Jim Dakin

It has been affirming to get feedback from artists who appreciate the attention to their craft. One writes "I am reading your book and appreciating it.  All of my life I've lived in a perceptual-tactile- mostly visual way, and it is good reading your calm long perspective writing!... My father took me to museums a lot when I was a child, and later as a teenager, I spent time with my sister visiting the NYC museums and I loved all kinds of artwork and wanted to be an artist but had a great amount of fear around art.  It seemed to be too mysterious and elusive, but I painted anyway. Now I see that art can be like outer space, compelling and inescapable. Thank you for writing your book - it will help me understand more about this life on planet earth." (Shared with permission of sender.)

One regret after publishing "Shining Art on Light" is that I did not include a section on Lightning under Natural Phenomena. Lightning is mentioned as having been an ignition source for natural fire. It could have been mentioned in connection with Ben Franklin's famous kite experiment, which raised awareness of the connection of electricity to light. This was an earlier precursor to electric lighting. It would have been challenging to find a piece of art associated with lightning, but I am confident I could have found something. Perhaps I could do a second edition at some point.