981.89 pp., illus. Paper, $10.95. ISBN: 0-915996-07-3. Reviewed by David S. Fensom** This is a paperback, brief, concise, well illustrated and easilyreadable. I recommend it to those who are interested in the interplay of art with biology, camouflage with both, and indeed creativity and invention in general. I am reminded of the verse by Lao-tse written in the 5thcentury BC which runs as follows: “Beyond mountains there are more mountains, although they appear to be disconnected, they are actually not. Beyond trees thereare more trees, although they appear to bejoined together they actually are not.” This is really the theme of this book. How appearances can be deceptive and how reality can be invoked by appearances...